To cool your house in summer without the use of air conditioning it’s a good idea to plan ahead. There are many things we can do to cool the house without the use of energy using air conditioners or whole house fan systems and evaporative coolers, these all use energy and need constant maintenance as well as the annual changing of filters. If you want to keep Sick Building Syndrome at bay you need to make alternative steps.
The first thing you need to do is install a very effective roof ventilation system to your roof, this will be the greatest contributor to the natural cooling of your house and getting rid of all the nasties in the roofspace.
Then there are many other things that you can do to cool your house in summer starting with the most inexpensive – the little things that mean a lot and go a long way to cooling your house in summer.
Whether you are at home during the day or you are not – the first thing you need to do before the day starts to heat up – you need to close your windows and drapes, this will stop most of the sun’s heat from entering the home. By opening windows during the day will make your house hotter not cooler. Only open the windows in the evening when the air outside is cooler than the inside.
After you have closed all windows, drapes and blinds make sure you open all internal doors this will allow positive pressure air streams to circulate throughout the home, keeping the home much cooler.
The fact that you have an effective roof ventilation system allowing the ambient air to circulate the roofspace will equalize the inside air with the outside air.
This means your roofspace will not build up heat as it does when you do not have an effective roof ventilation system. So your roofspace will stay cooler 24/7.
If you are in your home during the working week, you will find that your home is dramatically cooler due to these three natural processes. When you come home from work you will find your house to be at least 10°C cooler.
Then you have ceiling fans these will help to move positive pressure streams throughout the home having a number of these can be very effective and quite inexpensive on energy costs. Pedestal fans will work very well for you when you have roof ventilation, by placing one fan up one end of the house and one up the opposite end opposing each other, when the outside air has cooled down open all the windows. This will give you excellent cross flow ventilation especially on still days, you won’t have any more sleepless summer nights.
The next things to consider when cooling your house without air conditioning.
Some of the following things you can do to keep your house cool will come at a cost, generally a cost that will last you decades without energy costs. Others will take awhile to gain the benefit however these positive additions will make a huge difference to your house for all seasons.
Blinds and shutters, shutters are good but canvas awning blinds are the best option as they are usually much cheaper and you will get 15-20 years out of them. The other advantage is shutters do not shade the brick work and awning blinds do. White or lighter colours are the best to reflect and not absorb any heat. Make sure they are at least 100mil wider than the window and they can be drawn down well below the window.
You have installed an effective roof ventilation system taken all the steps to keep your house cool without AC, what’s next.
Foliage – such as ground cover, trees and shrubs. By strategically placing deciduous trees in areas that will shade the walls that absorb significant solar rays where the sun lasts longest during the day will give you excellent shade coefficient for the summer heat, then in autumn the leaves will fall and you will have excellent warmth from the winter sun. Shading of wall and roof surfaces all helps in reducing summer heat gain, of course it takes time for trees to grow however when they do it will be worth it.
To help keep the ground surface temperature around your home down it’s a great idea to use ground cover plants instead of paths and pavers wherever you can and also planting small shrubs wherever possible. These will grow very quickly and the result will be a much cooler house.
The last thing that makes a real difference in the cooling of your house is a light coloured roof.
If you are building a new home definitely choose a light colour for your roof this will make a major difference. You can always repaint your roof with a lighter colour this will make a difference however this can be an expensive enterprise.
So there you have it a number of ways to keep your house cool without air conditioning. However the cheapest and most cost effective way to immediately keep your house cooler is a good effective roof ventilation system.
So where do you go for the best roof ventilation system for a one off cost with a lifetime guarantee you cannot go past UNIVERSAL TILE VENTILATORS
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