14 Cheap Updates For A More Eco-Friendly Home

Spring cleaning season is the perfect time to make your space more eco-friendly. According to data from 2020, Canadian households are a significant energy suck, responsible for nearly a quarter of Canada’s energy consumption and 17.5 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. After all, it takes a good deal of resources to power lighting and appliances and keep the hot water running. Plus, heating and cooling our homes eats up tons of energy, especially as the climate crisis drives record temperatures. But if you give your space a once-over, you’ll likely find plenty of spots where you can save energy and pare down emissions.

Some of the easiest tweaks involve shifting habits: switching off the lights when you exit a room, washing your clothes in cold water, closing your blinds during the hottest times of day and closing the doors to any seldom-used rooms. But if you want to commit to more concrete fixes—without shelling out for big-ticket upgrades, like a heat pump—there are still lots of affordable ways to make your home greener.

If you live in a house, start by “sealing the envelope”—plugging up gaps in the exterior walls, the basement and the attic—says Kim Watson, an energy auditor in Ontario’s Hamilton-Niagara region who spends her days assessing people’s homes for energy efficiency. By preventing heated or cooled air from escaping your home, you’ll reduce your energy consumption. To lower utility use even more, tweak the temperature settings on your furnace and hot-water tank. On top of that, Sam Soloway—who owns low-waste refillery shop Planet Pantry in Winnipeg—says that making a few product swaps is another easy way to make your household more eco-friendly. Read on for 14 low-cost, high-impact tips for a more sustainable home.

Around The House

Refresh Window Caulking

Over time, the caulking around your windows and doors can dry out and crack, leading to air leakage and potentially inflating your utility bills by $20 to $30 a year. Do a quick sweep around the outside of your home; if you find cracked caulk, buy some exterior acrylic caulking (about $20 a tube, plus $5 for a caulking gun if you don’t have one) to fix it. PSA: Caulking is best done during dry weather.

Insulate Outlets

Electrical outlets have covers, but air still leaks through them; adding insulation can save you a few dollars a month. Just unscrew the outlet cover and pop a foam gasket onto the back before replacing it. Then insert childproof plugs to any unused outlets to block drafts. A six-pack of gaskets costs about $6, and a 12-pack of childproof plugs is around $4.

Seal Off Your Attic Hatch

You may not think of an attic hatch as an exterior door, but as far as energy efficiency goes, it is. To boost insulation and save about $30 a year, glue high-density foam board to the back of the hatch and add compression weather stripping around its edges for less than $50. At the same time, install a hook-and-eye door latch—which costs a few dollars—to keep the hatch snug when it’s closed.

Turn Your Hot Water Tank Down

Hot-water heaters account for 17 percent of a household’s energy usage, but conventional models are only 57 percent efficient. That means for every $100 you spend to heat the water, $43 of it goes up the chimney. If you’re away from home for more than a day, tap into savings by turning the temperature down. (You could also just leave it lower year-round.) Most tanks only have high, medium and low settings; if your tank usually runs on high and you drop it to medium all year, you might save $40 to $60.

Weather Stripping

Check on the weather stripping around the edges of exterior doors. Is it properly filling the gap between the door and the frame? Does it meet at the corners? If not, you can replace it with instructions from YouTube and roughly $10 to $20 of weather stripping per door, and you’ll save about $50 a year. Just make sure the type of weather stripping you buy will match your door—metal doors usually use magnetic weather stripping, while wooden doors need compression stripping.

Keep Things Humid in Winter

The drier the air in your home, the cooler you’ll feel. If you maintain between 35 and 45 percent humidity in the winter with a whole-house humidifier, you may not need to turn on the furnace as often, which could offer big savings. (The average Canadian household spends over $1,000 on space heating each year.) One caveat: This requires an upfront investment. Adding a whole-house humidifier to your HVAC system can cost between $300 and $600.

In The Bathroom

Install a Low-Flush Toilet—Or Make Your Own

One of the easiest ways to save on utility costs is to switch to a low-flush toilet—this could cost up to $300, but you’ll notice an immediate improvement on your next water bill. To achieve a similar effect for far less, you can fill a two-litre plastic container with pebbles and place it in your toilet tank.

Halt a Running Toilet

If you hear a persistent hissing sound coming from your toilet after it’s been flushed—or if your water bill is curiously high—your toilet may be running, which could cost you, in a worst-case scenario, as much as thousands of dollars a month. To reduce your water consumption and the strain on your wallet, you may just need to adjust or replace the flapper, a circle-shaped seal inside the tank. Other times, the problem is a faulty fill valve. Replace either for less than $20 if you want to take the DIY route—which you can do with the help of YouTube tutorials.

Replace Your Spray Cleaner With Tablets (Or Just Vinegar and Water)

Biodegradable non-toxic bathroom-cleaner tablets dissolve in warm water to create 750 millilitres of cleaner. Soloway recommends Myni Bathroom Cleaner, which costs $4 a tab—about a dollar less than the same amount of conventional cleaner. This swap might only save you a few bucks a year, but lightweight tabs keep shipping emissions low and you’ll also reduce plastic waste. Or forgo tabs entirely and create your own multi-purpose cleanser by mixing a one-to-one ratio of water to vinegar.

Invest in a Safety Razor

Shaving weekly can burn through at least a dozen disposable razors a year. Swapping them for a metal safety razor requires a one-time investment, but it will last a lifetime. A basic $30 razor and $6 worth of recyclable blades can result in future savings of about $30 a year. Store used blades in a sealed jar and recycle in batches.

In The Kitchen

Invest in Reusable Container Covers

Cut plastic wrap out of your routine by investing in reusable silicone or cloth container covers. These last for years and come in many sizes to fit a variety of bowls and jars. A set of assorted cover sizes can cost $12 to $30, but if your household burns through multiple rolls of plastic wrap a year, you’ll break even around the two-year mark.

Buy a Portable Induction Burner

A single electric induction burner, which costs around $70, is 100 percent efficient compared to a gas cooktop and ideal for when you only need to use one burner—think making soups or stir-fries. And if you already own a toaster oven, start making better use of it. Using smaller appliances rather than solely relying on your gas stovetop or conventional oven can reduce your energy bill by $100 a year.

Switch to Eco-Friendly Dish Soap

Eco-friendly dish soap costs about the same as your go-to brand of suds and is safer for waterways. Buy a solid bar to cut down on plastic or visit a local refillery—like Winnipeg’s Planet Pantry, The Refill Co. in Thunder Bay, Ont., or Halifax’s The Grainery—to get refills on liquid soap.

Dish Paper Towels for Swedish Dishcloths

These reusable paper towels are quick-drying, antibacterial and machine washable, and a single cloth could replace more than 17 paper-towel rolls. Each cloth can last for up to a year, and when it’s done, you can just toss it in the compost bin. You’ll likely only need one or two for your kitchen, and they cost around $7 each. But even if you buy five, forgoing paper towels entirely could save you up to $260 a year.