Some of us like to believe that we have a “green home,” but we often think of our home as clean and environmentally friendly if we just turn off the air conditioning once in a while, and sometimes remember to recycle. For a truly green home, you’ll need to go to the Italian city of Milan. Milan is to be home to the Bosco Verticale, a high rise building that is actually green, due to the fact that a hectares worth of living plants will be built into the exterior walls and roof, providing natural insulation and helping to keep the air in this industrial city somewhat cleaner. While an architecturally designed high rise home forest might be beyond the reach of most of us, it’s still possible to make a few simple changes to your home to make it a lot greener and environmentally friendly, and most of these changes are water related, since preserving this precious natural resource is an easy way to make Mother Nature smile.
Where Does Your Hot Water Come From?
Most of the time, your hot water comes directly from your hot water heater, which is usually heated by an electric coil or element, so when you need hot water; you’re also using electricity. A hot water heater that’s powered by natural gas is a far more cost effective option, since less gas is needed than the electrical equivalent, meaning that you’ll use less power to heat the same amount of water. While the installation costs can sometimes be prohibitive, installing solar panels on your homes roof is extremely kind to the environment. It costs a lot to set up, but should be thought of as a long-term investment, since the system will pay for itself in a few years. If you do run into problems, you should be able to take care of them quickly and cheaply with a quality water heater repair service.
Consider the Surface
When installing a new bathroom or remodeling your existing one, pay careful attention to the materials used. Always ensure that wooden surfaces and fixtures come from renewable forests- and while a mahogany toilet seat can be tempting, there are greener, more cost effective choices out there. The same goes for bathroom tiles, with bamboo and cork from sustainable sources being widely available. Correctly installing bathroom fixtures can be quite a difficult job, and while you might be able to do some of the work yourself, it’s a good idea to get the assistance of a qualified plumber, like the folks at Bedell Plumbing Inc, who you’ll find to be the most helpful of plumbers in Indianapolis, and they can make sure that your faucets and drainage are connected properly- heading off problems before they happen.
Low Flow is the Way to Go
Water wastage is a huge issue in most suburban bathrooms, and many times you might not even be aware of it. All the leaking faucets in your home will shed enough water each year to fill an average sized backyard swimming pool, so make sure that leaks are addressed as soon as they’re noticed! Toilets use a lot of water, and it’s not often that most people are in the market for one, but when the time comes to replace your throne, make sure you opt for a low flow toilet with a dual flush capacity. Installing a low flow shower head is also an amazing way to save gallons of water with each wash. Low flow shower heads have a bit of a bad reputation, with people thinking that they’re going to be low pressure and unsatisfying, but this is not the case. You might notice a slight decrease in water pressure, but most of the time we can’t even tell the difference. So you’ll get clean and still save water- which will be handy if you ever need to water a high rise building worth of plants.
