Stay Cool this 4th
The 4th of July means endless fun. Barbequing, parades and fireworks are exciting, but it can be hard to stay comfortable in the hot summer air. Thankfully, you can retreat to your home, but you need to make sure your home stays cool too. Here are some ways you can cool down your home naturally to save money on energy costs.
Create Shade Around Your Home
There are many ways to create shade outside your home. If you have large, deciduous trees around your home, you’re already at an advantage. Evergreens can cause your home to be cold during the colder months. Trees that lose their leaves will allow for the sun’s radiant heating when it’s cold outside. However, you can extend the length of your roof, use pergolas, trellises, canopies and awnings to shade your home. If you have older windows, shading your windows can naturally decrease your home’s temperature by as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
Take Advantage of the Cool Air Outside
If you’re a morning person, opening up your windows when there is cool air outside can help to cool down your home a significant amount. Make sure everything is open inside your home too, which should include all cabinets and drawers as these can create pockets of warm air. During the day, keep everything closed so that the home will heat up slower.
Utilize Insulation
Insulation will do your home little good to cool it down if you can’t keep it that way. Insulation doesn’t just keep your home warm during the colder months. It works to prevent warm air from entering your home during the warmer months. Minnesota experiences both extreme warmth and cold, which means you need a higher R-value in insulation.
Find Other Ways to Keep Cool
Use of fans in your home helps to keep the air feeling cooler. However, it’s worth noting that fans don’t actually cool down the air so you don’t need them running in unoccupied rooms. The air will feel up to eight degrees cooler when you’re around one though. A cold towel hung over your neck will help you to feel significantly cooler as well because it works to cool down the blood entering your head. You can help to cool down the rest of your body using a similar method for cooling. Wetting a t-shirt or other clothing will cool you down too because of the effect of evaporative cooling.
Your home can be the best place to be as long as it’s comfortable. Along with the cooling methods mentioned above, you can also save money on your HVAC system by having it checked twice a year by an HVAC professional. Regular HVAC maintenance by an HVAC professional can help to avoid costly repairs and keep your HVAC system running at optimum levels to help save money on energy costs. For more cooling tips, contact us at 4Front Energy today. Call us at (952) 933-1868.
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