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Now that we are more aware of our effect on our little planet, we try our best to be more friendly to it and keep the world clean with little or big efforts. If you are one of the growing crowd of people who are interested in being more friendly, an eco-friendly house is the best move.

What Is An Eco-friendly Home?

An Eco-house (or Eco-home) is an environmentally low-affected home designed and built using materials and technology that reduces its carbon footprint and lowers its energy needs.

How To Make Your House Eco-friendly?

Reuse What You Have

 Reusing and recycling existing building materials or items of furniture can also result in some of the most characterful and creative design schemes. Maybe you decide to reuse bricks from a section of the house you have demolished or rescue old timber floors. Perhaps you could get crafty and upcycle a dated piece of furniture using paint or a new cladding material. If you’re fitting a new kitchen, look at the existing unit carcasses—if they’re in sound condition, reuse them and simply buy new doors and worktops. Not only is this a great route to a more sustainable home, but it will also save you money. 

Use Renewable Energy

The term ‘renewable energy’ refers to energy derived from natural resources such as water, wind or the sun. Systems that use renewable energy include:

●    Solar panels
●    Biomass boilers
●    Ground source heat pumps
●    Air source heat pumps

Related: How To Reduce Your Eco-footprint

Harvest Rainwater

When life throws you lemons, you make lemonade and so, when the weather throws you rain, you harvest it, filter it and use it.

Collecting rainwater to use elsewhere in your home is a brilliant way to cut down your mains water usage—even a simple and inexpensive water butt can significantly reduce the amount of water you used to water your garden in the dryer months. 

Get Your House Properly Insulated

A well-insulated h

ome holds in heat properly, meaning that it’ll take less energy to keep reheating your living space when you really need to. It’s one of the smartest ways to save money.

Good places to start include the walls of your house and the roof. Another tip is to think about your windows as insolation too—we’ll cover this further on, but think about double glazing any windows that aren’t already.

Use Water-based Paint

When decorating, opt for water-based paints that contain natural pigments. Most paints currently used in home decor are oil-based and not as eco-friendly as they could be. Some people also find that water-based paints offer a nicer variety of colour and are more aesthetically pleasing.

Green Cleaning

There are some simple switches you can make. Bicarbonate of soda, lemon juice or vinegar can all be used in place of bleaches and detergent to kill bacteria and leave homes grease and odour free.

Switching to steam cleaners to disinfect and kill germs is another green way of keeping homes clean—no cleaning products needed at all, except for water!