7 Tips to Keep Your Cool Without Air Conditioning

The heat of long summer days may have a significant impact on your attitude and your bank account. Here are 7 ideas that can help you beat the heat without spending a fortune on air conditioning.

1. The sunlight coming through the windows can have a dramatic impact on the temperature of your house. It’s estimated that 25% of the heat inside a home is because of open windows. Keep as much heat out as possible by lowering the blinds during the day.

2. Many houses have an alternative to running the air conditioner in order to stay cool. Try turning on a fan instead of the air conditioning. Doesn’t matter if it’s a ceiling fan or one that is on the floor, the breeze created by a fan will help to keep you cooler. Sometimes the heat is just too much for the fan alone to lower the temperature. Save money by running your air conditioning at 5 degrees higher than normal to supplement the efforts of a fan. Running both of these together is still cheaper than air conditioning at a lower temperature alone.

3. Insulation is just as important in the summer as it is in the winter. Insulation can lower your energy bills by keeping cool air inside your house in the summer, just as it keeps the warm air inside during the colder winter months. This can be an inexpensive option and over the long run could actually save you money.

4. Weather stripping is not glamorous but using it to prevent cool air from leaving your house when it’s hot outside can lower your energy bill. If you want a solution that is inexpensive and doesn’t cost you a lot of time to install then give weather stripping a try.

5. The sun may not be the only culprit in keeping you overheated while you are in your house. Ovens, dishwashers, and washers and dryers can also add unwanted heat to the inside of your home. Try to use these household appliances while the sun is down and your house is naturally cooler.

6. Have you ever gone outside and complained that it wasn’t just hot but humid? Humidity adds another level to an already uncomfortable amount of heat. To combat the humidity and make the temperature in your house cooler consider buying a dehumidifier. The ideal level of humidity for indoors is about 60%. Use that as a target level and purchase a humidifier that automatically turns off when a target level of humidity is reached. Make sure to recycle the water collected by the humidifier and feed it to your plants.

7. They say the world is a small place but you wouldn’t want to air condition it. Same thing goes for your house regardless of your square footage. Close doors of rooms that aren’t being used to keep the cool air where it is needed most.

Air conditioning is perhaps the best invention of over the last 125 years but it can also be expensive to continuously run your system in the summer months. Incorporate some of these ideas to start saving money while remaining cool. You just might extend the life of your air conditioning system too!