How to Cool Your Home for Less This Summer
Energy is not cheap. Moreover, power generation is another way of releasing more greenhouse gases and toxins into the atmosphere. With summer officially around the corner, checkout these home cooling ideas that will lower your utility bills, make less impact on the environment, and keep your home cool throughout the summer months. Cool your home for less with these simple tips.
How to Cool Your Home for Less This Summer
Image via: Inhabitat
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Start with the Heat-Producing Appliances
Start your energy-saving and home-cooling mission with all the appliances that produce heat. Setting a thermostat at a low temperature does not cool down a room quickly. It rather makes the A/C run longer. So, set it at a comparatively high temperature if the humidity is low enough. If you live in an area with high summer humidity, run the A/C fan on low. It will help the A/C to dehumidify.
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Shut down the fireplace damper because it sends cool air up the chimney. Turn off your furnace pilot light too. In fact, turn off any device that produces unnecessary heat. Put off the electronic gear when they are not in use and change the incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs because the former ones generate a great amount of heat.
Change Your Habits
Some changes in your working and day-to-day habits will be helpful in keeping the temperature low. Covering up your windows, especially the ones on the home’s west side, with curtains, shades, or blinds will keep the outside heat from getting inside. Keep them open during the nighttime. When you take shower with your bathroom window closed, the heat and humidity get inside the house. So, keep them open during the shower. If there is a privacy concern, open it after dressing up but keep the door closed until the heat vents outside.
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Do Laundry and Cooking Differently
Do your laundry late at night or early in the morning of a comparatively cooler day and dry the clothes by using clotheslines. On the other hand, do not use conventional method of cooking on stoves because it dumps heat in the house. Use microwave because it cooks the food directly.
Install Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans are a blessing in really hot areas. They are a great way to reduce your home’s temperature by one to two degrees, which is huge in a scorching summer day. Fans move your body heat away and provide evaporative cooling when you sweat. In addition to the ceiling fixtures, have one or two portable fans too that you can move around the house. Plus, do not forget to turn on the exhaust fans in the bathrooms and kitchen. They will circulate heat and humidity out of those places.
Image via: Houzz
These home cooling ideas are mainly passive cooling techniques, which do not require professional installations or costly retrofits. So, you can really try them to keep both your home and pockets cooler this summer.
