Keeping your home cool during the summer months in Southern California can be tricky but worth the time to review a few tips. Use these helpful tips to keep your home cool this summer without heavily relying on your AC so that you can prevent your household from becoming a heavy contributor to greenhouse gases.
Keep Your Blinds Shut
One of the easiest ways to keep your home cool on a hot summer day is simply to close your blinds. Blinds are a great way to reduce the amount of heat that is able to build up inside of your home, and the simplest way to lower the temperature by a few degrees immediately if you keep them shut at night into the daytime hours. Blinds located on the north and west side of your home are the most effective, but every window helps.
Consider Other Ways to Block the Heat
Blinds are not the only way that you can block heat from coming into your home, awnings and large plants on the exterior of your home can also help reduce the amount of sunlight that is able to come in. Plan for the long term and plant some deciduous trees so that they block the sunlight during the summer months but allow heat to drift in naturally during the winter months.
Fully Utilize Ceiling Fans
During the summer you need to set your fans to rotate in a counter-clockwise position otherwise they will just be pushing hot air around your home. This simple change allows air to be pushed down which will actually create a cooling effect. Then when the winter months come switch the direction clockwise so that cool air is once again pulled upwards.
Entertain in the Evenings
Take advantage of the cooler weather during the evening hours and choose to entertain outdoors so that you can enjoy the natural cool of the day and avoid the urge to turn up the AC to please your guests. Plus, grilling dinner outdoors is a great way to avoid the uncomfortable task of cooking dinner in a semi-warm kitchen.
Depending on what part of summer it is, you can also open up the windows in your home during the evening hours to help cooler air circulate throughout your home. If your home is properly sealed, you can trap the cooler air in the morning by closing up your home and keeping your home temperature moderately controlled throughout the day without using your AC.
Optimize Your Lightbulbs
If your home still feels warm, you might want to check your lightbulbs. Incandescent lightbulbs actually produce heat, so if you are using these instead of energy-saving bulbs it might be time to make the switch