Spring weather is coming to a close and those summer temperatures are just around the corner. Along with the scorching heat can come painful utility bills as you kick on the a/c in your home. If you’re looking for ways to minimize that bill this summer here is a bit of helpful information.
Ceiling Fans
Heat rises in a room so the point of using a ceiling fan is to pull the cool air in your home up from the floor and get it filtering around your head. Running your ceiling fan while running your air conditioning can help your home feel cooler than it actually is.
Since the main job of the ceiling fan is to pull the cool air up it doesn’t do you much good to have it running all the time. To get the most out of using your fan is to have it running in the room you are currently in and then turning it off when you leave. If you keep the fans running all the time it could actually increase your utility bill.
Portable Box Fans
Box fans are intended for pushing air around. If it is cooler outside then they work wonderfully for pulling the cool air into your home, and pushing the hot air out. It can also help to pull cool air from one room to another. However, it does just move air around so if the only air available is hot, then that is what’s being circulated through the house.
Curtains
If you have a room with a lot of natural light coming in, this can heat up your home. Putting up some light curtains to help filter the light can greatly reduce how much your home heats up from the sun coming in through the windows.
Flooring
Carpets are wonderful for insulating but don’t do much for cooling a room down. Hard wood floors, tile and linoleum are more the route you’ll want to take if you are concerned about how high the temperatures are getting in your home.
Cooking
Nothing heats up a home in the summer like a hot oven or stovetop. If you’re trying to conserve cool air then try to minimize how long and how often you have these very warm kitchen appliances running.
Windows can be your best friend during the summer months. If you live in an area where it cools off significantly at night, turn off your AC and open the windows. You could even run a box fan in the window to pump more of that cool air into the house. Just make sure that as the temperatures start to rise in the morning you close all those windows to trap that nice cool air inside.
No one likes to feel like they are being baked inside their own home. Hopefully, with these tips you’ll be able to keep your home feeling nice and comfortable this summer.
