Improving Your Home Efficiency

One of the easiest ways to reduce your impact on the environment is by improving the efficiency of your home.  This would decrease your carbon emissions, and even save you money on your electricity bill.  There is an endless amount of information available online, and endless amounts of home improvements as well.  When I googled it, hundreds of helpful websites popped up.  Here is a list of simple upgrades that can help you improve the efficiency of your home.

1.  Make sure your walls and attic are well insulated.
2.  Upgrade or replace windows.
3.  Plant shade trees and shrubs around your house.
4.  Replace an older furnace with a high efficiency system.
5.  Improve the efficiency of your hot water system.
6.  Replace incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescent lamps.
7.  If you buy a new refrigerator, don’t leave the old one plugged in.
8.  Take advantage of new tax incentives to improve your home.
9.  Schedule an energy audit for more expert advice on your home as a whole.

This list was taken from http://greenhomeguide.com/know-how/article/9-ways-to-make-your-home-more-energy-efficient and the website goes into further detail if your interested in learning more about how to improve the efficiency of your home.  Obviously this list is short, and there are many other things you can do to reduce your impact on the environment.