25 cheap ways to keep your house cooler, Part 1
June 12th, 2006 | by mbhunter |With the summer temperatures already here off and on, we’re thinking that cool is the way to be. This article on MSN.com, 25 cheap ways to keep your house cooler, will help to tame the heat waves without a big cooling bill, and without meaning that you wilt this season.
Today we start a five-part series with some tips for doing the best you can with your air conditioning! (The descriptions from the article are bolded; my unbolded comments follow!)
- Open windows and use portable or ceiling fans instead of operating your air conditioner. Even mild air movement of 1 mph can make you feel three or four degrees cooler. Make sure your ceiling fan is turned for summer — you should feel the air blown downward. One thing to bear in mind, though, if you open the windows during the hottest part of the day, you’re bringing in the hottest air of the day as well, so it might actually be better to shut in the house and keep it shut in until the temperature of the air outside goes below the temperature of the air inside. This is especially true of the upper levels of multi-story houses.
- Use a fan with your window air conditioner to spread the cool air through your home. A helper fan supplements the one already in the air conditioner.
- Without blocking air flow, shade your outside compressor. Change air filters monthly during the summer. A dirty air filter makes the compressor work harder.
- Use a programmable thermostat with your air conditioner to adjust the setting at night or when no one is home. However, I have heard that it’s not economical to do this with a heat-pump unit.
- Don’t place lamps or TVs near your air conditioning thermostat. The heat from these appliances will cause the air conditioner to run longer. These appliances heat the air immediately surrounding them. Since the thermostat only knows about the temperature around it, it thinks that the room temperature is hotter than it actually is, and will kick on more often or faster.
- Consider installing a whole house fan or evaporative cooler (a “swamp cooler”) if appropriate for your climate. Attics trap fierce amounts of heat; a well-placed and -sized whole-house fan pulls air through open windows on the bottom floors and exhausts it through the roof, lowering the inside temperature and reducing energy use by as much as third compared with an air conditioner. Cost is between $150 and $400. An evaporative cooler pulls air over pads soaked in cold water and uses a quarter the energy of refrigerated air, but they’re useful only in low-humidity areas. Cost is $200 to $600.
- Install white window shades, drapes, or blinds to reflect heat away from the house. Close curtains on south- and west-facing windows during the day. Basic physics
If it’s not reflected, it’s either transmitted or absorbed, and if it’s absorbed, it’s absorbing the energy of the light and heating up.
- Install awnings on south-facing windows. Because of the angle of the sun, trees, a trellis, or a fence will best shade west-facing windows. Apply sun-control or other reflective films on south-facing windows. Some solar-friendly homes have overhangs on the room that serve a dual purpose — they shade the house during the hot summer months and allow the light to strike the house during the winter months!
That’s it for today! Tomorrow, some “cool” landscaping!
5 Responses to “25 cheap ways to keep your house cooler, Part 1”
By mario on Jun 12, 2006 | Reply
how much does it cost to run a home fan
By Financial Freedumb on Jun 14, 2006 | Reply
Great topic…it is getting HOT!
By fivecentnickel.com on Jun 14, 2006 | Reply
The ‘experts’ on radio shows like the nationally syndicated Money Pit argue that whole house attic fans are a bad idea if you live in a really hot area (where you are likely to run your AC pretty much all summer long). Rather, they say you should have ridge vents as well as continuous soffit vents (not just the little vents here and there on your roof, as well as smallish vents in your soffits) to take care of the attic heat. The only real concern with attic heat is the effect it can have on the life of your shingles — since heat rises, a hot attic won’t do much to heat up your house (unless you have living space up into what would otherwise be attic space, such as a bonus room).
The problem with attic fans is that they can draw conditioned air out of your living space, which is a double whammy — you’re paying to run the fan, and also increasing your AC bill at the same time.
By mbhunter on Jun 17, 2006 | Reply
Good point nickel — hadn’t run across that before.
By Home Improvement on Apr 23, 2008 | Reply
Great post! Great series too. I’ll definitely finish reading this series. Thanks for posting this. Very informative indeed.
–Stephen