10 ideas for keeping cool without AC
- Worry about the person, not the house. The house doesn’t care if it’s hot. The goal is to keep the people cool. Iced drinks and a wet towel on your neck can make a big difference.
- Keep your blinds closed. You don’t want your home to become a greenhouse. So keep the sun from beating through your windows by closing the blinds, especially on south and east facing windows.
- Be smart about your doors. Open the doors to rooms in your house at night, and close them during the day.
- Let the night air in. Open windows at night when it’s cool. Close them in the morning to keep the cool in.
- Fire up the grill. The oven makes your house hot! Take the cooking outside.
- Toss your incandescent lights. You’ve switched to the new light bulbs by now, right? If not, it’s time. They put out a LOT less heat.
- Set your ceiling fans to rotate counter-clockwise. You want the fan on high and the air blowing down in the summer, to create a breeze. In the winter, you want to set them to go clockwise and slow.
- Turn on your bathroom fans and your exhaust fan in the kitchen. Let the pull the heat up and out.
- Swap your sheets. Freshening your bedding makes you feel cooler at night.
- Make some long-term improvements. Put insulating film on your windows, install an awning for shade, or plant trees or vines in front of your sun facing windows, for example.
