How to Make Your Home Environmentally Friendly

Step 5 Use Environmentally Friendly Cleaners

Common household cleaners are very harmful to the environment. The chemicals that are used in most of these products do not have the capability to completely break down in water. Although they may meet regulatory criteria there is still a negative impact on the environment. There are many biodegradable cleaners available at local supermarkets.

Comments

[hogthrob]

Hi, you have some good stuff here. I dont know if they are available in the US but we have really great warm light LEDs available in europe now, which run at 1-2 watts. Also you can look at task lighting as most rooms dont require flooding with light - for example in the kitchen the only place that needs real light is the worktop to stop you cutting off your fingers the rest of the time you only need enough light not to walk into things. 

Geothermal is excellent but do you mean 'Geothermal' or do you mean 'ground source' heat pumps? We did a study ( i work for an architect specialising in zero carbon buildings) that ground source heat pumps are less efficient than just using gas to heat the home when it comes to carbon release and energy consumed. As most people are attached to the grid the loss in transmission means that although you get a great coefficient in the home you get a really poor coefficient overall. We then found that (in the UK) roof sizes were not large enough to support enough solar panels to power the pumps 24/7 and still provide enough enery for the rest of the domestic load.

We found solar thermal for hotwater backed up with a small amount of biomass, and super insulated airtight buildings to be the best solution.

If you are interested we wrote a book 'the ZEDbook' all about it - its available through RIBA books.


good instructable keep spreading the word.

[brabantia]

or ... you can use your own: <br />- 50/50 vinegar/water and some baking soda. Gets rid of (cigaret) smells too and because it doesn't have oil (in readymade products oil is added to make things shine) it doesn't attract dust = less cleaning needed.<br />oh and it gets rid of 90percent of bacteria/viruses etc. (not 99 percent like with lysol, but 90 is good enough for me)<br />also works for windows, especially if you rub them dry with old newspaper.<br />For cleaning the inside of an oven or the glass window of the fireplace, I use moist (firewood) ashes and a scrubbing pad, dirt comes off real easy, afterwards rinse with just water; works!<br /><br />thx for helpfull instructable! Wish I'd find a good european version tho ...<br /><br />