8 Tips on keeping cool in your house this summer
Summer is a fantastic time of year - a time to enjoy beaches and longer days. Nothing feels quite as good as a cool drink on a hot summer's day. Whilst Australia may be experiencing a wetter summer than usual (thanks El Nino), there’s no denying the temperature outside is still hot. To help you keep your house cool in the muggy weather, Roborock has compiled a list of ten effective tips.
Tip #1: Close your blinds
As tempting as it is to keep your blinds open throughout the day, open blinds and curtains allow heat to enter your home and be trapped in your home. This raises the temperature of the air circulating your home, and creates stuffiness. To avoid allowing unnecessary heat to be trapped indoors, close the blinds and curtains in rooms that aren’t frequently visited throughout the day, or that can afford to be closed. This is a quick (and cost-effective) method to avoid increasing the temperature of the air in your home.
Tip #2: Leverage the outdoor breeze
With the modern working world spending more days working from home than in the office, closing the blinds in all rooms may not be applicable. If you have to keep the blinds open for natural light, be sure to open a window! This allows natural air flow, and on most days the breeze outside is cooler than the temperature. Open windows and doors in your house during the day and throughout the night. If you live in an area that is home to many mosquitos and flies, it’s worthwhile to invest in fly screens to keep the creepy crawlies from entering your home. Natural air flow creates a breeze in your home and reduces the temperature of the air circulating your vents. This is a quick and cost-effective method, but highly effective.
Tip #3: Use the freezer and fridge
Did you know that hot water bottles can also double up as cold water bottles? Although it’s not necessarily advertised on their packaging, you can fill the hot water bottle with water and put it in the freezer. After 10-15 minutes, take it out and you have your very own freeze pack! Or should we call it ‘freeze water bottle’? Wrap it in a tea towel and place it under your neck or under your knees, these are the areas of your body that will spread the cool temperature the quickest. You can do this when working from home or when watching some television at night. Another tip, more so orientated towards sleeping in the heat, is to lightly wet a tea towel and put it in the fridge. After 5-10 minutes take it out place the cool rag on your forehead or chest.
Tip #4: Turn off appliances
Appliances such as the microwave and television generate heat even when you’re not using them. When not in use, switch all desktop, kitchen, and living room appliances off from the powerboard instead of the off button. This prevents them from generating and spreading unnecessary heat in your home. Similarly, switch all lights off that aren’t needed to prevent heating the air circulating your home.
Tip #5: Invest in some low-maintenance plants
Not only do plants make your home look more homely by adding colour and life, they also act as natural air conditioners. How? They generate moisture through transpiration - reducing the temperature of the air. Have you ever walked through a rainforest and noticed it gets chilly? This is because of the plants!
The best plants to reduce the temperature of your home are peace lilies and rubber plants and they are the most effective in hot and humid conditions. However, it goes without saying, they’re only effective when they’re alive… don’t forget to water them!
Tip #6: Use cotton
Cotton is a cooler material because it allows air to flow through the thread more easily. In other words, it has greater breathability than other fabrics. When you’re home, make sure to wear cotton to keep your body temperature down. As well as wearing cotton, invest in lighter sheets and duvets. In fact, you can skip the doona and simply have a light-weight sheet. This will ensure your body temperature doesn’t rise while you sleep, and allow the heat generated from your body to pass through the fabric - creating better air circulation.
Tip #7: Ice and fans
A lesser known tip is to put a bucket or bowl of ice in front of your fan, specifically in front of the direction the fan is facing. In doing so, the fan will circulate cooler air around your room… like a DIY air conditioner!
Tip #8: Adjust ceiling fans
Sometimes it feels as though ceiling fans simply push hot around the house, rather than cooling it down. You’re not imagining it - this may actually be the case! Ceiling fans that aren’t rotating in a counterclockwise fashion are known for doing this.
Make sure your ceiling fans are rotating counterclockwise to push straight air down and to create a cooling effect in your home. During winter, it’s important they’re set to rotate clockwise so they pull cooler air upwards, but many people don’t realise this is counter intuitive during summer. A counterclockwise ceiling fan is well complemented by an open window. With a window open in the same room, this is highly effective in pushing warm air down and out the window - allowing cooler air to enter the room. Whilst you’re re-adjusting the ceiling fans, you may also want to wipe any dust off the top of them to enhance the air quality in your home! Check out our summer cleaning guide here.
There you have it! These are Roborock’s top 8 tips on how to keep cool in your house this summer… happy cooling & cleaning!