Staying cool in your home does not have to mean watching your energy bills sky-rocket or cringing over your carbon footprint. Depending on the climate in your location, around 20-50% of your energy usage will go towards cooling your home, accounting for around 5-15% of your carbon footprint. If you’re looking for new and innovative ways to stay cool whilst cutting back on energy consumption, we’ve put together a list of ideas that you might find useful.
Personal cooling alternatives
Keeping our bodies cool is usually the main reason for wanting to cool a home, however it’s important to realise that keeping your body cool does not necessarily mean that you need to cool the whole area around you.
- Ceiling fans – Installing ceiling fans and ensuring that they are set to circulate in the right direction to keep the air cool in the area is an energy efficient option. It’s a well known fact that a good ceiling fan can help you feel up to five degrees cooler in warm weather.
- Take cool showers – Rather than turning on the air conditioning, it’s a good alternative to take a cool shower in the evening or late afternoon in order to cool your body down when it needs it the most.
- Peppermint essential oil– Peppermint essential oil can be very effective to cool the skin when sprayed directly, however it’s recommended that you avoid using it near the eyes.
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Indoor home cooling
- Check for drafts – To help seal the cold air in, you can apply weather-stripping, silicone caulking or foam sealant to doors and windows relatively cheaply. Insulating any electric switches or outlets, attic doors or crawl spaces is also effective.
- Solar attic fans – Installing a solar attic fan will help to cool the hot air in the space, making it easier to cool the home and resulting in your home energy bill being up to 10% cheaper per year.
- Increase insulation – Increasing the insulation in your attic, keeping your walls well insulated and installing double-glazed windows will all help to save energy by trapping more cold air indoors.
- Close curtains – Keeping curtains closed can help to deflect sunlight and keep the room cool.
- Use alternative cooking methods – Using the oven or stove in the afternoon or evening should be avoided as this can greatly increase the level of heat in the home.
Outdoor home cooling
- Plant trees – Planting native, deciduous trees will provide a shade for your home from the hot summer sun. In the winter, they will also serve as a solar heating option for your home when they shed their leaves.
- Solar screens – Using solar screens on the outside of windows can make a large difference, and are definitely worth investing in. They are also removable, meaning that you can take them down in winter.
Energy efficient air conditioning use
Although every effort can be made to cool yourself and your home without switching on the air conditioning system, there’ll be times where eliminating using the air conditioning may be impossible. Knowing how to use your air conditioning wisely is important to be energy efficient and get the most out of your efforts to keep your home cool.
- Exhaust other options – Before turning on the air conditioning it’s important to make sure that you’ve tried every other possible method to cool your home.
- Consider a small evaporative cooler – These use water blown through wet pads in order to cool the air.
- Maintain regularly – Annual, proper maintenance of your air conditioning unit is essential in order to be energy efficient.
- Replace old models – If your air conditioning system is over ten years old, investing in a newer, more energy efficient model can result in halving your energy consumption.
- Keep it clean – Ensuring that the area around the outside compressor unit is clean will increase air circulation and provide more efficient home cooling.
- Check air ducts – Climb into your crawl spaces to check for any drafts coming from the air ducts, as insulating them will decrease the loss of cool air and increase energy efficiency.
- Close doors – Closing the doors around your house will help to keep the cool air trapped inside each room, especially if you have a two-storey home or high or vaulted ceilings. However, you should also consider your thermostat placement in order to avoid inaccurate temperature gauging.
Have you got any great tips for home cooling that you’d like to share with us and other readers? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.