5 Easy ways to save money and keep your home cool this summer!

Everyone wants to keep their home cool during the summer months, but always dread the expensive electric bills that fallow. Here are five ways to help keep your home and your family cool this summer while saving some cold hard cash.

1. Ceiling Fans

If you’re looking for ways to beat the heat, a ceiling fan can be a great investment for your home. One ceiling fan can make a room feel 6 or 7 degrees cooler, and even the least energy efficient ceiling fan costs less than $10 a month to run, even if you keep it on for 12 hours a day! In the long run a good ceiling fan will pay for itself in energy savings. Good fans make it possible for you to raise your thermostat setting and save on A/C costs.

2. Use Your Air Conditioner Wisely

Do not put lamps, televisions or other heat-generating appliances next to you’re A/C’s thermostat. They will prevent the air conditioner from operating as efficiently as it should. If you have a window air conditioner, be sure to use it in concert with a fan that moves cool air throughout your home. When you are not at home it is smart to allow the house to be five degrees warmer than when you are home. This way the A/C will not have to work as hard when no one is home to enjoy the cool air. A programmable thermostat is a great addition to allow you’re A/C and your wallet a break!

>3. Adapt Your Home to the Environment

Do you live in a house with an attic that’s trapping enormous amounts of heat? If so, a whole-house fan could be well worth the investment of $150 to $400. Such fans pull air through open windows in your home and exhaust it through your attic and roof. Even if you don’t have a whole-house fan, properly placed roof vents and louvers also can help ventilate your attic and reduce heat levels in your home.

4. Proper Landscaping

Plant trees or shrubs so they shade your A/C unit
with out blocking the airflow. Steer clear of landscaping with rock, asphalt or cement on the south or west sides of the house. These objects will raise temperatures and radiate heat to the house after the sun sets. Three trees situated strategically on the south and west sides of your house can reduce your utility bill by $100 to $250 a year. Tree-shaded yards and neighborhoods have daytime air temperatures
that are several degrees cooler.

5. Cool Options outside Your Home

Maybe installing an A/C unit or central air in your home is just out of your budget; there are still many ways to stay cool. Go to a reduced-price matinee movie during the daytime in an ice-cold movie theater. Go to the library and read and while you’re there; check out all sorts of movies, books and music for free. Check your local newspaper for listings of inexpensive or free arts and crafts shows, music festivals, art exhibits, theatrical productions, concerts and home tours. Contact your local community center, your city or county pool and ask about free or low-cost programs and classes for yourself and your children. Finding inexpensive things to do in your community is a great way to stay out of the heat of your home during the day. By not returning until the evening hours you may just save a lot of cash!

Regardless of how you plan on dealing with the heat of the summer months, always keep in mind that the more steps you take to make your home more energy efficient the more cold hard cash you will have in your pocket!

Please “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cypresshomeswi

*Related Post: Creative Ways To Keep Cool*