Whether you’re looking to build a home or buy one, realtors always recommend that homeowners not make too many personalized customizations to their home, simply because those customizations may hurt their home’s resale value if they ever decide to sell it in the future. It’s understandable why realtors recommend this to homeowners but when you’re in the market for your “forever home,” those recommendations can go out the window.
A forever home is a home that you plan to settle in with no intention of moving from. This form of permanent settling is also called “aging in place.” When building you forever home, the customizations you have done are not only for you in current times but those customizations should also be beneficial to you as you grow older as well.
For example, one great way people commonly customize their homes for aging in place is widening doorways and hallways for the potential later use of wheelchairs. People also install light dimmers, built-in shower seating, handrails in the shower and near the toilet, and many functionality features.
But what if you’re someone who’s environmentally-conscious and want to customize yours forever home? This desire to create an energy-efficient forever home is a customization that will impact you your entire lifetime, and for the better. You can feel good in knowing that these customizations are for you and only you without having to worry about if a potential home buyer will like it.
Here are some great customizations to add to your home to help you create an energy-efficient home you can grow old in.
Customizations to Create Your Energy-Efficient “Forever Home”
Build a Compact Layout Home
If you plan on building your home from the ground-up, be sure to keep in mind the option of a compact layout. A lot of people think that because they’re building their homes that they have to build a big home, but that’s not the case at all.
Big homes that “spread out” tend to lose more heat and aren’t as efficient. Even tall homes or homes with high ceilings tend to be more efficient than wide, one-story homes. Simply put, homes with compact layouts have smaller surface areas, making it easier to retain more heat in the winter and stay cooler in the summer.
Have Energy-Efficient Lighting Installed
According to the US Energy Information Administrations, the usage of lights in your home account for a whopping 14% of most household budget expenses. Making energy-efficient changes to your homes now will prove to be very beneficial, especially since most people and children are working from home now. Many households are seeing significant spikes in their energy bills due to being home more.
The key here would be LED lighting. So whether you want to have chandeliers, recessed lighting, or dimmer lights installed, you can do that all with energy-efficient lighting. This particular customization is one that doesn’t negatively impact the aesthetics of your home at all.
Install Skylights
Skylights are an absolutely beautiful house feature when considering the aesthetics of a home but can also prove to be a wonderful way to reduce your energy usage at home, from a lighting and heating perspective.
All homes have windows but not too many have skylights. Skylights prove to be beneficial for illuminating a room, making the need for electricity reduced. They also provide homes with natural light and heat from the sun, reducing the need to use the thermostat, especially during the winter months.
Conclusion
Whether you’re building your home from the ground-up or if you’re just renovating your current home into the home of your dreams, energy efficiency is key. The above customizations are ones that may not matter to home buyers, and that’s okay because they’re meant just for you.
The whole point of these customizations is to reduce your energy consumption. When you have these customizations done, you can lower your electric rates even further by changing providers.
Conclusion
This is going to prove to be helpful in lowering your energy bill considerably, and this is going to be even more helpful in your forever home when you get older, retire, and have to live off a limited income. The customizations you’ll have done in your younger years will be even more financially beneficial to you in your older years.
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