Interior kitchen designs

Greening your kitchen - Part 4

Energy efficient kitchen lighting

The most important thing to consider with eco interior kitchen designs is to create and use the maximum amount of natural light as possible. The natural position for the sink is beneath a window, alternatively make sure that at least an area of worktop is underneath your window. If you do not have a window in your kitchen, consider a skylight or solar tubes where possible. The aim is to flood your kitchen with as much natural light as you can. This extends using as many light colours on the large surfaces areas (walls, ceiling, floor) to reflect lots of light around the room – making the room appear larger and brighter. Think carefully about any window and door dressings. Heavy curtains and blinds will limit the amount of natural light. Realistically what is the minimal window dressing available which will still add a layer of insulation at night?

Visit the natural environment natural environment section of my website for more articles on natural light in your home, artificial lighting and energy efficiency for your home.

When specifying artificial lighting look for compact fluorescent bulbs which use a quarter of the energy and last up to ten times as long as conventional incandescent bulbs. Compact fluorescent bulbs are available in a variety of types; downlighters for under your wall units, recessed downlighters for your ceiling (a few types are now dimmable too), track lighting for above your wall units etc. Ideally use sensory lighting which switches on and off automatically through the detection of movement in your kitchen – this helps those who forget to turn lights off when they leave the room.

All of these efforts help reduce the amount of artificial light needed which reduces your electricity bill and more sustainably helps reduce your house’s carbon footprint. Reducing the amount of energy you use is key to responsible eco interior kitchen design practices.

Kitchen chores

Use non chemical / non toxic household cleaning products - go green in your kitchen

Cleaning
Traditional cleaning agents used in the kitchen are hazardous to your health through skin contact and inhalation. Choose non toxic, chemical free, solvent free soap, washing up liquid, floor cleaner, surface cleaner, oven cleaner, detergent, washing powder, washing conditioner. Alternatively there are a number of ‘old fashioned’ methods of household cleaning with everyday products like vinegar and bicarbonate of soda which are just as effective even with a little elbow grease.

Kitchen household waste
I cannot stress enough how important recycling is – as much as I cannot stress enough that most regions do not have adequate recycling facilities to accommodate all of your great efforts. At the forefront of eco interior kitchen design are recycling stations fitted directly into your kitchen – more so fully integrated into the space layout. Allowing you to separate waste; paper, plastic, glass, foil, aluminium cans, tins and compost. In my locality of South Dublin city, we have green bins where you place all recycling together to be sorted elsewhere, however when I lived on the south coast of England I had to separate all waste to be collected. Check with your local council or recycling service to advise further.

Compost all of your biodegradable kitchen waste Composting
Composting creates rich soil for planting. Cut down on the amount of waste you are responsible for in our landfill sites by composting any produce which is biodegradable such as; vegetable peelings, ground coffee, fruit peel, tea etc. Create a composing area in your garden and source one of the models that you fit into your kitchen to sort compost waste.

Part 5 of eco interior kitchen design continues on the next page.......

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