Top 5 Ways to Keep Your Home Cool in Summer

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Keeping your home cool during the hot summer days is a chore. Unless you’re lucky enough to spend the entire summer on a beach getaway, you’ll probably be suffering through the hottest months of the year. Air conditioners are great but not always available, and lets not even talk about the skyrocketing electricity bills you’ll get. Instead of spending a ton of money on an AC, try out a few of these ideas to keep home cool during the summer.

There are tons of hacks and things you can avoid doing to keep your home cool during the hot summer. The best thing is that most of them don’t require any technology. It’s a matter of knowing how to manipulate the sunlight, use ventilation, and minimize your energy use. All of our ways are also affordable, greener, and will help you even enjoy your home during the summer.

5.) Use These Around-the-House Hacks

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Before you jump into cranking up the electric air coolers, there are a few simple hacks that you can do to make your home cooler.

Your house is like a greenhouse in the summer, so retaining cool air is extremely important. Here are some tips for doing that:

• Close your blinds. We know what you’re thinking. But what about the sun? While the sun is a staple part of the summer, it is the main culprit that turns your house into an oven. If you don’t live next to a bunch of trees that provide shade, controlling the amount of direct sunlight that hits your room is crucial. During the hottest parts of the day, usually between two o’clock and five o’clock in the afternoon, keep your blinds or curtains closed. This prevents direct sunlight from coming in through your windows and will help to retain cool air.
• Turn off the lights. This one may seem like a no brainer, but keeping unnecessary lights on in the home is the easiest way to generate heat. The heat from the artificial lighting plus the sun will turn your home into a sauna. A good rule of thumb is to use natural lighting whenever possible or to turn off the lights when you leave a room. If you’re still using incandescent lightbulbs, replace them with the energy-saving ones that produce less heat. If you forget to turn off lights, invest in smart plugs, which allow you to turn off individual lights from your smartphone.
• Put ice cubes in front of a fan. One of the last ideas to keep your home cool is to place a bowl of ice cubes in front of a fan. This is a quick fix for when you need to cool down immediately. The air blowing from the fan will be cooled by hitting the ice cubes. This is a fast method, so we don’t recommend doing it all day long.

If you try these few tips for around the house, it will make your home cooler. From there, your AC or fans won’t have to work as hard to cool down your home.

4.) Invest in a Tower Fan

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Household fans have evolved from the rickety circle fans you used to find in your grandmother’s house. Nowadays, you can find a sleek, powerful tower fan that will cool down a room in a matter of minutes.

Tower fans work to circulate the cool air in the room back and forth. Instead of blowing out cool air, it evenly distributes the cooler air. You can choose from several pre-programmed settings and oscillation patterns to cater it to your liking.

Some of the benefits of using a tower fan:

• Energy efficient. You’ll save a lot more money on electricity when you use a tower fan.
• Programmable settings. Tower fans have several adjustable settings like a timer, fan speeds, and night modes.
• Nice Design. The main difference between tower fans and the older ones is the sleek design.

During the hottest part of the day, we recommend closing your blinds that receive direct sunlight and turning on your tower fan. The cool air will circulate the room.

The more powerful the tower fan, the bigger the room you can put it in, like a living room.

3.) Get Proper Ventilation

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One hack to survive the heat during the summer is to make sure your home is properly ventilated.

Keeping a natural stream of air going through your house will keep the temperature down indoors. Natural breeze also keeps the house fresh, lowers the humidity, and airs out any bad odors in the home.

There are a few ways to keep the house properly ventilated. Depending on where your home is positioned, certain parts of the day are better than others.

A great rule of thumb is to know the direction of the wind outside so you know where to open the windows. Also, small rooms that tend to get stuffy like bathrooms should always have a window cracked, if possible.

Here are some tricks to keeping your home properly ventilated and cooled down:

• Keep windows open at night. In most cities, the weather cools off significantly, and a cool breeze comes through at night. This is where you can take advantage of the cooler air outside and open your windows. Sleeping in a hot, stuffy room is miserable, so leave your windows open when you can. The temperature in your room will be much lower, and you’ll be able to retain some of the cool air in the morning when the sun comes up. If you don’t live in a breezy climate, you can turn on your tower fan on a low setting for an extra light breeze while you’re asleep. The fan will help circulate some of the cooler air around your room.
• Open windows on opposite sides of the house. For this tip, you need to know about the direction of the breeze in your home. Air is always moving, so keeping certain windows allows some of that air to come through. Go on opposite sides of the house and open the windows. You should feel a refreshing breeze come through your home. Place something weighted in front of the windows and doors to rooms to keep them from slamming from the wind.

Try doing these tips every day during the hot summer.

2.) Try a Dehumidifier

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Trapped, humid air is one way to make your home uncomfortably hot during the summer. If you live in a humid climate, this will save you during the hot months. If you struggle with ventilating your home or live in a sticky environment, the next best thing will be investing in a small dehumidifier.

A small dehumidifier is not only essential for sucking the excess moisture out of the air. It is also great for “conditioning” the air it releases, often leaving a cooler, drier air behind. Using a dehumidifier during the hot months of the year will keep your home dry and comfortable, and it’ll also circulate colder air around your home.

How can a dehumidifier cool off your home? They work by pulling in the moist warm air and circulating it through cooled, metal coils. The coils then extract the water from the air and push out drier, cooler air into the atmosphere. A small dehumidifier can work with up to 2 liters of water a day, depending on the size. If you need a dehumidifier for more coverage or a bigger room, it may be a good idea to get a medium or large sized dehumidifier.

During the hot and humid summer months if you’re sitting around your home, you’ll notice that your sweat takes even longer to evaporate. Similarly, the moisture in the air will travel to the furniture, your clothes and settle on the surfaces in your home. A dehumidifier will help to get rid of the excess moisture, which will make you feel cooler, but it will also cool off the rest of the room or rooms its in.

We recommend getting a small dehumidifier like the Pro Breeze Electric Dehumidifier for your bathroom. For bigger areas like living rooms, it’s probably best to go with a bigger one like the Frigidaire Small Dehumidifier.

1.) Avoid Certain Things

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To keep your home cool, you may have to sacrifice or adjust some of the things you do around the house. It’s best to cut down on doing anything that generates a lot of heat.

Here are things to avoid:

• Cooking. How do you avoid cooking altogether during the summer? We’re not necessarily saying you shouldn’t cook, but you should try to not cook during the hottest part of the day. If you can save cooking for the early morning or after the sun goes down then it’ll keep your home much cooler. Instead of using the stove, you could eat fresh, cold foods for lunch. If you prefer hot meals, you can meal prep them the night before or in the early morning before the sun gets too hot. You can try tools like a toaster oven or slow cooker to reduce the heat. It may be an adjustment, but the little sacrifice can go a long way.
• Using the dryer. Another appliance that generates tons of heat is the dryer. If possible, avoid using a dryer during the summer months by hanging your clothes on a line. The hot air will dry your clothes quickly. You’ll also save energy by not using the dryer as much. Depending on where the dryer is placed in your home, the heat from the dryer could raise the temperature. If you can’t live without your dryer, do your laundry after the sun goes down.
• Using the oven. Just like the stove is a heat magnet, so is the oven. We suggest avoiding cooking in the oven during the day altogether. Instead, cook outside whenever you can. Cooking outside will keep the heat out and keep your home fresh. It could even be an excuse to throw a barbecue!

Some of these things may be completely impossible to avoid, but if you cut back on them, you’ll be able to reduce the heat in your home.

Use these tips to help stay cooler during the summer.