Although you probably don’t spend much time in your garage, you should still treat it as another room in your home. That means if you want to live a greener lifestyle, you should invest the time to make your garage a little more energy efficient. Follow these tips to get started:

Make These Simple Switches

Switch to LED lights.

Whether you have one light in your garage or ten, you should take out your bulbs and switch them to energy efficient LED lights. These lights use between 25-80% less energy than standard bulbs, and last up to 25 times as long! Although LED lights are a bit pricier than other models, they pay for themselves over time.

Stop These Bad Habits

Organize your items.

How does your neatness impact the energy efficiency of your home? When you have a disorganized, cluttered garage, it attracts pests, which then move into your garage and feed off of the insulation you have installed. Keep your items organized to make sure you won’t be feeding any pests.

Unplug the extra refrigerator.

Do you have an extra refrigerator in your garage just in case you ever need more storage space? If you rarely ever use this appliance, or can do without it, then unplug it! Refrigerators use more energy than any other appliance, so having a spare one is not an energy efficient choice.

Tackle These Projects

Insulate the garage door.

Most garage doors are made out of aluminum, which transfers hot and cold air from outside into your garage. To insulate your garage door and reduce your energy usage, you have two options: either replace the door you have with an insulated model, or buy an insulation kit. Either way, you won’t have to break the bank, since the more expensive option (buying a new garage door) will only cost you a few hundred dollars.

Seal around the door.

Air can easily escape through the tiny cracks and holes around the door connecting your house to your garage. When air escapes, your heating and cooling system will have to consume more energy to maintain a comfortable temperature in your home. To avoid this, apply weatherstripping around the perimeter of your door. Luckily, this project just requires a quick trip to the hardware store and a little time on a weekend afternoon—no need to call a professional!

Seal cracks in the floor.

You may think a crack in your concrete garage floor is no big deal, but did you know cold air and gases can actually make their way through those cracks into your garage? Even worse, when water gets into these cracks, it can freeze and expand during the winter, eventually causing the entire concrete floor to shift. When this happens, your garage door won’t be able to close properly, so you will lose even more energy. Fix this problem before it gets any worse by buying a concrete sealer for just a few dollars and applying it in the cracks in your garage floor.

Now that you know how to make your garage more energy efficient, every part of your home can be green—not just the living space!