At Cypress Homes, we are all about “going green.” In fact, all of our homes our built through the “Focus on Energy New Homes” program to guarantee comfortable, safe, durable, and energy efficient homes.  Our new homes are extremely green and efficient, but building a “green” home is only half the battle; there are thousands of additional measures you can take to make your home greener! Here are a few ideas to consider:

Lighting

Look for energy star light bulbs to light your house.  If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a light bulb that’s earned the energy star rating, we would save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year. Each energy star light bulb can save you more than $40 over its lifetime.

Biodegradable Cleaners

You can purchase non-toxic, biodegradable detergents and cleaners to make your home a little greener.  Many of the common cleaning products and detergents have harmful chemicals that are capable of affecting air quality and polluting water.  Do your part and look for harmless biodegradable products for your home.

Skip the Plastic Water Bottles

Instead of constantly purchasing plastic water bottles, look into a water filter.  Many bottling companies are reducing and recycling plastic, but imagine what you could save by completely eliminating these plastic bottles from your household.  Four billion bottles are purchased every year in the U.S.  Even if 99{447216cae66a4d332ab0ac71eb11e27716218036a4f422ac40162b059a195e14} of these bottles are recycled, the environment will suffer from a significant carbon footprint.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

It is easier than you think to cut back on costly or harmful activities.  Make sure you recycle whenever possible.  Also, monitor your thermostat to cut back on heating and cooling.  Remember to turn off lights and unplug any device that isn’t being used.  Finally, if you would cut one minute out of your shower time, you would save about 2,000 gallons of water every year.

At Cypress Homes, we are doing our best to provide our customers with efficient homes.  The benefit really comes into play when homeowners take steps of their own to “go green.”  These ideas will not only help to save the environment, they will help you save money.  Check out our website at www.callcypresshomes.com for more information on how you can benefit with a “green” cypress home!