Summer heat can often feel unbearable, but thankfully air conditioners and electric fans can help you out. Not only is it important to keep the cold air inside your home, however, it’s also important to avoid creating more heat for your air conditioner to cool.
As the temperature rises, so does your electricity bill. Minimizing sources of heat and removing heat build-up inside your house will help cool things down.
Here are some tips on how to keep your home cooler, to save you energy and keep you comfortable!
Insulate Your Home
The best way to keep your home cool is to keep the heat out. Close the drapes on windows facing the sun: east-facing windows in the morning and west-facing windows in the afternoon.
Weather-stripping and caulking around windows, doors and electrical outlets on outer walls will also stop cool air from escaping, and prevent hot air from getting in. Double check your wall insulation, consider installing storm doors, and keep the flue of your fireplace closed.
Ventilate Your Home
Get rid of unwanted heat through ventilation if the temperature of the outside air is 77 F or lower. Keep windows closed during the day, and open at night. Consider a window fan, which should be located on the downwind side of the house. Leave interior doors open to maintain a good, open air flow.
An alternative or supplement to air conditioning is to use ceiling fans. They can circulate cool air much more efficiently than air conditioning. Keep the thermostat set at 78 degrees F or higher if you’re using ceiling fans. A whole house fan– a large ventilating fan installed in your attic that expels hot air out of your house– can help circulate air throughout the entire home.
Minimize Appliance Heat
The most common sources of internal heat are appliances, electronic devices and lighting. Don’t place lamps, televisions or other appliances near the thermostat because it will make your thermostat read warmer than it really is, and your air conditioner will have to run longer. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, since they use a fifth of the energy and heat.
Avoid cooking during the hottest part of the day, and when you do cook, use your range fan to vent out the hot air. Cover pots and pans, which will prevent heat loss, boil and cook your food faster, and allow you to turn off your stove sooner. Make sure your refrigerator coils are clean, since the better your fridge exhausts heat, the less it will need to run.
Run large, heat-producing appliances at night, such as your dishwasher, washer and dryer.
Quick Tips:
- Don’t air condition unused rooms and stay in the areas that are naturally a bit cooler, such as the basement (hot air rises!)
- Cool yourself off with a wet towel or ice pack
- Running cold water over your wrists for 10 seconds on each hand will reduce your temperature for roughly an hour
- The body radiates heat from the hands, feet, face and ears, so cooling any of these will efficiently cool the body
- Put smooth white fabrics over anything in your house that’s fuzzy (corduroy, knits, wool). Keep light-colored, cool surfaces against your skins.
Most people keep their a/c temperature setting lower than it needs to be, so turn yours up by a couple degrees. With all the helpful heat minimizing tricks you now know, your air conditioner won’t have to work as hard!
What are your best tips for keeping a cool house?
