5 Tips for Keeping Your Home Cool in the Summer

One universal struggle that homeowners seem to have is how to keep the home cool in the summertime. This can be a huge task, especially if you live in an area where you regularly see triple-digit temperatures in the summer months. How do you keep your home cool without driving up your bills? A little bit of home maintenance may be able to help you out. While not all options will be totally free, you still might be able to save some money by choosing to go with portable AC, whole house fans, insulating your attic, keeping sunlight out, and checking the seals of your home.

Portable AC is just how it sounds: it’s an AC device that you can move around your home. It usually fits inside of a window and helps to keep the hot air out and the cool air in. The nice thing about portable AC is that there are not nearly as many filters that you need to change, and when the hot season is over you can just box it up and put it away until you need it next summer. It also shouldn’t drive your utility bills up ridiculously high.

Whole house fans are another inexpensive way to get the air moving in your home and hopefully keep it cool. Many fans are usually put up inside of an attic to help the air move around the home better. These fans don’t usually require a lot of home maintenance other than the occasional cleaning. You can have as many fans in your house as you want, and they should be cheaper than a traditional central air system.

If you are in the mood to do a little bit of home maintenance, insulating your attic is a great way to protect against the heat. Extra insulation will work to keep the cool air inside and the hot air outside. This can help the air inside your home remain cooler for longer without the assistance of fans and AC. It can also help keep the heat in during the colder months.

One basic thing to get in the habit of is to actually keep as much sunlight as possible out of your house. Sunlight that streams into the house only helps to heat it up. Keep the sunlight out by closing the shades and curtains if it’s going to be shining through a particular window. It’s a simple and inexpensive way to keep that extra heat out.

If your home seems to be hot no matter what you do, you might need to do some home maintenance on the seals of your home. Seals around the windows and doors of your home can actually leak cool air out or hot air in. If you are unsure about the seals of your home, you might want to have a professional look at them. Making sure the seals of your home are in proper shape is a great way to help make sure your home stays cool in the summer.

Staying cool in the summer is something that many homeowners struggle with. Use these 5 tips along with regular home maintenance to keep your home cool while hopefully not driving up your utility bill. Hopefully, it just makes the summer that much more pleasant.]]>