Greening your home helps the environment

Plenty of things can be done for more efficiency and to help save the planet

This week marked Earth Day, a day we are supposed to think critically about the choices we make, and think about what environmentally friendly adjustments we can make in the coming year. To me, this is something we need to be thinking about year round. After all, we've only got the one planet so we need to make conscious use of our resources to ensure there's still plenty left over for our children and grandchildren.

This concept extends to your home. The construction choices we make, as well as how we use the home day to day, can have as big or as small an impact on our planet as you choose. I think it makes sense to make choices that have as small an impact as possible. In my own home, I've set up solar panelling on my garage, I've made my home as efficient as possible, and I'm careful about the water that I use.

Here are some earth-friendly tips for your home in honour of Earth Day.

RECYCLE, REUSE

This is something that really gets my goat: When I go past a construction site and I see the workers tossing old cabinets and other materials that they smashed the heck out of into a bin rather than carefully taking it down to get a second life out of the materials.

For those of us lucky enough to be able to renovate, often when we're upgrading our spaces, it's not because the materials are past their life cycle, it's because we wanted to make some esthetic changes to make the space more personal.

That means that a lot of these materials, if your contractor takes the time to carefully remove them rather than destroying them, can often be donated to furniture banks and other stores to get a second life out of them. Just because you don't need that old stuff doesn't mean there's not a family somewhere who could.

REDUCING WATER USAGE

Leaky faucets can waste upwards of 21 litres of water per day. That constant drip, drip, dripping might not seem like too much at first thought, but overtime that adds up, so address any leaks. The most common causes of leaks come from defective parts, usually O-rings, washers, or gaskets. You could probably replace those all yourself pretty easily and see if that solves your issue.

When it's the fixtures themselves that need replacing don't buy the cheapest model available. They tend to be inexpensive for a reason, and won't last very long. Opt for name-brand, quality fixtures because they will last longer and are less likely to leak.

If you're going through your home and replacing things, such as shower heads or toilets, I'd go with more efficient models that use less water overall, without sacrificing quality. Efficient shower heads use about four litres less water per minute than a traditional shower head. This stuff does add up over time, so don't overlook it when you're making some changes.

GREENING YOUR HOME

For most of us here in Canada where it gets really cold in the winter, and really hot in the summer, where we'll see most of our home's energy usage is in its heating and cooling.

When your home is full of gaps and cracks and holes, it makes keeping your home a comfortable temperature all the more difficult. So it makes sense that the best way to heat your home efficiently is by shoring up those weak spots around your doors, windows, and in your insulation, right?

Replacing any worn or missing caulking and weather stripping is such an easy thing that any homeowner can do to prevent air from leaking out of your home, while still having a huge impact.

A drafty home can account for about 30 per cent of your home's heat loss, so make sure every spring and fall you're taking a walk around your home to do this important job. Adding some low-expansion spray foam in gaps around your exhaust pipes are a key part of this job too, so keep that in mind.

Finally, head into your furnace room and tape up any exposed duct line joints. This will help air move through your system more efficiently.