Red Deer Handyman: Energy-Efficient Remodelling Ideas

There are many advantages to making your home more energy efficient. It is better for the environment, which benefits everyone, and it prevents you from spending as much on your utilities, which is a huge benefit to you. If you are thinking about hiring remodelling services in Red Deer in the interest of better energy efficiency, here are some ideas to help you get started.

1. Weatherize Your Home

Modern homes are designed and built with efficiency in mind, but if you have an older home, you might have some work to do to close up some air leaks. It isn’t just a matter of caulking up cracks or installing new weather-stripping around doors and windows, though that is likely part of it. You may have leaks around the furnace or water heater vents, or in your fireplace chimney, that need to be sealed properly. These types of jobs are better left to professionals for safety reasons.

Even if your home is relatively newer, it’s not a bad thing to check things such as weather-stripping once in a while to make sure it is still holding up.

2. Add Energy-Efficient Windows

If your windows are poorly insulated in the first place, there’s only so much that new weather-stripping can do. Replacing your existing windows with energy-efficient ones can be a huge investment, but it can offer additional benefits, such as soundproofing with multiple glass panes and heat reduction from infrared-reflecting coatings.

Professional window replacement doesn’t take as long as you might imagine. Depending on the size of your house, it is usually complete in a day or two.

3. Buy Appliances That Are More Energy Efficient

Four appliances in your home use up nearly 10% of its power: The washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher, and the refrigerator. Replacing these appliances with more energy-efficient models admittedly represents a huge investment, but within a few years, these appliances can pay for themselves within a few years through the money you save on your energy bills.

Be sure that you choose appliances with the Energy Star rating. These are designed and built to meet energy-efficiency standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Canada. If you are not able to replace all these appliances at the same time, maybe you would work out a plan by which you could replace them one at a time over the next four or five years.

4. Add a Programmable or Smart Thermostat

In the old days, thermostats were a pain from both a logistical and environmental standpoint. They stayed at the same setting all the time until you changed it. This meant that you either had to remember to adjust the thermostat before you went to bed or left the house, which almost no one ever did, or you had to keep your house at the same temperature all the time, which wasn’t very efficient.

Fortunately, thermostat technology has advanced remarkably since then. With a programmable thermostat, you can set the house to a lower temperature during the day while you are gone and at night when you are asleep and a higher temperature when you first wake up in the morning and when you come home in the evening. This assumes that you maintain a regular schedule.

If your work schedule is irregular, or you want even more control over your house’s temperature, install a smart thermostat. This connects to an app on your phone and allows you to change the setting whenever you want from wherever you are.

You may wonder, “Why should I hire a handyman near me when remodelling for energy efficiency?” Two good reasons: It’s much more convenient for you, and it saves you money by getting the job right the first time. Learn more about our remodelling services.