Aliwood Contemporary Roof Lanterns: 5 Ways to Make Your Home Renovations More Eco-Friendly

For many, the new year means a fresh start and a chance to renovate their home ready for the year ahead...

Lets face it, now is the time! However, when refurbishing, it’s important to be sustainable, where possible.

With the climate crisis at the forefront of everyone’s mind, many people are now adopting a greener lifestyle. Home renovations can be an extremely wasteful process, with homeowners throwing out old features and replacing furniture to keep up with the latest decorating trends. However, it is possible to restore your home without wasting materials and minimising the impact on the environment.

Whether it’s adding some new eco-friendly products into your home, investing in sustainable features like contemporary roof lanterns, or even upcycling old materials, there are many simple ways to renovate your home sustainably.

Window Placement

Although we tend to shut ourselves away and draw the blinds when we’re at home (especially during these colder months), considering your window design and the placing can help you on your journey to a greener home. Passive design makes changes to structure, making it easier to naturally maintain a comfortable temperature range within the home. Essentially, it helps to makes the best use of sunlight, shade and natural ventilation throughout the seasons and reduces the need for heating or air conditioning, which can be as much as 40%!

A critical element of designing for energy efficiency is the angle of the sun through winter and summer, and its penetration of the house. For example, more windows should be placed on the side of house where the sun shines the most, to absorb heat naturally warm the room. That makes sense to us!

Invest in Contemporary Roof Lanterns

With the sun being an extremely powerful renewable energy source, we should use it to our advantage within our homes. Contemporary roof lanterns are designed to let as much natural sunlight in from above. They are designed to keep your rooms cool in the summer and retain the heat in the winter. You’ll save on heating bills and use less electricity because natural light is flooding into your home instead of artificial. Not only are they eco-friendly but they are beautiful structures, adding monetary value to your house! They’re the perfect investment for your home’s future – and the planet’s.

Local, Recycled Materials

In an effort to reduce your carbon footprint while renovating, opt to buy materials from local manufacturers or reuse old materials from the home. If you decide you want wooden flooring in your new living room, why not contact a local arborist and see if they have any timber available. Similarly, when you’re shopping, have a look at the brand to see where they source their materials from and how recyclable their products are.

At Aliwood, sustainability is at the forefront of our company ethos. Our contemporary roof lanterns are 100% recyclable and sourced locally to our Essex workshop. In fact, in the world of modern construction, timber is the best renewable materials available, which is why it is the perfect resource for our sustainable roof lanterns.

In fact, we do everything we can to ensure that we are doing our bit, not only to minimise our impact on the planet but to improve the environment in which we all live. We aim for self-sufficiency wherever possible, such as using all leftover offcuts and materials to feed into our onsite biomass boiler, which generates our heating.

Greener Home Features

Solar panels and green roofing are popular for sustainable home renovation choices. They don’t ruin the exterior of your home and add value long-term. In fact, green roofing has become a huge trend over the last two years – especially in cities where garden space is limited. Not only are green roofs easy to build, but they are great for the environment too.

Green roofing means creating a mini garden on your roof where plants and vegetation can grow. By creating a mini microclimate, you are protecting your roof from exposure to the elements and bringing down your energy costs! Additionally, green roofs actually provide a degree of insulation because of the large amount of soil used.

 Products for Eco-Living

There are countless items around the home that are damaging to the environment in more ways than one. The smallest changes can help to make a big difference! Simple things like using eco-friendly lightbulbs, or plastic free, biodegradable wipes make a positive impact. If you’re doing all this work on your home renovation, it would be a shame to spoil your efforts with non-sustainable products within the home.

You can even buy eco-friendly paint which contains low or no volatile organic compound (VOC). Giving paint its unique smell, VOC is also extremely damaging to the environment – as well as people. There is currently a large movement towards eco-friendly paints and plenty of brands are offering a wide selection of colours, coverage and durability, without the harmful solvents. 

Get in Touch

If you’re interested in making your home eco-friendlier, then we’d love to hear from you! For more information about our contemporary roof lanterns, get in touch here. Alternatively, you can call our friendly team on 01245 967107. We look forward to hearing from you!