With summertime fast approaching, many households are preparing to shut off their heaters and kick on the air conditioning. While the return of comfortably warm weather is widely regarded
as a cause for celebration, keeping up with home cooling costs can be quite the ordeal for families in
areas that receive brutally hot summers. Fortunately, keeping your residence nice and cool and saving
money don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Purchase Dependable Ceiling Fans
No household should lack dependable ceiling fans, particularly during the summer months. Installing a
high-quality ceiling fan in every area of your home can effectively maximize summertime comfort while
reducing cooling costs. For one thing, ceiling fans can effectively circulate the cool air produced by your
air conditioning, thereby taking some of the pressure off of the AC. Secondly, by adjusting the blades to
turn counterclockwise, you can imbue ceiling fans with the ability to produce downward-flowing cool
breezes without the aid of air conditioning.
Affordable, dependable ceiling fans also come in a variety of sizes of styles. For example, if you’re
looking for something with a fair amount of rustic charm, look into purchasing farmhouse ceiling fans.
Install Energy-Efficient Doors and Windows
Even if you keep your doors and windows firmly closed throughout the summer months, cool air is likely
escaping through them. This is particularly true in the case of doors and windows that weren’t designed
with energy efficiency in mind. So, if your doors and/or windows leave a lot to be desired in this
department, it may be time to make a switch.
As the name implies, energy-efficient doors and windows are designed to maximize energy-efficiency
and minimize unreasonable heating and cooling costs. Energy-efficient doors, for example, are created
from much thicker materials than standard-grade doors, ensuring that they’re well-equipped to seal in
cool air. Similarly, energy-efficient windows contain multiple panes, thereby making it very difficult for
cool air to escape.
Some homeowners are understandably given pause by the upfront costs associated with energy-
efficient doors and windows. While it’s true that they come with higher price tags than typical doors and
windows, the savings that they’ll facilitate should more than make up for the short-term financial sting.
Furthermore, summer isn’t the only time of year energy-efficient doors and windows stand to save you
money. During the chilly fall and winter months, they can effectively seal in warm air while minimizing
the amount of cool air that finds its way inside.
Seal Door and Window Drafts
If you’re not keen on the idea of investing in new doors and windows, you should take steps to increase
the efficiency of the ones you have. For example, if any of your current doors or windows have drafts
through which cool air is able to escape, sealing these drafts should be a priority. Fortunately, doing so
shouldn’t place a strain on your time or finances.
When dealing with drafty windows, applying some dependable weatherstripping can effectively
minimize escaped air. Additionally, when it comes to door drafts, installing a simple draft guard can
dramatically reduce the amount of warm air that finds its way into your home.
Install Heat-Blocking Window Dressings
Installing window dressings that are designed to block heat can be a boon to your efforts to maintain a
cool home throughout the summer months. Such window dressings can be particularly helpful to
households that lack energy-efficient windows. While leaving your curtains or blinds closed during the
sun’s peak hours can help keep out heat, the effects are likely to be minimal if the window dressings in
question weren’t designed with this task in mind.
Conversely, sun-blocking blinds, drapes and curtains are created from thick materials and designed to
minimize the amount of outdoor heat that finds its way inside. As an added bonus, the thickness of
these window dressings can help reduce the amount of outside noise that can be audibly heard in your
home. So, if you reside in a sprawling urban environment or area with a lot of traffic, such window
dressings are likely to prove extremely useful.
It’s easy to see why so many homeowners live in fear of out-of-control cooling costs – especially those
who reside in areas with swelteringly hot summers. Despite wages remaining stagnant in many areas,
energy costs are steadily on the rise, and many families truly feel the burn throughout the summer
months. Luckily, keeping cooling costs firmly in check – while maintaining a comfortably cool home – is
well within the abilities of any homeowner who’s willing to change things up and break their
overreliance on air conditioning.