Sustainable living means working toward a zero-waste lifestyle, seeking out renewable energy, and reducing our carbon footprint. Thankfully, this is easier than ever these days because of a growing list of green gadgets.
From eReaders to smart strips, here’s a list of tech that can help you achieve a sustainable lifestyle.
Capture Your Own Energy With Sustainable Solutions
Start with a bottom-up approach to a sustainable lifestyle by considering where all your energy comes from, namely, the grid. Is it sunny and or windy where you live? Then you may want to think about harnessing nature’s energy so you can have a sustainable lifestyle without being entirely reliant on the grid.
If you live where there’s plenty of sunshine, you may want to look into solar panels. Tesla Solar panels on your roof capture the sun’s beams to generate your own electricity. This means you’ll be less reliant on the power company and can use some of the sun’s energy for your daily life.
Do you live somewhere that doesn’t get a whole lot of sun but gets plenty of wind? Try a Missouri Wind and Solar wind turbine. Yes, you can have a micro wind turbine at home. This miniature wind-powered generator offers clean, renewable energy with weather-resistant blades made of the same carbon fiber composite as some fighter jets.
Reduce Energy Waste With Smart Thermostats
A connected home is the future of a sustainable lifestyle. For example, using a smart thermostat can slash your energy consumption.
There are plenty of programmable thermostats available nowadays. Google Nest is one of the smart thermostats that you can easily control from your phone and is deeply sensitive to your programmed needs. You can use it to set the best temperature at home so you’re not using more energy than you need.
Reduce Vampire Load with a Smart Strip
Are your electronics sucking power when they don’t need to be? Vampire or phantom energy is the energy a device uses when it’s turned off but still plugged in. When devices are plugged in but not in use, they still sap electricity from your main circuit. However, you can use smart strips to mitigate this outcome. These smart power strips completely cut off the power from anything plugged into the strip when you aren’t actively using it.
You can control many smart strips from your phone or with a timer. Take the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip, which you control using your phone. Its handy app gives you readings on the energy usage of the devices plugged into it. This way you always have a more comprehensive idea of the energy—and money—flowing out of your home.
Solar Panel Chargers For Your Devices
If committing to an entirely new energy system is too much for you, you may want to consider smaller investments in a more sustainable lifestyle. You can get solar panel chargers meant to charge small devices that you use in your daily life. Instead of plugging your phone, headphones, laptop or tablet into the wall, use the energy from the sun.
The The E.FLEX portable solar panel from Renogy folds in half and has a handle so you can move it anywhere to capture the sun’s energy. Then use it to power up your portable devices wherever you are.
Use an E-Reader & Save Trees
Anyone who loves to read likely loves the feeling of crisp paper pages only a book can provide. But making books isn’t always a sustainable process. More and more, avid readers are turning towards e-readers to take in their word count for the day in a sustainable way.
E-readers like the Kindle Paperwhite have been manufactured to look as much like paper as possible. It also allows you to read in the dark using a specialized back-lit screen that doesn’t stress your eyes.
Illuminate Your Sustainable Lifestyle With LED Light Bulbs
Let there be sustainable light! The cost that regular lightbulbs can sap from your energy bill can be astonishing. Although a good set of LED lightbulbs may cost you a pretty penny to start with, in the end, it saves you a considerable amount of money over time.
Modern LED bulbs are warmer and less glaring than early iterations, and there are now bulbs on the market that you can control with your phone. You can change the color, dim them, and even put them on timers.
Take this set of Philips Hue bulbs as a great example. They allow you to control the lighting through your phone and you can integrate them into the matrix of your other smart home devices.
Using Tech for a More Sustainable Lifestyle
Technology is evolving with us in our pursuit of a more sustainable lifestyle. Putting green gadgets to use can make your home more cost effective to run over time as well as lower your carbon footprint. That’s a win-win for you and the environment.
