How To Help Stop Climate Change From Home

One of the big trends for homes in 2022 is going to be about ensuring your home is sustainable. 

Check out some top tips on how you can do more to protect the environment from your own home:

THE KITCHEN:

1. Buy energy-efficient domestic appliances — our kitchen appliances are undeniable energy guzzlers that become even worse culprits if not used in the right way.
2. Clothes should be hung outside to dry.
3. Defrost fridges at least every six months, if they don’t have an automatic function, and avoid putting hot food straight in.
4. Ditch sponges and scouring pads made from non-renewable sources containing harmful synthetic dyes and disinfectants to those made from sustainably grown crops, such as loofah and coconut.

THE LIVING / SITTING ROOM:

1. Regulated tap inserts are offered free by many water companies. Easy to fit on specified taps so that even DIY-phobes can cope, they limit splashing and restrict water flow to five litres (nine pints) per minute, thus saving the average household money each year. Shower Sense flow regulators do the same, ensuring that the shower releases its contents at a more eco-friendly rate of eight litres (14 pints) per minute. Check out your local water companies website for more information. 
2. Conserve water and send less volume to sewerage treatments by following the adage ‘If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down’. There are obviously right and wrong times to put this into practice — for example, not when visitors are due, but possibly at night when only the family is home.

THE BOILER ROOM:

1. Solar panels come with the second lowest price tag and payback, but the system has to be scaled to match consumption. Unfortunately for householders, Government feed-in tariffs for additional power generated ended in April. Increasingly, solar panels are linked up to battery storage, so extra energy generated when the sun is shining can be banked and used when needed.
2. A switch to a Green energy supplier won’t mean using non-National Grid electricity and gas, but the provider will buy energy from renewable sources, matching the amount you purchased

 THE GARDEN:

1. A greenhouse — even a small one — or a polytunnel will extend the growing season and will be ideal for aubergines, melons, peppers and tomatoes
2. Composting garden and non-food uncooked kitchen waste is valuable, but, in most households, the available waste produces little organic matter in the end. Where fallen leaves are abundant in the autumn, stacking leaf mould is worthwhile. Composted municipal waste is increasingly widely offered and is a good source of sustainable soil food.