Keeping your home cool in the summer without relying on the AC might seem like an oxymoron, but it is true, there are a number of ways to beat the heat without blasting the air conditioner. Did you know that a majority of the carbon emissions that are depleting the ozone layer and causing global warming are from over usage of our air conditioning units? Not to mention, many of our air conditioning units use refrigerants than can further contribute to the ever widening of our collective carbon footprint. Here is how to keep your home cool in the summer without using your AC.
One of the best ways to keep your home cool in the summer is by using fans. Depending on the size of your home, you only need a fan per room that gets the most use. If it is particularly hot, you can rely on your AC during the warmest parts of the day, but at night you probably only need a fan. If you want to increase the cooling power of the fan, just place a glass jug of ice water in front of it and you have a totally natural, DIY air conditioning system.
Another way to keep your home cool in the summer – without relying as much on the AC – is to keep your windows open at night and closed during the day. This can have an amazing effect, because you are basically trapping the cold air in at night and holding on to it during the day. You might have to close the blinds, especially on the sides of the house that get the most sunlight, but you can effectively keep your home as much as 15 degrees cooler than it is outside by using this method.
Next, make sure to turn off all sources of unnecessary heat. These can include overhead lights and even electronics. The combination of all your electronics being on at once can result in making your home multiple degrees warmer. So, make sure to turn off all electronics and lights that don’t need to be turned on. Not only can electronics and lights make your home warmer, they can also make your home much more inefficient. In the summertime, all those electronics are most likely resulting in higher than usual utility bills. Not only can electronics that are turned on sap energy, but also so can electronics that are turned off – so you might want to unplug gadgets, like computers and cell phones.
Lastly, you can always make your air conditioning system more energy efficient. By taking a few steps to make your air conditioning system more efficient, you can effectively reduce your need to rely on your A/C. You can call the professionals, like Fahrenheit Inc, or you take steps on your own, like change filters and make sure your outside compressor unit doesn’t have any debris trapped in the fan. At the end of the day, making your air conditioner more efficient will save you money as well, which is good for the wallet and the environment.