Did you know that with the choices you make in your interior design, you can also save energy at home? I never really thought about it that way, but I became curious during our renovation and went to investigate.
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If you're tired of my blogging about our renovation, I'd like to apologize in advance. Here you have another one. But maybe this one is really useful, at least I learned from it. During the renovation of our living room and kitchen, we were faced with a lot of choices. Like everyone who is renovating, of course. And quite frankly, I make most of the choices based on what I like or what I find practical.
I never thought about the fact that the choices you make at home also affect energy savings. But now I do and I would like to share with you in this blog what I learned during our odd jobs and sparring about the furnishing.
This is an open door of course, I understand that too 😉 . But I can't write a blog about saving energy in the house and then not mention the lamps, can I? Make sure that you use lighting with LED lamps in all choices you make about your lighting. Energy-efficient lamps have much less of a burden on the environment, because they use up to 90% less electricity. That's a lot when you add up the use of a year. So do you have any light bulbs at home? Replace your lamps!
Very directly related to the above way of saving energy at home is taking into account that you use light colors when painting. In fact, you prefer to use bright white as wall paint. Bright white reflects daylight the best, making your room appear even brighter than it already is. And you guessed it… then you don't have to turn on your light as quickly.
Nowadays it is no longer self-evident that people opt for curtains at home. We don't have them either. But curtains do not only have the function of enhancing the atmosphere or providing good acoustics. They are also important for saving energy at home. They retain the heat in your living room better in the evening, so that it is comfortably warm faster and you don't have to burn as much. Keep in mind that when choosing curtains, make sure that they are not in front of the heating when it is on. Then it is counterproductive.
Just like in all those other cool instagram houses, I also wanted a steel door in the house. And luckily they come too, no less than two pieces. We get a steel sliding door from the dining kitchen to the utility room and a steel door with frame between the dining room and the hall. For the latter door, we deliberately opted for a steel door with a frame. I also had a look at the steel pivot doors, which I actually think are just a bit nicer. But because this variant does not have a frame into which the door closes, there are always narrow openings where you get air passage.
Since our hall has a void and is therefore completely open to the top, a pivot door in the field of comfort and saving energy at home really didn't seem the right choice for us.
We have already talked about curtains above, but there is also a difference in window decoration when you talk about saving energy and insulating your home. Duettes, for example, have the property that they insulate better due to the honeycomb structure. The air that remains in the honeycomb has an extra insulating effect. In the winter it keeps the heat in better and in the summer it keeps the heat out better, isn't it ideal?
ps… keep in mind that -despite the fact that saving energy in your home is a good habit, ventilating your home is also very important. So never keep everything closed, but open everything regularly to get fresh air back in.
