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Eco Friendly Home Upgrades to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Lifestyle
With the growing threats of global warming and climate change, sustainable living practices and eco friendly homes are more essential than ever.
But sustainability doesn’t mean sacrificing comfort. As our Managing Director, Steve Bromberg, puts it: “An eco-friendly home isn’t just a place to live; it’s a promise to the planet that comfort and sustainability can go hand in hand.”
This guide offers insight into how eco-conscious changes, both big and small, can reduce your carbon footprint and improve the comfort and practicality of your house. Discover materials, design features, and smart technology that will upgrade the energy efficiency of your home, supporting a greener and more secure environment in the present and for future generations.
Eco Friendly Home Upgrades
Natural Light
Improving access to natural light is an excellent way to create bright and welcoming spaces that reduce your home’s carbon footprint, and improve mood, productivity, and overall wellbeing. Simple ways to increase sunlight include cleaning windows and ensuring they are unobstructed, while incorporating expanding mirrors and a light interior design makes the most of whatever light breaks through.
If your home has limited window space and accessibility to the outdoors, consider installing structural design features that flood your home with natural light. The large, glazed panels of bifold doors, French doors, and frameless sliding doors feature slim aluminium frames with minimal obstruction, allowing an abundance of natural light to enter your home. Skylights transform redundant ceiling spaces into a cost-effective lighting system, perfect for interior rooms with restricted window space. Explore our stunning patio doors, skylights, and aluminium windows here at Express that forge an eco friendly home, reducing artificial light usage, electricity consumption, and overall carbon footprint.
Insulation
Quality insulation is fundamental for an eco friendly home, reducing unwanted heat transfer between interior and exterior spaces. This thermal barrier should maintain a comfortable indoor temperature year-round and minimise the energy consumption of your heating system.
There are three key areas of improvement for your home’s insulation: the loft, walls and floors. Loft insulation involves laying material between joists; cavity walls can have insulation injected into the gap, while solid walls require more thorough internal or external solutions. Materials are added between joists for suspended floors, and ridged boards are inserted below solid concrete floors.
Insulating materials have different strengths in terms of value, practicality, and energy efficiency. Some all-around insulating solutions that prioritise sustainability include:
- Sheep’s Wool: An organic fibre with excellent thermal properties. It is breathable, sustainable, and naturally fire-resistant.
- Cellulose: Made from recycled paper products that are fibreised into a loose-fill material. When blown in, this material creates a tight and seamless insulation blanket that is a superb air blocker.
- Hemp: Derived from the industrial hemp plant, this insulation traps air within its fibrous structure, establishing a thermal barrier. It is a sustainable alternative for eco friendly homes.
Each material provides an excellent thermal performance that minimises your home’s environmental impact.
Smart Home Technology
Smart technology provides the cutting edge of home automation, making energy consumption more efficient and responsive to your needs. Smart thermostats help you regulate temperature more efficiently, saving energy while keeping your home comfortable and convenient. Their advanced features enable homeowners to control heating systems from their phones, set temperature schedules based on routines, or utilise automatic settings that adjust temperatures and minimise energy use for an eco friendly home.
Additional features include energy-efficient LEDs and smart lighting systems equipped with automated motion sensors for daylight harvesting, which help reduce unnecessary usage. Smart plugs also help cut down on phantom load, the unnecessary power consumed by devices when they’re switched off or in standby mode. At the heart of these setups are Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), which monitor and optimise the generation, storage and consumption of energy throughout the household.
Energy-Efficient Windows and Doors
Old or damaged windows and doors are susceptible to draughts and air leakage, which negatively impact the thermal performance of homes and increase their carbon footprint. If the internal section of a windowpane is prone to condensation, or certain rooms feel cooler than others, it might be a sign that they need to be replaced with new, energy-efficient models.
Our industry-leading front doors, patio doors, and aluminium windows minimise unwanted heat transfer between your home and the outdoors. They feature thermally broken aluminium with low-conductivity material in the frame and double glazing with Low-E glass as standard. Any glass specification can be upgraded with a 6.8mm laminated pane to reduce U-values, solar heat gain, and noise by 30–32dB. This combination forms a thermal barrier that lowers heat loss and overall energy consumption.
A quality product is only as good as its installation. Our skilled teams have years of experience handling and fitting bespoke aluminium products with precision and accuracy so that there are no blemishes or gaps that might affect the performance or efficiency of doors and windows.
Renewable Energy Sources
To improve your home’s carbon footprint, you should not only reduce energy consumption but consider the source of energy used. Solar panels are an eco friendly solution for your property that converts sunlight into clean electricity, harnessing an infinitely renewable energy source. This self-generated energy is different from the power produced by the grid, which typically relies on fossil fuels.
And don’t think they are restricted to sunny days; solar panels can utilise diffused light to provide energy year-round, the surplus of which can be stored in batteries for later use or sold back to the grid. Overall, these renewable energy sources serve as a strategic investment with environmental and financial incentives, improving sustainability, reducing energy bills, and increasing your home’s value in the long run.
Sustainable Materials
Selecting sustainable materials when upgrading an eco conscious home can be an effective way to reduce your carbon footprint. During major renovations, opt for recycled, reclaimed, or sustainably sourced materials to limit your environmental impact. Aluminium is an excellent choice for structural features because of its recyclability, with over 75% of all aluminium ever produced still in use today.
Incorporating organic materials into your interior design also reinforces your home’s connection to nature. These elements offer aesthetic flexibility, with sleek stone surfaces suiting modern builds and warm wooden finishes complementing more traditional styles. Additionally, choosing reclaimed furniture cuts down on waste and resource consumption, while using locally sourced materials helps reduce emissions associated with transportation.
Visit Our Showrooms
Designing an eco friendly home doesn’t mean sacrificing style or comfort; it involves making thoughtful, sustainable choices that reduce your carbon footprint and future-proof your property. Whether you’re investing in solar panels, upgrading insulation, or choosing reclaimed materials, each decision plays a crucial role in building an environmentally responsible space.
At Express, we’re here to help you make impactful upgrades with our energy-efficient aluminium windows, bifold doors, and skylights, designed to transform the performance and style of your home. Explore our range online or visit any of our showrooms to start your journey toward a greener, smarter property with all the home comforts.
