Posted by Today, more and more people are making concerted efforts to reduce their carbon footprints. They’re recycling, eating less meat, and shopping farmer’s markets for locally sourced produce. If you’re looking for even more ways to help reduce your footprint, here are three things that you can do to your Maryland home.
Insulate Your Walls and Attic
A poorly insulated home lets warm or cool air to escape. Your HVAC needs to work harder to maintain a constant temperature, which uses a substantial amount of energy. Make sure your walls and attic are well-insulated. With experienced insulation contractors maryland, your HVAC will need to use less energy to keep your home comfortable.
Change Your Lightbulbs
For decades, there were very few differences between light bulbs. You simply bought the wattage you needed and that was that. Today, there are CFLs and LEDs, both of which offer energy-efficient alternatives to traditional incandescent bulbs. In general, the energy-efficient light bulbs use anywhere from 25% to 80% less energy. They also last much longer than incandescent ones. If you still have incandescent bulbs in your light fixtures, now is the time to replace them.
Plant Trees
Planting trees in your yard comes with many benefits. They help to remove greenhouse gasses and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. In addition to being great for the environment, they can also have a positive impact on helping you to reduce your carbon footprint. Trees provide shade. The leaves can block the sun from warming your home in the summer while the empty branches allow the heat of the sun through in the winter. In doing so, your HVAC has to work less to keep the air in your home at your desired temperature.
Making changes to your home can help to improve its energy efficiency. By reducing the amount of energy your home uses, you help to reduce your carbon footprint. As a bonus, you also reduce your energy bills.