Keeping your house cool during summertime is a must, or else you’ll have a horrible time indoors. That’s why investing in an AC is the best way to keep temperatures within the house cool and comfortable. However, running the air conditioner isn’t cheap because this electronics consumes a lot of power. Consequently, this increases your energy bills, especially if you run the AC around the clock. In addition, using an AC unit isn’t an environmentally friendly approach to keeping your house cool in the summer.
If you’re having reservations about the AC unit for any of these reasons, you should consider other alternative methods of maintaining cool temperatures within your home. This way, you and your loved ones won’t be exposed to sweltering heat waves.
Without further ado, read on as this guide looks at creative ways to maintain comfortable and cool temperatures without needing an air conditioning system.
- Install Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans are the best alternative to air conditioning systems for making your home more comfortable during the hot summertime. This helps cool down your home by rotating counterclockwise to move hot air downward. While not as effective as an AC unit, rotating ceiling fans create a cross breeze that pushes hot air outside and cooler air into your home.
But in order for ceiling fans to be effective, they need to be well-positioned. Ideally, you should install a ceiling fan in the coolest part of your home. This could be near a window in a shaded area or the coolest room and then angle this ceiling fan slightly to face the hotter areas in your home. Doing this will help push the hotter air out and suck cooler air in from the outside.
You should also install an equal number of ceiling fans in hotter parts of your home while facing toward the windows. This will help these fans push the hot air out and allow in cool air.
For optimal effectiveness, ceiling fan blades must be cleaned and polished regularly. You shouldn’t overlook this because ceiling fans accumulate dust over time which, if not properly dealt with, could reduce their speed. Increased dust accumulation can also cause respiratory issues for you or your loved ones.
Another helpful tip for cooling your home is to turn your ceiling fan counterclockwise, as this does a much better job of making the air inside your home cooler. During the hotter days, you also shouldn’t feel shy to increase the speed of the ceiling fans to increase their effectiveness at cooling down your home.
- Close The Blinds or Curtains
During a heatwave, you want minimal sunlight penetrating your home as this further increases the temperature inside. Because of this, you need to close the blinds or curtains at all times to prevent any sun rays from entering your home. This simple trick is very effective, considering that windows are estimated to let in around 25% of a home’s total summer heat.
Blackout curtains ensure your home remains cool because they don’t let in any sunlight. With that said, white plastic curtains are equally effective as they reflect away sunlight.
With curtains boasting any of these qualities, you’ll be able to prevent the heatwave outside from finding its way into your home.
- Add Shade Outside Your Home
Adding outdoor shade is a simple yet effective way to keep your home cool during the summer. This is an approach you should implement if you love having greenery around your home and are looking for a long-term solution to cool your home during the summer.
Some of the trees that do an excellent job providing the much-needed shade to your home include:
- Crape Myrtle
- Autumn Blaze Maple
- Red Maple
- River Birch
- Sawtooth Oak
- Tulip Tree
- Leyland Cypress
With shade trees and awnings close to your home, you can prevent excessive sunlight from penetrating your home through the windows. As a result, the rooms in your home can feel cooler by up to 65% compared to if there wasn’t any shade around.
However, it’s best to plant these trees strategically and away from your home. This is essential because there’s the possibility that the roots and limbs might end up finding their way into your home’s septic system or foundation. In addition, the leaves might fall onto the roof and eventually find their way to the gutters. This might cause clogging, which creates an unwanted mess and requires you to hire a professional to unblock the system.
- Close Your Windows
During the hottest time of the day, the air outside is warmer than inside your home. Therefore, you don’t want this air to enter your home; otherwise, there’ll be a noticeable temperature increase, making your stay uncomfortable. Knowing this, you must always close the windows to your home during the day. This might sound unconvincing, especially if you love fresh air finding its way into your home. However, this simple technique works wonders for lowering the temperature of the rooms inside your home.
- Avoid Using Heat-Emitting Appliances
You don’t want to aggravate the situation in your home by using heat-emitting appliances such as the stove. After all, this only worsens the situation during the summer when temperatures outside are already soaring to extremely high levels.
With this in mind, you should avoid using your stove during the summer as this increases the temperature inside your kitchen. It would be better instead to restrict your cooking only to the early mornings when temperatures haven’t yet risen that much. Alternatively, buy a grill that you can use to cook outside the house to prevent further warming up your house. You can also avoid eating meals that don’t always require heating, such as lettuce wraps and salad.
Besides the stove, other heat-producing kitchen appliances to avoid using during the summer are the dryer, washer, dishwasher, and oven. And if you must use them, do so during the least hot part of the day. When using these heat-emitting appliances, close the kitchen doors to prevent the heat from spreading to other areas of your house.
- Disconnect Any Electronic You Aren’t Using
Electronics that are connected to power usually produce heat regardless of whether they’re being used or not. As a result, these appliances further increase the temperatures inside your home. Knowing this, you should unplug all electronic gadgets from power, for instance, fans or device chargers.
- Open The Windows During The Night
If the temperatures in your area tend to drop at night, you should take advantage of this to help cool your home. This method is ideal because the summer evenings are generally breezy, and opening the windows to your home promotes greater circulation of air inside your home. With the cool air circulating through your home the entire night, all rooms in the house will be cool in the morning.
When it’s morning, don’t forget to quickly close the windows to prevent the hot air from outside from entering your home and the cool air from escaping.
- Dehumidify Your Home
High humidity levels make it hard to sweat. This is the last thing you want, especially during the high temperatures felt during the summer, because sweat evaporation is essential in regulating your body temperature. As a result, your body feels a greater impact of the summer heat, which is why you need to invest in a dehumidifier, primarily if you reside in a region characterized by high humidity.
Using a humidifier, you should aim to lower your home’s humidity levels below the 40% to 60% range that’s typically seen in most homes. With the reduced humidity, your body will start sweating a lot more. As a result, this creates a cooling effect and makes you feel much more comfortable in your home.
Besides using a humidifier, there are other ways to lower your home’s humidity levels, and these include:
- Avoid drying wet clothes inside your home, as this considerably increases humidity.
- Turn on the fans that help to evaporate moisture.
- Open the windows of your home when it’s cool outside.
- Install exhaust fans in rooms with higher humidity, such as bathrooms, laundry rooms, and kitchens.
By implementing any of these techniques, you’ll manage to dehumidify your home better and experience a noticeable improvement in comfort levels.
- Insulate The Walls And Attic
Insulating your home doesn’t only work to keep your home warmer during winter but it also keeps it cool during the summer. With this in mind, you must take your time to insulate the walls, attic, ceiling, and underfloor of your home. Doing this helps regulate how much finds its way into your home through any of these parts of your home.
Takeaway
While the summer is without a doubt missed for many wonderful things, the extreme heat is one thing that ruins an almost perfect season. Because of this, you’re forced to use an air conditioner as a homeowner to maintain cool temperatures. Luckily, there are also creative and natural ways to keep your home without needing to use an air conditioner. If you were short of ideas, worry no more as this insightful guide outlined everything you need to know.
