In an ideal world, it’d be 75-80 degrees and sunny but not humid, every single day over the summer. You’d be comfortable both inside and outside of your home, doing nearly any activity! Unfortunately, summer in the Midwest and North East is much like the weather the rest of the year, volatile. This means it could be 65 and windy one day and 95 and humid the next. While no one may be able to control this while outside, your home is the one place you can be sure to be comfortable. If you’re looking to beat the heat and make sure your home stays at the perfect temperature for you and your family this summer, try some of these tips to check to make sure you’re making the most out of your air conditioning.
Adjust at Night
Regardless of how hot it might be during the day, it always cools down some degrees at night. You can take advantage of this and conserve some energy by turning the thermostat up at night and keeping it lower during the day.
Close your Blinds & Curtains
The sun is one of the biggest factors in how well your home holds in cool air. You’ll notice this especially if you don’t have a lot of trees or foliage surrounding your home. Even if you don’t have trees to help protect your home from the heat of the sun, you can do so as well by making sure your blinds or curtains stay closed during the sunniest times of the day. It can also be important to note that if you’re looking to replace your windows soon and don’t have a lot of shade falling on your house; replacing your windows with ones with Low-E Argon gas in between the glass can make for great improvements on the energy efficiency of your home.
Check the Windows and Doors
Just as drafts can let cool air into your home in the winter, they can let warm air into your home in the summer as well. These can be one of the biggest costs in terms of your home's energy efficiency but thankfully there’s a fairly simple way to check for drafts. First, if you’re feeling or noticing them regularly, that’s a pretty obvious sign that you might have some issues. If you’re not however and you’d still like to check, try the candle trick! Simply hold a candle around the edges of your windows for a little bit and if you see the flame shift or blow, you might have a draft! It can be good to check this when your home’s relatively quiet as lot’s of activity or movement can obviously throw things off!
Skip Your Stove and Opt for the Grill
While it’s likely you want to opt for the grill in the summer anyway, doing so can let you avoid unnecessarily heating up your kitchen and home with the oven or stovetop, making your AC work harder to keep your home cool.
Change Your A/C Filter Regularly
Not only is this a good rule of thumb to keep allergens out of your home, but it also helps to circulate the cool air better and in turn, will actually make it so that your air conditioning doesn’t have to work quite so hard.
Keep Your Doors Closed
Making sure doors and windows are closed when the A/C is working — and open when it isn’t to promote a nice breeze — can have an effect on the coolness of your home and how much energy you use.
Hopefully implementing some of these tips will keep your home a bit more comfortable for your family, and if all else fails, kiddie pools don’t have to just be for the kids!