Act Green Blog

Archive for the ‘Eco Home Improvement’ Category

If you are planning to conduct an energy audit of your home, then you have to follow certain rules. The energy audit is mainly carried out to see the energy used by your on daily basis or monthly basis. To carry out this audit, first of all identify the sources of energy consumption. This is the most important thing because if you leave out any of the sources, then the purpose of the energy audit won’t be fulfilled successfully.

Carefully note down the meter reading at the beginning of a day or a month. After the end of the month or the day you will get to see the amount of energy consumed in watt hours. Most modern meters even give the energy consumed in watts. If you get the energy consumption in watt hours, then you have to take care of the number of hours for which each of the appliances is running.

Noting down the energy consumption of each of the electrical appliances individually is also important otherwise you won’t be able to make the detailed estimate of the energy consumed by them.

Thinking about changing your actions to reduce your carbon footprint is awesome! The even better news is that, in addition to treating the environment better, you can treat your wallet better. A lot of the behavioral changes you make in “going green” will save you quite a bit of money.

Recycle. Many states offer a cash incentive for recycling and if you’re a big drinker of canned sodas or bottled beer, you better be taking advantage of it. An extra $0.05 is typically tacked onto the cost of your purchase, and the way you can get it back is by taking all of your empty bottles back to the grocery store for recycling. If your neighbors aren’t doing this, you may want to offer to take theirs along with you. You’ll pocket a little bit of extra change and the recyclables won’t end up in the garbage.

Modify your commute. Whether you decide to carpool, switch to public transportation, ride a bike, or walk to work every day or a few days a week, you’re doing a great thing for the environment. You’re also going to see significant savings. Parking in most big cities can cost a few hundred dollars per month, not to mention the gas you spend getting there and all of the wear and tear on your car. If you can split these costs or reduce them entirely, you’re going to start seeing a lot more cash in your wallet each month.

Reduce your utilities. If you use less energy in your home, whether it’s by turning off lights more often, keeping the house a little chillier in the winter or warmer in the summer than you normally would, or running the water less frequently, you’re definitely going to see a nice surprise the next time your bill comes in the mail!

Anne Perkins is a freelance writer focused on how to live large on a little living. She writes financial savings tips for QuickQuid, the cash advance company that has already helped thousands of Britons bridge the gap between paydays. She enjoys taking any idea and making it easier or cheaper to complete.

If you want to make a solar panel for your home or for a science project, you can easily do that by following the right steps. Making a solar cell can help you build the solar panel and it can be used for small home based options like for lighting or to warm water, etc. The main things you will need are copper wires, Plexiglas, copper sheets, band saw, electric ring hob, thin wooden strips and duct tape. All you have to do is put all this together in the right manner

The energy of the light is directly converted into electricity. The more number of cells you use the more electricity you’ll be able to produce. Using solar energy is a very good idea as the energy source is renewable and doesn’t harm the environment in any way. Also you can reduce your electricity bill a lot thus you can save a lot of money too. Just make sure that you have the state permission to set up solar equipment on a considerably large scale before you actually go ahead with all this.

Keeping your home fresh and filled with pleasant odor is very important. It not only makes living in the house pleasant but also draws accolades from the guests. Here are a few tips to keep your home fresh using eco-friendly methods.

Do not mash the unpleasant odors, eliminate them altogether. Dirty surfaces should be wiped with vinegar. You can keep open boxes filled with baking soda in the cupboards, shoe boxes and closets. Keep a lot of live flowers and plants in your house. Houseplants remove the toxins from the air purifying it and this will keep your home fresh. You can burn beeswax candles with the cotton wicks. These candles give out a sweet but subtle scent and this will keep your rooms fresh for a very long time. Fill up some potpourri dishes with dried flowers like lavender and keep them in the rooms. Keeping mint, allspices and cloves will also have the same effect.

Environment is at a risk and saving it is the responsibility of the citizen of the earth. You could use up some of the best eco-friendly material to clean up your home. All the cleaning materials are made up of harmful chemicals. This really effects the environment a lot. You can use cinnamon, vinegar, lemon oil, water, bicarbonate soda to clean up your home in an eco-friendly manner. There are many ways by which you can clean up your home quite easily.

