Consumers are becoming more eco-conscious, with 85% of consumers across the globe willing to pay more for sustainability. This is possible due to technology providing opportunities to be more cautious of environmental risks, as well as ability to reduce the price of our energy bill.
You may wonder where to start an eco-conscious home life. Here, home builders, Muir Homes explore some simple additions to your home that can help you to go green.
Smart thermostat
If you’re fortunate enough to live in a new-build house, insulation won’t be one of your concerns due to new properties having to comply with the most recent building regulations. Even in colder climates like Scotland, you won’t have to worry about your home temperature – so if you’re looking for houses for sale in Aberdeenshire, you needn’t stress.
However, we have all made the mistake of accidentally leaving our heating on, or you may purposely leave it on when you pop out to keep your house warm for when you return. But heating accounts for 40% of the UK’s energy consumption and in turn contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, so it isn’t just your bill that’s being affected.
One solution to save you a lot of money and to reduce the environmental harm of energy is a smart thermostat. The ability to control your heating with your phone eliminates the necessity to keep your heating on while you are out and saves you the worry if you have ever forgotten to turn it off.
Smart sprinkler controller
Spring has arrived, and summer will undoubtedly be here in the blink of an eye. With this in mind, we are all eager to spruce up our gardens, specifically our grass. And keeping it in tip-top condition means regularly bringing out the water sprinkler. But the traditional sprinkler can be wasteful, and an energy-intensive process of extraction, transportation, and purification is needed for water to get to our taps.
But thanks to technology, smart sprinkler controllers are the saviour to help reduce water usage. Using your smartphone, you can stop or start your sprinkler when you need to, rather than waiting for it to automatically switch off or doing this manually. More advanced controllers can even create a watering schedule for you and alter this for any unexpected weather conditions.
Smart plug
Many people are guilty of charging their devices overnight, despite an iPhone typically only taking up to three hours to charge – although this can sometimes vary. The extra time spent charging is adding to electricity bills, despite being needless.
Smart plugs are useful for many reasons. If you’ve forgotten to turn a switch off, you can simply use an application on your mobile phone to do this while you’re out of the house. But not only that, a timer is a feature on many of these smart plugs. This proves handy for charging any of your devices as you can decide what time you’d like it to switch off, even in the middle of the night. After all, it’s an unnecessary price to pay for both yourself and the environment.
Eco kettle
84% of Brits are tea drinkers. Approximately 100 million cups of tea are made each day across the nation, which is nearly 36 billion annually. But a UK government study also discovered that almost three-quarters of the British nation boil the kettle with more water than we intend to use – not only is it a waste of water, but it also adds to the environmental effects of energy usage.
Smart kettles are a great investment for your home. While you may be in the habit of boiling too much water, these gadgets prevent you from doing so by only boiling what you need. And some of these appliances can save up to 60% of energy, so with 95% of kettle owners boiling water every day, and with some doing so up to five or more times daily, this will certainly cut down on energy usage.
There is a growing concern for our planet given the many dangers caused by human choices. Thankfully, consumers are now aware of the dangers caused by many of our daily activities and are opting for more sustainable choices. There are many gadgets to help us be more conscious of the environment, and perhaps just one of these items will be beneficial in your household.