Ideas to create a more comfortable and healthy home
We spend much of our daily time indoors, and our home is one of them. That is why we must protect it from those "enemies" that can be harmful to our health, such as polluting materials and products … How to create more comfortable and healthy houses?
It should be considered that properties from an ecological perspective not only preserve health, but also the environment in general.
"Healthy" homes provide a complete state of physical, mental and emotional well-being to the occupants
It is not only about how to keep the house clean or disinfect it as we usually do, we go further! Here, the type of construction is important; materials, the quality of the air you breathe, excessive energy consumption, etc. By improving these aspects, it will provide us with a well-being that translates into ideal comfort and health in all aspects.
To the answer of how to create a healthier home, It does not actually imply excessive financial spending, but rather to apply wisdom and practiced techniques such as bioclimatic architecture or feng shui that can help us and improve many aspects to try to have a healthier house, that respects us and that we obtain a comfort palpable.
Ideas and tips for a healthier home
If we look at what can most influence a building on health we find; volume and surface area, ventilation, temperature, lighting conditions, humidity, water supply and sanitation, sound insulation, air quality, protection against actions and fires and accessibility.
Now, all that remains is to apply coherent, technical measures and a reasonable and sustainable use of the resources that we have available to create comfortable homes.
As a preliminary, we want to remember the 30 fundamental principles of the sanitation of a home or house (C.E.A. WINSLOW.)
Now we want to contribute our tips, ideas and tricks in search of the ideal comfort of our home. We wanted to act on ten key points to improve our home:
1. Take care of air quality and try to improve it
Unhealthy air can cause respiratory and dermatological problems. To clean it, we must start by making our home a smoke-free place, avoiding sudden changes in temperature and excessive heat. You have to ventilate the house daily, decorate with natural plants and place humidifiers or air purifiers. The former increase humidity and the latter eliminate allergy problems and clean the air. An atmosphere with negative ions helps you relax and focus.
2. Try to circulate the energy around the house
According to the ancient Chinese art known as Feng Shui, all spaces are charged with energy. If channeled properly, it improves health and sleep to better enjoy life. It is advisable to keep the corridors clear (without furniture), not to place electrical appliances in the bedrooms and to sleep with the head facing north. In addition, some hanging and movable decorative elements increase positive energy.
3. Find good lighting
It is proven: light influences our brain neurotransmitters. Therefore, inadequate artificial lighting can cause headaches and concentration problems. It is best to take advantage of sunlight during the day. For closed rooms or with little light and at night, use low-consumption light bulbs or LEDs, with white light and without flickering. They are called "Fullspectrum", which adapt to any conventional lamp. The following image determines the lighting levels for rooms:
4. Choose materials that do not pollute
Many people suffer from allergies, headaches and respiratory disorders due to polluting materials present in the house such as PVC, solvents, synthetic insulation … We must look for alternatives such as wooden windows, polyethylene pipes and natural glues.
5. Beware of cleaning products
The toxic fumes from some of these products are dangerous to health. Now others are just as effective but without dangerous components such as biodegradable and ecological soaps.
In the following table we can see several alternative cleaning and disinfection substances to the usual ones that have less environmental and health impact.
6. Opt for ecological heating
The best way to heat our house is to use the one that adjusts to the meters of each room. If we cannot opt for alternative energies such as solar thermal or electric, biomass, geothermal… etc. Natural gas heating is more environmentally friendly than electric heating, which consumes a lot of energy. It is also important to insulate the house well by adjusting doors and windows, replace them if they do not close well and cover the walls with natural insulators such as cork or mineral wool, which protect from cold and noise.
7. Use colors well to improve your mood
Colors influence our mood and body temperature and you have to decide the color of each room according to its use.
For example, yellow encourages creativity and is very suitable for work areas, and not very suitable for nervous children's rooms. Salmon, soft blues, and greens are soothing, and reds are warm. From the article tips for painting walls we give some tips that come in handy. Also with the following infographic we can review the psychology of color and its sensations:
8. Choose natural textiles
Choose natural and breathable fabrics. The most suitable are cotton, wool, linen, vegetable fibers … and especially in the bedding of the little ones.
9. Find the perfect temperature
If possible, a home should be chosen that benefits from the sun in winter and is easy to protect from it in summer. It is a good way to save energy. It will also help us to achieve the perfect temperature for each room, avoiding putting the heating and air conditioning in each case.
Also, we seldom remember what is the comfort temperature in winter. So the following graph can give us an idea of the necessary comfort according to rooms.
Remember that home automation can help us in this regard, so the article on the advantages of smart homes can help us clarify concepts.
10. Avoid electrical pollution
It is invisible to our eyes, but it can be responsible for us taking a long time to fall asleep or getting up tired. Prevent cables from running over the head of the bed and unplug all electrical appliances in the room before going to sleep.
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