Enjoy a barbecue: When it gets cooler in the evenings, cooking in the backyard or at the local park can be a lot nicer than cooking in a sweaty kitchen. So get a group of friends together and enjoy a night in the great outdoors.
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Here are some tips to make your house feel like a home and not an oven on hot days, without sending your electricity bill or your greenhouse gas emissions through the roof.
And it's a two for one deal – lots of these tips will also help keep your house nice and warm in winter.
- On hot days, heat comes straight through unprotected windows. The answer is to shade your north and west facing windows. Awnings, deciduous trees and pergolas are particularly good options, because they give you shade in summer and sun in winter. If these aren't an option, you could consider putting a reflective film on the glass.
- Shut your windows and curtains on hot days, then open up the whole house when it gets cool in the evening. Thick block out curtains will make a bit of a difference to your summer cooling and a lot of a difference to your winter heating.
- Use a fan first - Instead of turning on the cooling as soon as it gets warm. Then if it gets too hot for the fan, try the fan and the airconditioner together, to help move air around the room. Fans are a good money saving tip — they cost virtually nothing to run, while your air conditioner can guzzle electricity.
- Set your thermostat to 26°C – Hot weather can make you want to set the cooling all the way down to 21°C. But cooling to just 26°C should keep your home comfortable – setting your thermostat just 1°C cooler can up your cooling bill by 15 per cent.
- Just cool the room you’re in and you’ll save lots of energy – Don’t try to cool too big an area.
- Get some insulation - It doesn’t just keep your house warm in winter, it also keeps it cool in summer, ceiling insulation can cut your energy use by 45 per cent.
- Hang out in the great outdoors - No, we don’t mean in the middle of the day. But when it gets cooler in the evenings, cooking in the backyard or at the local park can be a lot nicer than cooking in a sweaty kitchen.
- Get inventive – Some more creative ideas are: Using a spray bottle to spray water on your face, a wet face washer on the back of your neck or setting up a kiddy pool for your sweaty feet.
- Look after your airconditioner – Keep it shaded (e.g. with plants) and clean its filters regularly.
- Got money to burn? – If you’re thinking of buying an airconditioner, think about ceiling fans and good insulation first. Then make sure you get one with a high energy rating.
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