Simple Makeovers to Keep Your Home Cool in Summer

As the temperature rises during the summer, so does the energy cost of cooling, especially if you are using air conditioners. Obviously, it is one of the best ways to keep your rooms cool, but there are several other options that might help you lower down your energy bills significantly. As air conditioners might give a temporary relief from the heat, but they’re not so good from the environmental point of view. This summer, you could try these environmentally friendly alternatives instead to lessen the use of air conditioner.

• Insulate your home: You could insulate your ceilings, walls and attic using Actis insulation along with weather-stripping. It properly seals the doors and windows to prevent the hot drafts and air leaks to keep your rooms cool for a long duration. It could bring down your energy usage by 45%. That's why insulating has now been a smart choice to avoid excessive energy bills in the future. 

• Use awnings: According to recent studies awnings could reduce the solar heat gain & save 26% on cooling energy in hot climates that might cut unnecessary use of A/C. 

• Paint your roof: White roofs reflect the UV rays instead of absorbing them. If your roof is covered with the heat-reflective surfaces, then your savings could be massive. 

• Get an attic fan: An expensive air conditioning offers instant cooling, but your house still holds a huge amount of heat. So, having good ventilation system could cut the need for A/C most of the time. 

• Avoid cooking hot food inside: Stoves could generate a lot of heat and you doesn't want them in your house during summer. It doesn't make any sense to run a stove inside and then turn on the A/C to remove that heat again. So, outside kitchens would be a good choice. 

• Set your ceiling fans to rotate counter-clockwise: Whether you are known of this fact or not, setting your ceiling fan counter-clockwise creates better airflow. It would make you feel cooler. 

• Ditch the incandescent lights: Incandescent bulbs waste about 90% of their energy in heat they emit, so switching to CFL's could make a difference by cooling your home and lowering your electric bill. 

• Turn on your bathroom fans or exhaust fan in the kitchen: Both of these could pull the hot air that rises due to cooking or steamy baths to make your rooms cooler. 

If you're really committed to making your home cool during summer and save more, you could make these couple of changes to keep it cooler for years to come.