How to make your park home more eco-friendly

You’ve probably seen lots of coverage in the news recently about global warming, net zero emissions and energy efficiency. Put simply, everything from cars to properties is under the microscope, with an emphasis on being more sustainable; in other words, kinder to the planet and the environment.

This means looking at everything – including park homes – with a greener mindset. But did you know that investing in eco-friendly measures can save you money just as much as they can save the planet?

Let’s look at the options available to park homes in more detail:

Built to standard

Park homes are significantly different to bricks and mortar properties – they are constructed using different materials. However, the current British Standard for residential park homes, BS3632, ensures that park homes are built with energy efficiency in mind.

Homes built to this standard benefit from improved insulation, thick walls, ventilation, double glazed windows and a low-energy-use heating system, ensuring they are warm in winter and cooler in the summer months. As a result, the majority of park homes are more energy-efficient than the vast majority of existing housing stock across the country.

Boosting energy efficiency

Moving beyond the fabric of the building, investing in the latest sustainable technologies inside your property can make your park home kinder to the environment and reduce its running costs. Fitting energy efficient light bulbs and ‘A-rated’ appliances will ensure you use less electricity, which will be much kinder to your wallet.

You can even look to install the latest in renewable heating and cooling technologies that offer significant energy savings compared to traditional boiler systems. Fitting solar panels on the roof of your park home can help generate electricity and even heat your water, while an air source heat pump draws in and heats the outside air for use in your radiators and hot water system.

Switch everything off

Don’t forget to completely turn off your electrical items when you aren’t using them. Although this may seem obvious, when a television screen is off but still plugged in and switched on at the plug, it is still using power to be in ‘standby mode’. It may be a small change but switching appliances off at the socket will save you even more money – and is certainly the greener option.

Insulate to accumulate

As alluded to above, insulation is key in ensuring park homes are of an eco-friendly standard. Older properties will certainly benefit from improved insulation, especially in the roof space, as well as doors and windows. Better insulation reduces heat loss, stopping valuable warmth from escaping from your park home – thereby eliminating the need to keep using up extra energy to reheat the space. Investing in upgrading your double glazing to triple glazed, argon filled doors and windows is one such way to lower your overall energy consumption.

Reducing water usage

The ways that water – either hot or cold – is used in your park home can also have a significant impact on the environment, so think about how you can cut down accordingly. A quick win is to shorten the amount of time you spend in the shower – less than five minutes is ideal – and don’t leave the taps running for too long. In fact, when brushing your teeth, you shouldn’t have the tap running at all. It’s also wise to cut down on baths, as these use far more water on average when compared to showering.

Other useful ways of saving water include utilising any ‘eco’ settings on your washing machine and dishwasher, as well as only filling your kettle with the exact amount of water you need. Doing so will also greatly reduce the amount of energy required to bring it to the boil.

When it comes to water usage, you can completely turn the situation on its head and fit a water butt or rainwater harvesting system to your park home. This will allow you to capture any rainwater that falls; this can then be used for cleaning, toilet flushing, washing machines and watering your garden. It really is the ultimate in recycling! Speaking of which…

Recycling

One green initiative that everybody should really get behind is recycling. Try to avoid using disposable items in your park home as much as possible and reuse as many things as you can. Plastic items such as cutlery and drinks bottles are the usual suspects here. In addition, you can even use some of the rainwater you’ve captured to clean any food waste from containers so they can then be recycled.

Prospective park home buyers should also enquire with park managers about their recycling policies. Check to see if there are any bottle banks, rainwater harvesting or composting facilities in place, along with an environmentally-friendly means of waste disposal that places a higher emphasis on recycling rather than simply sending rubbish away to landfill.

You can even take further green steps by embracing upcycling, taking advantage of refurbished and restored items of unwanted furniture previously consigned to the waste bin. Upcycling benefits the environment, as it creatively reuses quality materials without having to source new ones, in turn preserving natural resources and reducing carbon emissions.

Get closer to nature

Don’t forget, there’s still a world outside your park home, so it’s important to adopt a sustainable mindset that will make a difference to nature. We’ve already mentioned rainwater harvesting and composting, yet there are plenty of other things you can do, such as planting native wildflowers for bees and butterflies in your park home’s garden or decking area, taking care not to use any harmful pesticides or weedkillers.

Similarly, you could erect insect hotels, bird boxes and bird feeders to encourage local wildlife – although make sure you keep the latter tidy, otherwise, you may end up with unwanted visits from rats and mice!

Stay green at heart

Sustainability is an issue close to our hearts here at Compass, as reflected in our ongoing commitment to honouring our green pledge, as we continually strive to significantly reduce our environmental footprint and improve our business’s green credentials.

We’re doing our bit to help save the planet – and by following some of the tips above, you can too.