Quick Environmentally Conscious Tips to Keep in Mind When Designing Your Custom Dream Home

When designing your custom home, remaining eco-friendly can be easily overlooked with the stress of making sure your new home is exactly what you want. However, remaining environmentally savvy can be simple, as long as you know how. Here are some quick home redesign and renovation tips to keep in mind that will give you your custom home while also remaining kind to the environment.

Install Cool Roofs

With shifts in building materials, the construction of roofs has the ability to be extremely environmentally friendly. New roofing technology give roofs the ability to reflect heat and light away from the home, which will then increase the efficiency of the home’s heating and cooling system.

Compared to standard roofing, cool roofs reflect more sunlight which means less heat absorption. Cool roofs are made of highly reflective paint, a sheet covering, and highly reflective tiles/shingles.

Use Energy Efficient Lighting

Energy-efficient lighting is one of the easier ways to be environmentally friendly during the design of your custom home. Installing light bulbs that are energy-efficient, such as compact fluorescent bulbs and LED bulbs, use less energy and have the potential to change the future of lighting.

If your home already has lighting fixtures installed that may be challenging to alter, an LED retrofit kit could be a good choice. These kits allow you to use the new environmentally savvy trend of LED bulbs, while still using older lighting fixtures. This is an affordable and easy way to save energy in your home.

Solar panels are also a good option in terms of energy-efficient lighting. Solar Panels absorb the sun’s rays and use them as an energy source.

Use Energy-Saving Appliances

Installing energy-saving appliances can save the environment as well as your bank account. Energy-saving appliances will lower your electric and water bill drastically, while also impacting the environment in a positive way. Purchasing energy-efficient appliances that are focused on conserving water and electricity can include:

• Dishwashers
• Refrigerators
• Washing Machines
• Ceiling Fans

Upgrade Your Insulation

A vast amount of energy goes to heating and cooling a home; a lot of the time this is because improper insulation has been installed or older insulation has deteriorated over time. Not only is this insulation issue a problem because of the money it is costing you via electric bills, but it also is a problem in terms of the environment.

By installing proper insulation, even in an old home, you will have to run your heat and air conditioning less; therefore conducting and emitting less energy.

Install Eco-Friendly Flooring

More and more flooring designers are seeking out eco-friendly options in their floor covering design. An eco-friendly floor should be a floor that is made from sustainable products or a hardwood that has been grown for a specific construction project. Eco-friendly floors should also be created in an environment that uses as little energy as possible during their construction process.

Here is a list of the best eco-friendly floor coverings:

• Cork
• Bamboo
• Rubber
• Reclaimed Hardwood
• Laminate

Visit Antique Shops

Visiting antique shops is especially relevant when decorating your new custom home. Antique shops are a good place to go for pieces of furniture such as coffee tables, bookshelves, and other small home decorations. Antique shops are environmentally savvy in the sense that you are recycling products and items instead of buying new ones. Re-using products give life to pieces that will be otherwise thrown away. Buying second-hand pieces from antique shops can help create a certain desired style for your custom home as well.

Reface Instead of Replace

Sometimes designing your home can be more of a redesign of certain rooms rather than starting over completely. Re-facing and fixing up usable items in your home can be a smarter choice than totally replacing them. For example, instead of replacing cabinets that are in decent condition, replace the doors or drawers; this saves the environment by not creating irrelevant waste while also saving you money.

Benefits of an Environmentally Savvy Home

Eco-friendly homes, with eco-friendly appliances and decorations, have a longer lifetime than homes not constructed with the environment in mind. Some of the major benefits of this type of custom home design include water and material efficiency, reduced strain on resource supply, energy efficiency, and low maintenance. All of these benefits are not only advantages to you and your family, but also the environment.

*Guest post by Jennifer Bell. Jennifer is a freelance writer, blogger, dog-enthusiast and avid beachgoer operating out of Southern New Jersey.