Home Comfort: A Lifestyle Choice

Home Comfort: A Lifestyle Choice – With Valentine’s Day behind us and a Family Day Stat holiday on Monday, the Art Of Hygge is on my mind. It could be the cold weather or how comfy this Berlin bed from The Brick is… Either way, I’m looking forward to a weekend of cozy moments with my little family unit this weekend.

If you haven’t heard of the ever so popular ‘Hygge’ movement, let me tell you… you may have already embraced this full-scale home decor and lifestyle choice. I know I’ve been doing it for years. In its simplest form, the Scandinavian word “Hygge” is an overall feeling of coziness and comfort to work towards feelings of well-being and contentment. It is a daily ritual of enjoying the simple things: family, candles, the feeling of clean warm sheets and comfort food as examples. This idea has been sweeping the home design world for the last year, so of course I wanted to talk about it. I truly believe that by incorporating a little Hygge into your home and lifestyle, you have the potential to benefit your mental health and well-being.

It’s the little things, I love adding cozy blankets, pillows, candles and flower arrangements to a room. Alternatively, switch to a long-lasting everyday item like switching to the Beautyrest Hotel Diamond 6 Plush King Mattress Set from The Brick. This mattress is the definition of comfortable, it’s so soft and plush it’s been a game changer in the overall feel of our bedroom. Additionally, switching from a hardwood bed frame to the soft Berlin fabric was another design nod to realizing a Hygge bedroom home design. 5 Ways to Electrify Your Home and Transportation: Life Kit To Live a Friendlier Life to the climate, invest in home appliances and vehicles that run on electricity, not fossil fuels, sustainability experts say. Here are some energy saving solutions to consider.

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Buying appliances and vehicles that run on electricity, not fossil fuels, can help reduce your carbon footprint. Making these upgrades will cost money—so you’ll need to plan ahead, says Joel Rosenberg of noofit group Rewiring America. Clockwise from top left: Bloomberg via Getty Images, Schon/Getty Images, Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images, Juan Algar/Getty Images. Collage by Kaz Fantone hide caption

Clockwise from top left: Bloomberg via Getty Images, Schon/Getty Images, Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images, Juan Algar/Getty Images. Collage by Kaz Fantone

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Driving a car, making dinner, heating water and turning on the air conditioner — our daily actions emit some of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

But sustainability experts say there are ways we can make these everyday tasks more climate-friendly. By using household appliances and vehicles that run on electricity, we can help reduce our carbon footprint and leave more fossil fuels in the ground. While these individual moves won’t reverse climate change, they are small steps each of us can take to help solve the bigger problem.

Making these upgrades to your home and lifestyle will cost money — and you’ll need to plan ahead, says Joel Rosenberg of the noofit group Rewiring America and author of Electrify Everything in Your Home. So don’t feel like you have to switch your devices overnight. Instead, buy them as existing machines wear out. He offers a catchphrase: “When it starts to die, electrify.”

An induction stove uses magnetism to heat a pan and uses less energy than a traditional electric stove. Hide caption Juan Algar/Getty Images

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About 38% of US homes use natural gas for cooking. These stoves emit potentially harmful pollutants into your home. While their greenhouse gas emissions are relatively small, they are connected to a vast system of pipelines and equipment that leaks methane, a gas that has at least 25 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. If you have a gas stove, contribute to this system.

Cooking with electricity looks different than it did a few years ago because there are more induction stoves. These use magnetism to heat a pan and use less energy than a traditional electric stove.

They may look like the more familiar glass top electric stoves, but they are not. Consumer Reports tested cooktops and found that induction ranges outperform natural gas and traditional electric ranges. That includes simple tasks like boiling water, says Shanika Whitehurst, deputy director of product sustainability at Consumer Reports. “We’ve gone from it being 20 minutes to less than 90 seconds.”

There are some limitations to inductance range acquisition. If you now have a gas stove, you may need to pay an electrician to install a special outlet to provide enough electricity. And all your pans must be magnetic to work on an induction cooktop.

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Induction ranges are also generally more expensive. The top induction stove in Consumer Reports costs about $1,000 more than the top electric or gas models, but there are some government subsidies available. Check with an appliance store, state energy office, or local utility company for details on what’s available.

Budget option: If buying a new stove is out of the question, there are cheaper alternatives. Induction burners are available for less than $100. These are on your bench and can be a good way to test induction technology to determine if it is right for you.

Keeping your home at a comfortable temperature uses a lot of energy. Heating and air conditioning account for about half of energy consumption in buildings. This is likely to increase as the climate warms. The US Department of Energy predicts that air conditioner energy consumption will grow faster than any other category.

Buying an efficient furnace and AC can lower your utility bills, but you’ll likely have to pay more up front. How much depends on the current setting. If you already have a furnace that blows air, it will be cheaper because there are already ducts. But if you have a boiler and radiator, the cost can be high because you will need to install air ducts.

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“[At] the lower end you might be able to get away with $5,000, and at the higher end it might be $50,000 to run your whole house entirely on a heat pump,” says Rosenberg.

The “heat pump” is a technology that comes up a lot when we talk about energy efficiency. They are used for heating and cooling for a range of appliances. Essentially, they move warm air where you want it through a process similar to that used by a refrigerator. And they require less energy to do the same job.

Budget options: There are cheaper ways to lower your heating and cooling costs, such as using portable heat pumps, which can cost as little as a few hundred dollars. These can be good for an apartment or a single room in your home. An even simpler solution is to raise your thermostat a few degrees in the summer and lower it a few degrees in the winter so your air conditioner or furnace doesn’t run as often. Or consider a smart thermostat that connects to your phone. These give you more control over when your system operates, and some will automatically switch to energy-saving mode when you leave the house.

If you are considering a heat pump water heater, plan ahead. These heaters are taller so they may need more ceiling space. And if your current water heater is gas-fired, you’ll need to install electricity. The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Images hide caption

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Maybe you don’t think about that water heater in your basement or closet, but you should. It accounts for about 18% of a home’s energy consumption.

Consumer Reports ranks water heaters that use heat pump technology as better than natural or traditional electric ones, even though they cost more than twice as much. The cheapest heat pump water heaters are $1,000, while traditional electric and gas heaters are around $400.

“But if you look at all the years of ownership, it evens out maybe after about two to three years of use,” says Whitehurst. Since they are two to three times more efficient than most electric water heaters, they can help save money on your utility bills.

If you’re sold on buying a heat pump water heater, plan ahead. These heaters are taller so if your water heater is in the basement you will need to check and make sure it fits. They cannot be in a very cold place because they transfer the heat from the room to the water. Also, dehumidify the environment, so you’ll want to think about whether that’s going to be a problem. And if your current water heater is gas-fired, you’ll need to install electricity.

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Budget option: Cheaper and easier to install alternatives are also available. Rosenberg suggests screwing up more