KEEPING YOUR COOL
There are a few easy things you can do to beat the heat before cranking the A/C
As I’m writing this, I’m sitting under a shady spot on my deck, there’s a nice breeze blowing through, and I’ve got my outdoor fridge stuffed full of water (and a few other choice beverages). I feel truly lucky to have access to an outdoor space like this — and I spend hours out here.
As an added bonus, since I’m outdoors so much, I typically keep my air conditioner set to low throughout the day, or have it off altogether since I’m not indoors to enjoy the effect. During a heat wave, the air conditioner becomes our best friend — but if you play things smart, you can cut down on your A/C use overall.
There are plenty of ways to reduce heat gain in your home without relying on the A/C.
Here are a few simple ones you can follow this summer:
KEEP EVERYTHING SHUT
The best thing you can do to keep your house cool is to prevent the heat from entering your home in the first place.
It’s a lot easier to keep a house cool than it is to cool down a home that’s too hot.
While it seems counterintuitive to keep your curtains shut on a bright sunny day, it can help cut down on solar heat gain in the house.
You could take this a step further by adding window treatments and blackout curtains specifically designed to stop the heat, but even most regular curtains and blinds can prevent some heat from getting in.
If you find you’ve got a lot of heat inside the house, once the temperature outside begins to dip in the evening, open your windows to start flushing out the heated, interior air, replacing it with cooler evening air.
Then, in the morning, shut all the windows and blinds, and keep that hot daytime heat out.
Essentially, when your home reaches the point where it’s cooler outdoors than in, throw the windows open to manually bring in some fresh, cooler air.
CLEAN AND CHECK YOUR CEILING FANS
How often do you give your ceiling fans a good clean and polish? Probably not often, but a clean fan is an efficient fan.
First, wipe it down and clean off any dust. Dust can interfere with the motor on the fan, and cause it to spin more slowly. Give your fan a polish using a furniture or metal polish (depending on the blade material). This can help reduce drag on the blades. This will let it move air more efficiently.
Does your fan wobble a little bit? Tighten those loose screws up so the fan doesn’t have to work as hard to keep things cool.
For the summertime, ensure the fan is set to spin counterclockwise to push air down so you can get that nice cooling effect. The effect only has a benefit if you’re in the room to feel it — so remember to switch it off when you leave the room.
HAVE A COOKOUT
As Canadians, we’re used to pulling out the barbecue 12 months of the year to grill out. But cooking three square meals using the stove or oven can add extra heat to our homes that make it feel unbearably hot indoors. When summer hits, we all have a desire to make more use of the barbecue, but this has an added benefit of reducing heat gain.
Keep indoor food prep focused on meals that won’t create excess heat: fresh summer salads, raw veggie plates, sandwiches, and the like.
If you must cook indoors, make sure you’re using your kitchen exhaust fan. It will help pull out that hot air, as well as prevent all that moisture you’ve created through cooking from harming the structure of your kitchen.
Beating the summertime heat doesn’t have to be a monumental task — and you don’t need to rely on your A/C to do it. Find creative ways to keep the heat out of your home — and make sure to drink plenty of ice water to keep hydrated. Stay cool, folks — it’s going to be one hot summer.
To find out more about Mike Holmes, visit makeitright.ca.