Wise Green Decisions for Your Kitchen

By MexiKen | 0 Comments | Rating: 0 | |

Thankfully, more and more people every day recognize the importance of making wise environmental and ecological decisions in all aspects of their lives. Unfortunately, when it comes to home construction, while progress is being made, it still seems that many people are little bit behind the curve. As long as we continue to make progress in the right direction, that's a good thing. But people do need to realize that creating a green kitchen, whether you are building a new house, remodeling your existing home and kitchen, or even just upgrading a few appliances, taking the time to do a little green research is a very wise move. Not only for the environment, but even for your pocketbook in the long term. Making good, green decisions will save you money in the long run, it will improve the resale value of your home, and you can feel good about doing one more thing, doing your part, and making the best possible choices for the overall inviolate.

Here are just a few ideas to keep in mind if you are building or remodeling your kitchen. These are massive, drastic changes... just a few things that, if not through from the beginning and implemented, will be well worth your while.

First, when it comes to banking your kitchen, make sure that you actually get a venting kitchen range hood as opposed to simply a recirculation hood. You may not be aware of it, but cooking creates a lot more environmental hazards for your family than you realize. Of course when you cook something in a frying pan and you will see some grease splatter on the back of the stove. What you will not see is a significant amount of microscopic grease particles that float through the air, throughout your kitchen and throughout your home, settling on furniture and various surfaces creating an ideal breeding ground for microbes, germs and all kinds of other nasties.

This is why having quality kitchen range hoods is so important. This is also why it is best to have these kitchen exhaust hoods vacuuming the air and sending it to the outside rather than simply re-circulating it through a filter. Get rid of that stuff! At the same time you will be removing excess heat from the kitchen along with moisture that is released from the food as you cook. All things that can contribute to a less than ideal environment for your family's good health.

When it comes to lighting, you want to be sure you have the best lighting possible in your kitchen. Situating your working areas underneath a skylight or near a window to the outside so that you get as much natural light as possible makes a lot of sense. Of course you won't always be working during daylight hours, so of course you will need quality kitchen lighting too. When selecting your lighting, replace the incandescent bulbs with either energy-efficient compact florescent bulbs or, better yet, make use of LED lighting.

LED lighting may look extremely expensive at first, but it is sure to save you a lot of money in the long run. Considering LED lights last for years and years, (up to 60,000 hours of burning time, meaning it could easily last you for a decade or more), and the fact that they use 1/10 the energy of a traditional incandescent bulb, you can see that the upfront cost will quickly be made up in energy savings.

If you are remodeling an old kitchen and have outdated appliances, seriously consider replacing them with new, energy-efficient (ie Energy-Star rated) appliances. The energy you'll save with these new, higher efficiency appliances will more than pay for the appliances within a year or two. When you consider that a huge portion of your energy expenditure is and costs come from your kitchen appliances you can see why this makes sense.

As you can see, it doesn't take a lot of effort to create a greener kitchen, just a little bit of forethought. There are similar, simple approaches to making your entire home and lifestyle greener, but you have to start somewhere. Starting in the kitchen is as good a place as any.

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