This is a complete guide to cooling your home without air conditioning.
So if you want to:
- Cool your home without AC
- Use your air conditioner less over summer
- Save money on electricity bills
Then you will love the tips in this guide.
Let’s get to it.
1. Keep The Heat Out Early
Preparing for hot weather early is important. Allowing your house to heat up means it will become harder to cool down. Sounds simple right?
Make sure windows and doors are properly sealed. Warm air can easily pass through cracks around doors and window frames. Hardware stores offer weather strips that help to seal gaps.
It’s also important you CLOSE all doors and windows early. Once the heat enters the home, it is much more difficult to cool down.
Hint: If you do use air conditioning, the morning is a great time to use it. It means the system does not have to work hard to reduce the air temperature in the home. Read more about this in our tips to keep your summer air conditioning bills down guide.
2. Blinds, Blinds, Blinds
Blinds are great for privacy but did you know they also help keep your house cool?
Getting into a habit of closing your blinds in the morning over summer is SUPER important. A lot of people make the mistake of leaving blinds down. This can increase temperatures in the home. Just go over and touch your blinds if they are down over summer. Guaranteed they will be hot to touch.
Bottom Line: Windows are like magnifying glasses. The bigger the window, the bigger the heat. So make sure you close blinds to help keep your home cool.
3. Stop The Leaks
Sealing drafts in your home is important. Draft proofing in most homes usually revolves around the following areas: window cavities, hinge doors, wall vents and skirting boards.
So if you have no insulation, the hot air will leak from your roof down into your home.
Hint: If you want to check how good your insulation is – touch your roof on a hot day. If you feel a lot of heat then you may need more ceiling insulation.
4. Insulation
Insulation is very important for improving comfort in your home. Most modern homes have in-wall and in-roof insulation. Without these, your home is at the mercy of the Australian sun.
According to the Victoria Government, “a fully insulated home compared to a non-insulated home can reduce the cost of heating and cooling a home by around 40 to 50%”. Read the full article here.
So insulation can lead to massive energy savings and lower energy bills.
Long story short.
Insulation = good.
5. Change Your Lightbulbs
It’s one that people don’t often think about.
Heat from halogen down lights can significantly increase a room’s temperature. LED lights are less power hungry and therefore produce less heat. LED lights also help to reduce energy bills. So it’s a win-win.
6. Get Landscaping
Like blinds on the inside, plants can help reduce the heat from windows and walls.
Planting deciduous trees (trees that drop leaves in winter) near your home can cast shade on exposed areas.
Hint: Use larger deciduous trees to protect north-facing windows and low deciduous shrubs for east and west facing windows and walls.
7. Turn The Fans On
It is well known that fans cost less to run when compared to air conditioners. You can use pedestal and desk fans to cool areas in your home. These types of fans are flexible given they can be moved anywhere around the house.
Fans can be run for long periods of time without impacting your energy bill too much. So keep the humble fan in mind next time you reach for the AC remote.
Tip: Fans that rotate counter-clockwise help create a cooling effect in summer. You should do the opposite in summer.
Still thinking about air conditioning for your home?