3 Easy Ways to Keep Your House Cool & Energy Efficient This Summer

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, temperatures will be hotter this summer than last, which is estimated to cause the “average U.S. household to use about 3% more electricity during June, July, and August [of this year] compared with the same months last year.”

A foundational action you can take that will help you save on energy costs year-round is conducting a home energy assessment or audit. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a home energy assessment “can help you determine how much energy your home uses, where your home is inefficient, and which problem areas and fixes you should prioritize to save energy and improve the comfort of your home.”

Properly using and maintaining your home’s air conditioning system or individual room-cooling units, if you have them, is another way to increase energy efficiency and reduce electrical costs this summer.

But besides doing a home energy assessment and maintaining the proper functioning of your home’s air conditioning system, there are other easy actions you can take to keep your house cool and energy efficient.

Use Fans to Encourage Airflow

Fans, whether ceiling, table, floor, or wall-mounted, don’t actually cool the temperature of the air within a room. Instead, they make you feel cooler by creating a wind chill effect. Because they are circulating air rather than changing air temperature, they use less electricity than an air conditioning unit—by some measures, they use about 1% of the electricity that an air conditioner does.

Ceiling fans are considered the most effective type of fan for circulating air in a room. In fact, using a ceiling fan will allow you to raise the thermostat setting on your air conditioner approximately 4°F without reducing your comfort. However, in order to safely and effectively use them, they should be mounted to ceilings that are over eight feet high. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, ceiling fans work best when the blades are 7 to 9 feet above the floor, 10 to 12 inches below the ceiling, and at least 18 inches from the walls. And in summertime, make sure you run your ceiling fan in a counterclockwise direction (when looking up) so as to circulate cool, rather than warm, air.

If you don’t have a ceiling fan, or if your ceiling is too low to safely and effectively install one, you can get the same windchill effect by using several fans working together to pull air through your home.

More tips about using ceiling and window fans to cool your home can be found here.

Lasko Oscillating Table Top Fan. Image from Amazon.

2. Seal up Cracks

Sealing cracks and openings is one of the most cost efficient was to save on heating and cooling your home. Seal up any cracks or openings by using caulk or weatherstripping. Caulk is generally used for cracks and openings between stationary house components such as around door and window frames, and weatherstripping is used to seal components that move, such as doors and operable windows.

3. Close & Cover Windows

Keeping windows shut and blinds or curtains closed during the heat of the day helps keep air inside of your home cooler. This is especially true if you draw curtains on the side of your home where the sun is shining. The sun’s rays not only heat the air inside your home by direct conduction and convection heat transfer, but also heat surfaces such as walls, flooring, and furniture causing them to hold and radiate heat.

The use of window coverings can help keep reduce unwanted solar heat gain in the inside of your house when it’s hot outside in summer, as well as reduce day and nighttime heat loss through windows when it’s cold in winter. The U.S. Department of Energy suggests looking for window covering products certified with the Attachments Energy Rating Council (AERC) Energy Improvement rating. AERC is an independent, public interest, non-profit organization that rates, labels and certifies the energy performance of window attachment products, including awnings, blinds, cellular shades, pleated shades, roller shades, roller shutters, roman shades, solar screens and storm windows.

In addition to using AERC rated coverings select curtains and drapes that are lined in white material facing the outside of the window, as white reflects the sun’s heat better than darker colors, or invest in heat blocking, anti-UV ray window film.

3 Easy Ways to Keep Your House Cool & Energy Efficient This Summer

Use Fans to Encourage Airflow

2. Seal up Cracks

3. Close & Cover Windows

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