Ideas on how to keep your house cool during the heat of the summer
Although meteorological summer commenced on June 1, I still raised my coffee cup to the official start of summer with the equinox at 7:28 a.m this morning. However, if the rest of the country is anything like Massachusetts, summer started sometime after the last snow melted in March and has faded in and out between springtime rains and fall-like chills. So, in between those weeks where we've had to turn the heat back on, or turn it off and open the windows, we've also had several days where the humidity has ratcheted up the heat index and forced us to close all windows and crank up the A/C.
Let's face it, running an air conditioning system can be costly during the summer months. The good news is that there are many cost-saving ways to keep your home cool during the heat of the season and with less reliance on the air conditioning. Cost savings derived from easing back on A/C not only makes financial sense, but for those of you who are "Green", it also reduces your home's carbon footprint.
Stop Creating Heat in the House
Outdoor grilling and summer go hand in hand. Why heat up the house with a hot oven or stove, when you can reduce the amount of energy required to cool your home by keeping the indoor cooking to a minimum? If you find that you need to use the oven to bake or the stove to fry, use your range hood to vent hot air out in order to reduce the amount of energy to keep the kitchen cool.
Ever feel like you are sitting under a heat lamp when you read a book at night? Heat transferred from incandescent light bulbs makes you want to crank up the A/C even more. Fight the urge by installing energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which provide all the brightness, and almost no heat. For those nay-sayers, dimmable LED light bulbs also reduce indoor heat and energy costs.
Look around and see what else is creating heat in the house that causes the A/C to run more than it should. Look at where the thermostat is mounted. Is it causing the A/C to cycle on and off because it is monitoring the temperature of a room that has a lot of heat-generating appliances, or because you forgot to open the air-vents? Humidity from bathrooms and laundry rooms also increase the air temperature of the home. Unless you vent out this warm, moist air, your home will feel warmer and your cooling costs will likely increase.
Lastly, find ways to reduce the amount of heat being retained in the home by making sure that your attic has adequate insulation or that you have plenty of green grass or landscaping with plants around the areas of the home that receive all the exposure of the sun during the day. Talk to a licensed contractor or roofer about ways to reduce the amount of heat being created by your current roofing materials. Ask about using reflective materials, or take advantage of the sun exposure on the roof and add solar panels!
Have you ever sat in a black car during a warm summer day? How much cooler is a lighter color car? Doesn't it make sense, then that your home is like a car? Lighter house colors reflect light, darker ones absorb. Well insulated outside walls are also important. Most garages are not insulated as well as the rest of the home; make sure that the heat of the garage doesn't come into the house by ensuring that there is adequate insulation on the walls next to an attached garage.
Cut down on your reliance on the air conditioning system
There is nothing nicer than to walk into the comfort of an air-conditioned home. During allergy season, it's great to be able to keep the windows closed and reduce the amount of pollens and other allergens from coming into the house. Unless the temperature of your home is so hot that a constant stream of cold-air is required, consider doing the following to cut down on the amount of overtime that you are forcing your A/C systems from running:
Keep the heat out by keeping curtains and blinds closed. Use materials that reflect the heat away from the home. Be extra diligent in the morning by keeping the sun from heating up the west-facing side of your home and the east-facing side in the late afternoon and early evening.
Skylights in the home are great - but they also let in a lot of heat and harmful UV rays that fade furniture and rugs. If your skylights are not already tinted, many home improvement stores sell reflective film that can be applied to the glass.
Install ceiling fans in the rooms where the family hangs out and in bedrooms. Fans use much less energy than air conditioning systems and can actually reduce the temperature of a room by several degrees. The feel of the air from the fan also makes you feel cooler, so you don't need to cool the room down as much with air conditioning. For maximum efficiency, make sure that the fan blades are correctly positioned downward for the summertime (in the winter, turn the blades upward to circulate heated air around the room).
If you are in a large home, or have several floors, consider adding cooling "zones" so that you don't have to cool down areas of the home that are not being used or install programmable thermostats to cool the house down shortly before you come home and turn down the amount of cooling when you are asleep.
Are some parts of your home cooler than others?
Besides using ceiling fans to help move cooler air around the room, how efficient is your air conditioning system? Are you using window fans that work overtime and don't circulate the cool air enough? When was the last time that your A/C units were serviced and inspected? Clogged filters, water lines and low or leaking Freon levels all cause air conditioning systems to work less efficiently and add to your energy bill.
If your air conditioning system is running full time during the summer, even after implementing these other energy-saving ideas, you should look to the cause. Old equipment in poor condition or rooms that are cooler than others are signs that your cooling systems are not working properly or are insufficient for the amount of living area being cooled. Talk to a specialist and look at new technology. Replacing old cooling systems with new, energy-efficient systems rated for the proper capacity of the job at hand, are often eligible for regional, state or federal rebates or tax credits. Check with your local utility and have an energy audit of the home. Many times these reviews are free.
Comments(0)