How to build an eco-friendly home?

For the love of Earth, one should always feel responsible and take necessary steps to protect Mother Earth. Keeping the carbon footprints low, a well-planned home is all that it takes. During construction and planning stage get a blue print, keeping an Eco-friendly home in mind. A well planned Eco-friendly home will help improve energy and also cuts down your electricity and water bills. All this is possible only when green measures are well incorporated.

Greenery

We hear many trees and forests being axed to bring up infrastructural development in the city. But there are architects who design and develop sites by working around the trees. Apartments like Rainbow Vistas in Kutapally, Hyderabad are coming up with apartments nestled amongst trees. They have planned in such a way that trees are retained.

For individual houses, plant trees and shrubs in your veranda. If your property doesn’t allow too much space, so a terrace garden or balcony can do the needful. Hanging pots or self-watering planters are also few options that one can choose. You can start with planting saplings that will grow with time.

Flooring

While there are tenants that choose tile but when you look for an eco-friendly home, you get variety of options to choose from. Wooden flooring, laminated flooring, bamboo flooring are few eco-friendly options. One can go in for these options instead of hardwood and verified tiles.

Rain water harvesting

This culture is now a common sight in few modern homes including premium apartments in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and other cities. They have a dedicated area where they harvest the rain water which then goes to a tank to be used by homes for cleaning and washing purposes. This method is adapted in metropolitan cities and is great for cities where there are gated community apartments. Ground water can be of use to numerous households for their daily use.

Apart from community, we also have a role to play for conserving water. Ditch shower heads and opt for buckets and taps. One could also go in for economical shower head that would save water. Keeping a regular check on plugging and leakages can also help in saving water. Low flow taps for shower, dish washing and hand wash can save a lot of water. Communities also keep a check on tap leakages for apartments to ensure that they save water.

Solar energy

What we learnt in school can be easily put into practice when building a new home. The trick is to back up these 3bhk flats for sale in Hyderabad, with solar panels. Apartments can fall back on the energy extracted by these panels and reduce their electricity bills by half the price. Solar panel set up can cause a hole in the budget but in the long run, this will help you save a lot of cost. Solar or solar thermal panels can help in utilizing resources sustainably. It can help in pre-heating ventilation air, solar cooling, electricity, water heating and lighting.

Go green inside the house as well

It is not that Eco-friendly structure can be done only outside the house. Your house should also reflect the same atmosphere. Buy recycled furniture instead of top branded ones. Wood is the most common furniture that is recycled. You could also check for stores or auction sites to have old items that would also last long. Antiques is yet another option that would give a whole new look to your home.

Apart from furniture, install wooden windows frames that do not have UPVC surrounds that can cause pollution. Wooden frames are easy to install and maintain. You could also opt for thicker curtains than blinds. Blinds are made up of pure plastic which can cause pollution when dismantled. Thicker curtains can be re-used and also help to conserve energy. It keeps the room cooler in summer and darker. 

Many developers and individual builders are opting for eco-friendly or go –green culture. Along with rain water harvesting, waste water treatment, solar panels installation, there is much more that even individual residents can do. Re-using waste water, closing taps when not in use, having a personal garden are few things that would help us build a better environment. Using these ideas, let’s do our bit to give it back to our Mother Earth.