Upgrades to Reduce Your Home's Resource Consumption

SANTA ROSA — Here in California, there’s great concern about conserving resources like water, gas and electricity. If you share this concern, you may be wondering how you can reduce resource consumption in your home. Fortunately, there are many ways to do this, even if you’re on a limited budget. In fact, you may be able to get government assistance with financing water and energy efficiency upgrades. For example, Energy Upgrade California’s Home Upgrade program offers rebates and incentives for a wide range of home improvements, from duct sealing and adding attic insulation to installing high-efficiency HVAC and water heating systems. This is just one of the many programs aimed at motivating California residents to take part in the statewide resource conservation effort.

Even if you’re not interested in upgrading your HVAC and plumbing systems, there are things you can do on a smaller scale to reduce your home’s resource consumption. For example, having your HVAC system serviced and regularly changing its filter can go a long way toward helping it perform more efficiently. You can also reduce your home’s water consumption by adding water-saving faucet aerators and showerheads in your bathrooms and kitchen. Most local municipalities provide water-saving aerators free of charge—all you have to do is screw them onto your faucets.

If you want to know more about which specific areas of your home would benefit from water and energy efficiency upgrades, talk to a local plumbing and HVAC professional.