There’s no getting used to the summer heat. The high outside temperature and mugginess can make the hottest months unbearable, especially if you live in a humid climate. You should stay indoors to stay comfortable and healthy, but do you know how to cool your home properly?
What Is the Best Temperature to Keep Your House Cool?
You should target \78 degrees Fahrenheit for maximum comfort and minimal energy usage. If you’re used to cold weather, you may want to lower your thermostat to hit your desired indoor climate. However, doing so can drive up your energy bills.
What Is the Most Efficient Way to Cool a House?
Creating a passive solar cooling system is the most efficient way to cool your house. It can moderate your home’s indoor climate without electricity, so it’s effective and eco-friendly. Complementing passive solar cooling design with mechanical equipment to achieve desirable comfort levels involves less energy. Such a system includes:
- Strategically placed shading solutions to block the sun’s infrared radiation.
- Construction materials with high thermal mass to absorb heat from the warm air inside the house during the day.
- Open windows and vents to let in cool breezes inside your home and expel hot air to the outside using pressure differences.
Vegetation can also cool your home by making its immediate environment less hot during summer. A landscape full of native trees and shrubs and a green roof can make your property a few degrees cooler than nearby unvegetated areas. It can mitigate the urban heat island effect you may experience when living in the city or the suburbs.
Plants provide cooling by releasing water vapor into the air using their leaves and causing moisture on leaves and soil to evaporate.
How to Cool Your Home — What to Do
Incorporating passive solar cooling techniques into your home may involve various remodeling projects. A landscape upgrade and a green roof installation can be lengthy, disruptive and costly. There are less cumbersome ways to cool your home and avoid discomfort during summer’s most intense periods.
Have a Complete Thermal Enclosure System
Ensure your home has a tight building envelope, adequate insulation and high-performance windows. These three elements work together to reduce unwanted heat gain and prevent air leakage.
Arrange an energy audit to identify pockets of heat loss around your house. The audit can reveal the areas you should caulk and weather-strip to trap conditioned air and keep indoor temperatures from fluctuating dramatically.
Aside from uncharacteristically high energy bills, strange odors, allergic reactions, wall and ceiling stains and condensation are signs your insulation is shot. Replace damaged insulation to reduce heat transfer meaningfully.
As far as your garage goes, ensure it has a thick door made of material with excellent thermal insulation properties. Spraying polyurethane foam into it instead of placing styrofoam can help you attain an R-value of 20.4, keeping its temperature significantly cooler than the outside.
Regarding windows, your safest bets are double-pane units with durable framing, low-emissivity coatings, an argon gas fill and a warm-edge spacer. Read energy performance labels when comparing products to select the ones with the perfect combination of U-factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient values your climate zone requires for maximum energy efficiency in the summer.
Get Your HVAC Checked
Schedule an air conditioner inspection as early as possible. Set an appointment, even if you’ve religiously replaced filters and never had any problems with your equipment.
Undiscovered issues can lead to surprise breakdowns, causing your AC to quit on you when you need it most. Improperly maintained ACs are prone to poor drainage, electric control failure and refrigerant leakage.
Booking a credentialed technician can help you clean dirty coils, spot red flags accurately and address causes for concern early. This way, you can minimize repair costs and prolong your cooling unit’s service life.
Run Ceiling Fans
Pair your AC with fans to beat the heat without lowering your thermostat too much. You can create this effect with wind chill. The faster the wind blows, the colder the air feels on your exposed skin because the heat leaves your body more quickly. That’s why 48 degrees can feel like 28 degrees when the wind speed is 35 mph.
Use ceiling fans to cover as much space as possible. Undersized fans underperform, so buy units with proper dimensions. Determining the appropriate fan size for your home isn’t an exact science, so let your space’s square footage guide your decision.
You can get by with a single ceiling fan when installing it in the room’s middle, but setting up multiple units in one place increases air circulation. Put them over seating areas and space them evenly. Nailing the configuration ensures proper coverage and maximizes the wind chill effect.
Enjoy Summer — Minus the Heat
Knowing how to cool your home efficiently in the summer is crucial for reducing the cost of comfort and good health during the hottest days. These tips allow you to effectively combat the heat without remodeling your house.