Mixture of lemon, water and vinegar can help you clean your windows. You can use bicarbonate soda and vinegar to clean your blocked drain pipe of your sink. Cinnamon when dropped in water and left in a corner will make the house smell sweet. Fizzy soda can be used to clean the toilet of your home. All these cleaning materials are eco-friendly and can easily make your home look fresh again without affecting the environment.

Radiant burner is another name that is used for what is commonly known as reflective foil insulation. It is actually a material that is shiny and is used for reducing the costs of cooling and heating. They are installed in the areas of the attic. These materials come in rolls and they are attached under the roof of the attic or on the floor of the attic.

Heat is reflected back in the summer days and it reduces the cost of air conditioning. Warm air is trapped by these insulators in the winter time reducing the cost of heating. The process of installation of these foils is very easy and you will be able to do it on your own, as there are no requirements of any special tools. it is a very good option for those who want to condition the air of your house in a way that would be energy efficient and be economic at the same time.

There are various sustainable home renovation tips which are available in the internet seeing which many of you may feel flustered and confused about how to renovate your home in an eco friendly way. The first thing which you must do it is to make a list of your needs and what you want to achieve. First make sure that what exactly you want in your house, is or is it not that your utility bill is exorbitantly high and whether or not you want natural light to get inside your house.

After asking these questions and having the answering with you look for well reputed green builders in your locality and who will share your thoughts and ideals and is highly skilled ion this trade for quite a long span of time. Look for a person who has a certificate of being a Certified Remodeler by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry as a certified builder can help you in more ways than an uncertified one.

Mosquito repellants generally contain harsh chemicals which is harmful for the environment too, along with the mosquitoes. So it is best to try the eco friendly products if you want a safer ambience. Below are given some natural ways to obstruct the mosquitoes.

Primarily keep yourself and your surroundings clean. Use mosquito nets while sleeping.
Eucalyptus oil or leaves are a very old and effective remedy to repel these tiny vamps. Mosquitoes cannot put up with the smell of lemons or other similar smells. Thus you can try out lemon juice, citronella and lemon grass. Mix some drops of either cinnamon or lemon grass, or eucalyptus or citronella with two tablespoons of olive oil. Then apply it on your clothing and skin. Another effective mosquito repellants are clove and thyme oils.

These days, you will also get a solar mosquito repeller. It is based on sound wave technology which produces certain sounds that are capable of obstructing these tiny beasts.

A neat home is what we all want but most of the times harsh cleaning materials cause a lot of damage to our surroundings, which in turn may harm us. Hence, it is beneficial to go green while cleaning up the home. Below are given some eco-friendly means to keep your house clean.

Vinegar, baking soda and lemons are wonderful eco friendly cleaning mediums. They are also effective in germ killing. Be careful not to use malt vinegar, it stinks. Go for white or distilled vinegar which are cheap too. Bring back the lost shine of your windows by mixing water with vinegar in a 1:1 ratio.

A blend of soda bicarbonate and water helps to get rid off the dust and grease of the kitchen table and sinks. Soda bicarbonate is also a good stain remover. Lemons contain citric acid which is a good disinfectant and removes grease too. Use olive oil, it brings back the lost luster of your furniture.

The best way to decorate your home is to use indoor plants. Indoor plants are wonderful natural decorations and they add the fresh quotient to your home décor. There are many common indoor plants and you can use one type of plant or many types together to adorn your house. One of the best indoor plants that you can use is ivy.
There is the Poison Ivy and the Devil’s Ivy that are commonly used for indoor home decoration. If you are not very keen on keeping Poison Ivy in your house go in for Devil’s Ivy. It is propagated from cutting and the procedure is quite simple. Since the plant can grow in low sunlight you can use it to decorate those areas of the house that receive less sunlight.
Decorating with ivy garland is an awesome idea. You can wrap an ivy garland around a tall candle stick. It will look great. You can also use ivy garland sprigs to decorate the wooden bookshelf in your study.