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This article is retrieved from the Ecohome: Resources for Sustainable Housing website, precisely the Green Home Guide (a step-by-step guide to sustainable and healthy housing whether you are building, renovating or maintaining a home). The article was originally posted at this url: http://www.ecohome.net/guide/lights-appliances-things-electrical
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These guide pages are intended to help you find the most efficient and affordable options for pretty much anything that runs on power, and the best ways to generate power yourself.
There are a lot of options to consider when shopping for appliances, designing home lighting, and heating your home.
These pages outline some things you can do that will help reduce your consumption, and despite what is sometimes a higher sticker price, usually save you money.
Lighting :
There are many factors that determine how much energy you will require to illuminate your home. A small, open concept home can get by with less, while a heavily partitioned and larger home will obviously have greater lighting requirements.
Beyond simply saving energy, designing living spaces with individually illuminated smaller areas can create room ambiance. Outside of that, you are largely down to bulb choices, where there are many options as well. Your choice in bulbs not only determines energy consumption, but can have a surprising impact on your quality of life and even mental health.
More on lighting and choosing bulbs
Appliances:
High efficiency home appliances have a proven track record for return on investment. Buying the cheaper refrigerator or dishwasher will in all likelihood cost you more in the end, often due to a shorter lifespan as well as higher operating costs.
For smaller items, energy conservation may seem hardly worth a second thought, but that can lead to death by a thousand cuts (yes, a little melodramatic, but I'm trying to keep your attention).
Power Generation:
There are many ways to generate your own power, but what the most efficient method for you is depends largely on your geographical location as well as the topography of your property. Different regions experience different amounts of sunshine and wind, greatly affecting the output of systems.
The viability of wind power changes by region, and can even change from your house to your neighbour’s, affecting the usefulness of a private turbine.