With summertime just around the corner, there are numerous things parents will need to consider. How will children spend their weekdays in the absence of school? What sorts of family activities should your crew undertake this summer? How can we avoid paying an arm and a leg in cooling costs each month? Fortunately, when it comes to the third question, there are copious cost-effective answers. Although many of us are tempted to simply run our air conditioning around the clock, this approach to home cooling is not only bad for the environment – it can also prove disastrous for your personal finances. Parents looking to save big on summertime cooling costs should consider the following measures and how to maintain a cool home for less.

Install Modern Ceiling Fans 

Modern ceiling fans can prove tremendously beneficial to your home cooling efforts. Installing ceiling fans in key areas of your home can effectively circulate cool air from your central AC, thereby relieving your air conditioner of some of its burden. As an added bonus, ceiling fans can function as convenient cooling tools in their own right. By setting the fan blades to rotate counterclockwise, you’ll enable your ceiling fans to blow air downward and create a refreshing cool breeze. This is a great way to maintain a cool home in the room you are in.

Outfit Your Windows with Blackout Curtains 

Blackout curtains can be an absolute boon to families who live in areas that receive excessive amounts of sunlight. While we all appreciate a little sun, its light and UV rays can prove downright overpowering at certain times of day. In addition to making parts of your home uncomfortably bright, powerful sunlight stands to increase indoor temps, thus facilitating the need for air conditioners to work harder. To help minimize the amount of sunlight that finds its way into your home, outfit key windows without blackout curtains. As the name suggests, these convenient window dressings are designed to minimize brightness – and in so doing insulate the areas in which they’re placed. A fair amount of cool air can escape your home through your windows, regardless of whether or not they’re open, and the thick materials many blackout curtains are composed of can make it harder for inside air to leave and outside air to enter.    

Open Your Windows at Night 

If the outdoor temps in your area cool down during the overnight hours, why not take advantage of the naturally cool air? Simply shut off your AC, open some windows and allow your ceiling fans to circulate cool air throughout your home. A comfortably cool home can provide highly conducive to a good night’s sleep during the summer months, so if extreme heat has been known to impact your quality of slumber, put this simple pointer to good use.  

Install Multi-Paned Windows 

As previously stated, indoor air has a tendency to escape through windows – often as a result of standard-grade windows being ill-equipped to prevent air from exiting. This is where multi-paned windows are likely to come in handy. Also known as “energy-efficient windows,” these convenient alternatives to single-paned windows truly live up to their name. Their multiple panes make it considerably harder for indoor air to make its way out of your home, which can prove beneficial to both your summertime cooling costs and wintertime heating costs.   

Avoid Daytime Oven Use 

As anyone who does a fair amount of cooking can attest, oven use stands to increase the temperature of both your kitchen and various areas in its vicinity. That being the case, if you can avoid using your oven during daylight hours, take care to do so throughout the summer months. While this may prove somewhat inconvenient to dedicated at-home chefs, it will also afford you the opportunity to step up your game on the grill.

Despite being many families’ undisputed favorite season, summertime can place a financial strain on parents – particularly when it comes to home cooling costs. The hotter the weather in your part of the country, the more you’re liable to spend on cooling. While there’s no denying that air conditioning is an essential summertime tool in many areas, it needn’t be your only solution to high indoor temps. Parents interested in how to maintain a cool home without spending a bundle are sure to appreciate the pointers discussed above.  

What do you think?

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

No Comments Yet.