Making Your Home Energy Efficient

Making your home more energy efficient is the perfect way to save money and contribute to environmental conservation. Whether you're thinking of installing solar power systems or new double-glazed windows, there are plenty of options that are cost effective and easy to implement. Here are a few different ideas that you can either do yourself, or get a contractor to do for you. 

Recycling 

Recycling as much waste as you can is the easiest thing you can do to help the environment. Whilst it may not always save you money, you can feel great knowing that you are helping to keep the countryside free of unnecessary waste and contributing to enforcing Australia's National Waste Policy. The policy looks at six key areas of waste management; however, 'shared responsibility' is something that every household can assist with on a daily basis with minimum effort.

To make your home a recycling haven, get yourself a selection of plastic bins and label them glass, cardboard and paper, and plastic. This way you can quickly throw the right waste in the right bin without having to sort through everything. You could even go so far as buying a compost bin to use for all of your organic waste. If you're a keen gardener, then this will actually save you money and is better for your garden, as you can limit how many chemicals go into the compost you're making. 

Solar Lighting

Solar lighting is becoming ever more popular. Solar panels are easy enough to get fixed to the roof of your home, and small solar-powered lights can be purchased for the garden. These lights are a great no-hassle alternative to electric-powered lights. They can often be purchased in multi-packs from any good garden store and pushed directly into the soil to provide free lighting throughout the garden. Not only will this save you money, but also it can make the garden more beautiful and safe at night, particularly if you have young children who like to run around.   

If you wish to make a little bit of money you could even look at having larger scale residential solar panels installed on your home. As with all solar panels, these create energy using the suns rays; however, if you create an excess amount of energy, you can send this back into the grid for a financial reward from your energy company. There are many different companies that provide solar panelling and they usually have very informative websites and can offer advice on the different options available to you.