An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure when it comes to keeping your home cool. Do your part by cutting back on hot dryer cycles and switching off electronic devices when not needed.
Planting deciduous trees close to your house can help shield it from the summer sun, while running kitchen and bathroom fans helps remove warm air.
Creative Ways to Keep Your Home Comfortable in Summer
No matter the season, keeping your home comfortable can be accomplished even without air conditioning. Making simple changes to decor and habits can make a dramatic difference when it comes to staying cool.
1. Start Your Ceiling Fan
Switching on your ceiling fan at high speed in the counter-clockwise direction can help keep you cool and refreshed throughout the summer months. This setting helps draw heat out of your home while its high speed makes you feel as though a breeze is passing through it all at once. You can click here to learn more about these devices.
2. Make Windows More Efficient With Insulating Window Films and Blinds.
Windows can let in unwanted heat, so to reduce its effects and stay cooler without AC use by using insulating window films and blinds designed to block sunlight and reduce indoor heat levels. They’re the perfect way to stay comfortable without overusing AC systems.
3. Avoid cooking and running laundry during the daytime.
Using appliances that generate a lot of heat in the kitchen and doing laundry during this period could raise indoor temperatures by 10 degrees or more, which is not conducive to cooling or health.
Instead, consider cooking in the early morning while running your washer and dryer at night when outside temperatures are more temperate.
4. Plant trees and install awnings to block out the sun.
If your yard receives direct sunlight, installing awnings or shade sails that deflect solar rays can drastically increase energy efficiency for your home.
Similarly, planting deciduous trees near your home will offer shade in summer while still letting in light once their leaves fall off in winter. You can click the link: https://www.abc.net.au/deciduous-trees to learn more.
5. Mist curtains and drapes with cold water to keep your home cooler.
Spritzing fabric items with water helps create an evaporative cooling effect by drawing cool air in from below and disseminating it throughout your room as breeze passes over them. This can keep things at a comfortable temperature while creating an easy and natural cooling solution.
Innovative Cooling Solutions for a Refreshing Home
No matter if you are living without air conditioning, looking to lower energy bills, or looking to decrease your carbon footprint, there are plenty of creative cooling solutions out there which you could implement into your daily lifestyle – for instance cooking meals on the grill instead of in the oven, installing low cost DIY awnings, or planting vines to shade windows and doors.
Box fans placed at your basement steps can also help to create breezes which draw in cooler air through open windows on the other side. Furthermore, ceiling fans set to rotate counterclockwise can help push down cooler air for an added cooling effect.
If you have bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans, run them more often during the day to pull heat and humidity out of your home, before switching them off at night for cooler air from outside to circulate freely throughout your home.
Another strategy could be adding attic vents in order to move hot air down and keep things cooler inside your house.
One simple but effective method of increasing airflow throughout your home is closing off unused rooms, keeping cool air concentrated in main living spaces and making cooling down those most in use easier.
As temperatures begin to decrease at night, open windows and doors throughout your house to encourage cross-breezes for an effective natural cooling method. This will allow your house to cool off more gradually while creating healthier living conditions inside.
Install a smart thermostat to more effectively manage your heating and cooling systems. These thermostats enable you to set the temperature when everyone leaves for work during the day, as well as start cooling it before your arrival home so it will be ready to be enjoyed as soon as you step through the door. An air conditioning company can help you install one of these devices. They can also help you program it, if needed.
Going Green
Summer heat can be scorching, but cooling your home doesn’t always mean turning on the air conditioning unit.
Many homeowners are now searching for ways to live more sustainably – whether that is due to financial considerations or environmental considerations.
Large-scale ways of making your home more energy efficient include sealing leaky ducts and adding insulation, both of which can significantly decrease home cooling bills.
A great place to begin would be with an assessment by a professional; many utilities provide these as well as private services that can assess your home’s energy needs and offer solutions.
Best Methods of Cooling
Staying cool without air conditioning on hot summer days may seem impossible, but there are numerous strategies that will help keep your home comfortable while cutting energy usage.
Light is one of the primary sources of unwanted heat in any house. Rooms exposed directly to sunlight tend to become hotter more quickly than those shaded from direct sunlight, making it essential to close window blinds and draw curtains during peak times of the day when exposed directly to direct sunlight.
Switching over to energy efficient light bulbs also can help as they produce less heat than their incandescent counterparts.
Another efficient trick is placing a bowl of ice in front of a fan; this will circulate cooler air and act as an effective makeshift AC.
At its core, preventing excess heat from entering your house in the first place will save a great deal on energy bills. Window tinting, top-up insulation, shading windows with awnings or shutters as well as roof cavity ventilation systems like whirly birds or under-eave vents are all effective in keeping heat outside.