{"id":8358,"date":"2020-04-22T16:41:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8358"},"modified":"2024-02-02T18:45:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T18:45:18","slug":"tips-for-an-eco-friendly-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/22\/tips-for-an-eco-friendly-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for an Eco-Friendly Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Happy Earth Day\n2020 guys! Earth Day is one my favorite days of the year because it gives me a\nchance to celebrate the earth that I love so much and take a second to reflect\non how I treat her. Not only is being eco-friendly so important for the\nenvironment and the health of our ecosystem, but it also saves us time and\nmoney. Schell Brothers has a ton of insight when it comes to energy efficient\nhomes and I wanted to use that, paired with a few other tips and tricks, to\nhelp you guys celebrate Earth Day 2020 and make some changes to your daily\nroutine. <\/p>\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure you\u2019re\ntired of hearing the phrase \u2018reduce, reuse, recycle,\u2019 but the simple catch\nphrase is the best way to categorize how your home is or isn\u2019t energy efficient\nand eco-friendly. <\/p>\n\n\n

Schell\nBrothers Schellter Advanced Building Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

At Schell Brothers, we take building energy efficient homes seriously, in order to reduce <\/strong>our carbon footprint and energy use. Through one of the three pillars of Schellter Advanced Building Technology<\/a>, Enerwise, we seek to set a new standard for home energy efficiency. We build our homes with low HERS score ratings, with homes that are over 100% more energy efficient than a Standard New Home. We install Ultra High-Performance Windows that are well insulated and block solar heat gain. Windows are considered a major source of heat and cooling loss, with our high-performance windows, you don\u2019t need to worry about that extra energy use. We also consider energy when building the framework of your new home in the second pillar of Schellter Advanced Building Technology, 4Tress. For example, we build a raised heel truss in order for us to extend insulation to the edge of the exterior wall. With 4Tress, your homes are not only stronger and quieter, but energy efficient and better for Mother Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n

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But you might not\nbe a construction manager, and you might be looking for smaller scale ways to\nhelp reduce your carbon footprint. Here are a few in-home tips and tricks to\nhelp with not only energy use, but also water and waste: <\/p>\n\n\n

Recycle &\nUse Re-Usable Products<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

It is important\nto know what can and cannot be recycled<\/strong>. Paper, plastic, glass, metals,\nbatteries and electronics CAN be recycled. Loose plastic bags, polystyrene,\nsoiled food items or containers with soiled food or grease on them, plastic\nutensils, straws, and broken glass CANNOT be recycled. It is also important to\nremember that in Coastal Delaware, trash bags cannot be recycled, so empty your\nrecyclables directly into the can! To help reduce waste and even recycled\nwaste, try to use re-usable<\/strong> water bottles, re-usable utensils, metal\nstraws that can be washed, as well as re-usable grocery bags instead of the\nplastic single use ones that cannot be recycled. There is always an\nalternative, and on the plus side, you get to pick fun colors when you buy\nre-usable! <\/p>\n\n\n

Make Your Own\nCleaning Supplies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

I have pets, so a\nbig question I had when I started my path to eco-friendly living was, do\neco-friendly cleaning supplies exist? They do! I started with how I was going\nto clean the hardwood floors. I found myself using and throwing out too many\nSwiffer pads. So, I bought a spray bottle at the dollar store and filled it\nwith 2 cups of warm water, \u00bd cup of distilled white vinegar, \u00bc cup of isopropyl\nrubbing alcohol, 1\/8 tsp liquid dish soap, and 5-10 drops of my favorite\nessential oil. I re-used<\/strong> old towels and rags to cover the end of the\nSwiffer and was able to clean the whole house with ZERO waste. Amazing! Try to\nbuy decorative glass or ceramic soap dispensers and re-fill them with large\ntubs of purchased soap. The large bottles of re-fill <\/strong>use less plastic\nthan if you were to go through say, 1 small bottle a week. <\/p>\n\n\n

Energy\nEfficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

You can do your\npart to make your home energy efficient as well. It is as simple as turning off\nthe lights when you aren\u2019t in the room or in your home and opening your\ncurtains to enjoy natural light instead! Schell Brothers along with Clean\nEnergy USA, provide the opportunity for you, as a new home purchaser, to add\nsolar panels to the roof of your home. This will ensure you will never have\nhigh electric bills and will help combat greenhouse gas emissions and reduce<\/strong>\ndependence on fossil fuel. Helping the environment can also help your\nwallet!  <\/p>\n\n\n

Go Local<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Schell Brothers\nloves to support local business in and around Coastal Delaware. In fact, if you\ncheck out our website, we\u2019ve partnered with a few local companies in our\nSchellebrity Club program, so that homeowners can enjoy discounts from their\nfavorite local stops. By eating local, you help support locally established\nfarms, which reduces gas usage and ultimately alleviates our dependence on\nfossil fuels. <\/p>\n\n\n

Water\nReduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Saving water is\nanother huge part of an eco-friendly home. Whenever you can, try to take\nshorter showers. I keep a timer in my shower to make sure I stay under 5\nminutes. Try to do your dishes by hand as well, filling up a bucket with soapy\nwater and using that to clean the dishes keeps the water from running for a\nlong period of time. Finally, collect rainwater to water your garden or\nflowers, reusing<\/strong> what Mother Nature gives us is the best possible way to\nhelp her. <\/p>\n\n\n

I could most\ncertainly go on and on about all the ways that you can and should be as\neco-friendly as possible, but I\u2019ll stop there. Take this social distancing time\nto practice some of these methods, especially on Earth Day! There is no better\ntime to take the steps to make your home as green as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n

Check out our website<\/a> for more information about our Schellter Advanced Building Technology<\/a> and be sure to take a look at Clean Energy USA<\/a> and the solar panels they provide our homeowners. Happy Earth Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Earth Day 2020 guys! Earth Day is one my favorite days of the year because it gives me a chance to celebrate the earth that I love so much and take a second to reflect on how I treat her. Not only is being eco-friendly so important for the environment and the health of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[252,386,406,407,525,848,1033,1053,1111],"class_list":["post-8358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-communities","tag-cleanliving","tag-earthday","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-energy-efficient-homes","tag-happiness","tag-newhomebuilders","tag-save-the-earth","tag-schellbrothers","tag-solar-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9064,"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358\/revisions\/9064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schellbrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}