Green Options for Your Bedroom
Having an eco-friendly bedroom is the way of the future, and not just a faddish choice anymore. Being environmentally conscious means carving out a carbon footprint that’ll be sustainable for the future, as well as lowering costs in your home. And since you spend so much time in the bedroom, greening it up is one of the best steps you can take. As always, Harkraft has the tips you need to leap into the future and get started on it now.
Bedding
Organic cotton bedding is a really smart choice for a number of reasons:
it will cost a little bit more than other bedding choices, but works out to less over the long-term. If you had to spend $40 each year on a cheap bedding set that’ll only last you 12 months or $100 for organic cotton that’ll last you four years, which one would you choose?
Lighting
No question about it, lighting plays a big role in how eco-friendly your bedroom can be. Ditch the incandescent bulbs, which use an exorbitant amount of energy and give off a lot of heat, and make the switch to LED or CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) lighting (just make sure it’s Energy Saving certified). If you needed an extra reason to change over, consider this fact: incandescent lights only convert 5% of the energy they receive into light. So, you’re paying 100% for the energy for a bulb that wastes most of that.
Windows
Your glass portals to the outside world can leak a lot of heat or cool air, and that adds up to a very hefty energy bill very quickly. Not convinced? Turn the air conditioning on full blast on a steamy day and open the windows in your home, and watch you energy meter spike up, up, up. Replacing your windows is obviously the best choice, but if you can’t do that, just make sure there’s a good seal around them. And instead of blasting the A/C on a hot and humid day, open the window at night and aim a fan outside. This’ll gather up the hot air in the room and shove it outside, while also saving on your energy bill and making the environment a little greener.
Another way you can help cut your energy bill is to invest in good, sun-blocking curtains. Sunlight transmits a lot of heat, especially when it travels through glass. But throwing a set of curtains or blinds on there — if it’s the former, go for curtains with grommets to be on the trendy side — will block a lot of the sun’s heat so you don’t have to work as hard at cooling the room from the inside.
Plants
Adding in a little bit of greenery, like a peace lily or spider plant, can do wonders for purifying the air inside your bedroom. And when you’ve got plants whose sole job it is to make the air around you cleaner, your carbon footprint gets just that much greener. Plus, you’ll notice how much easier it is to breathe when the air has been naturally freshened, and a few artfully-placed houseplants cost almost nothing to invest in.