Creating a carbon-neutral home won’t happen overnight unless you build a new house. Doing it on a budget is a challenge. But you can take steps, as your budget allows, to work your way toward having a net-zero home, which refers to a home or building that, over the course of a year, produces as much renewable energy as it consumes from the grid.

Creating a carbon-neutral home starts with assessing your energy consumption, improving efficiency, using renewable energy, minimizing embodied carbon, and offsetting unavoidable emissions. The goal is to eliminate net carbon emissions from energy use. Your home also has an embodied carbon footprint, which accounts the emissions associated with gathering raw materials used in your home, shipping them, and building the house. Today, the vast majority manufactured products carry large amounts of embodied carbon that, if your home can go further than net zero to drawdown CO2, you can begin to offset the initial environmental deficit created when it was built.

Start with an energy audit, known as a home energy assessment (HEA). The HEA provides homeowners with specifics on how much electricity or natural gas a house uses, and by linking the energy use back to the source, account for how much CO2 is produced annually to heat, cool, cook and other energy uses in the home. Home energy monitors are available at hardware stores and through the internet for a couple of hundred dollars, but the best way to get started is by asking your energy provider for assistance. They may provide you with an assessment for free or at a discounted price.

The environmental impact of your home isn’t limited to carbon emissions. Proper water management cuts back on the use of hot water and utility bills that go, literally, down the drain. Products may include stacked plumbing, low-flow water fixtures and toilets, drain water recovery, and hot water recirculation.

Setting a flexible home improvement budget for what you want to spend on products for your home is always helpful. Here’s how this works: 

Consider what energy-efficient and carbon-neutral products you want and what items are available and in your price range. Finding items on sale is ideal. Tip: floor model appliances and lighting fixtures sell for much less than boxed items.

• Heating units may include furnaces, geothermal heat pumps, air source heat pumps, boilers, and ventilation fans. These usually range from $2,500 to $25,000, depending on the type, location, and whether you pay for professional installation.
• Appliances include washers and dryers, dishwashers, refrigeration systems, electric cooking items, ovens, and air cleaners. For example, a single appliance may be as low as $100 for a microwave. It can shoot up to $7,500 for a high-end refrigerator or home water filtration system. Some places offer appliance packages, which can save you money.
• Water heaters include solar-powered, gas, electric, and tankless systems. Depending on size and type, expect to spend $500 to $5,000 on one of these.

Check the prices of energy-efficient appliances to determine what best fits your budget. Buy now, if you can, as prices of appliances made overseas are likely going up due to tariffs. 

Compare prices to your budget and buy accordingly. Use price trackers like CamelCamelCamel to track prices of products on Amazon, which provides pricing trends insights to help you plan the best time to buy.

A well-maintained house helps itself save energy. Well-sealed windows and doors increase energy efficiency. The less energy used, the more “carbon neutral” your home is.

Here’s what to do:

• Inspect for cracks in the foundation and around door and window frames. When warmer air leaks out of the house, heating bills will be higher, and more energy will be wasted.
• DIYers can fix leaky windows with caulk, foam sealant, plastic window sheets, weather stripping, and fiberglass insulation. Insulation creates resistance to overactive heat flow, lowering heating and cooling expenses, which offset the cost of insulation while also reducing the carbon footprint in the house.  
• If you need assistance with weatherization, many counties, states, and even the federal government offer programs to help with those costs.

One of the best investments for a big impact is replacing windows and glass patio doors in older homes with double or triple-pane windows. Energy-efficient windows and glass doors provide clear or filtered lighting, reducing condensation and heat loss. Expect to pay between $100 for a single window and $5,000+ for glass sliding doors.

Energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, or LED, uses as much as 90% less energy and last longer than older incandescent bulbs. The U.S. Department of Energy says the average household saves about $225 annually in energy costs using LED lighting.

Furnaces and air conditioners produce most of your home’s carbon emissions. Natural gas is a typical heating, cooling, and cooking source for many homes, but electric heating and cooling can cut your home’s emissions by 45%. Electric resistance heating allows all incoming electric energy to be converted to heat. Most electricity is produced from gas, coal, or oil generators, converting about 30% of the fuel’s energy into electricity.

Electric heating is more expensive than gas — something to consider when replacing a furnace. If your home is fully electric, there aren’t many options, except heat pumps. These can cut electricity use by about 50%, compared with electric-resistance heating. Heat pumps also provide hot water through electricity.

Heat pumps cost between $4,000 and $8,000 for an average-sized house, while gas furnaces run between $3,000 and $7,500.

Solar panels bring sunshine’s energy from the roof or other elements of your house to power your life, reducing the need for electricity from the grid. Solar roofing with mounted photovoltaic energy (PV) would enable you to generate (some or most of) your home’s power.

Solar power varies by the type of semiconductor material and PV cells used in the solar panels. Commercial PV panels deliver up to 70% of the cost of electricity otherwise bought from the grid.

When the sun is shining, PV systems can be configured in some states to sell energy back to the electric grid. Consider the cost of batteries, which photovoltaic systems can charge to save energy storage for use at night and on cloudy days.

Unfortunately, solar panels do come at a price. On average, a solar panel system will cost about $50,000. Check with your local power suppliers, though; they may provide incentives. Additionally, the Federal Residential Clean Energy Credit can put some of that money back into your wallet.

Little Steps Can Make a Big Difference

No matter your budget, developing a completely carbon-neutral home takes time and money, as appliances and major components (like HVAC and plumbing) are replaced as needed. But even small changes here and there go a long way toward reducing your home’s carbon footprint.

Getting to net zero starts with the mindset and dedication to protect planet Earth. Taking baby steps, as your budget allows, can keep you moving toward your goal.

About the Author

Teri Silver is a journalist and outdoor enthusiast. She and her husband live on 5 acres with a vast lawn, three gardens, a farm, a pond, many trees, and a lot of yard work! The best parts of the year are summer and fall, when home-grown veggies are on the dinner table.