5 Commonly Overlooked Ways to Keep the Heat Out of Your Home in Summer

In the old days, people didn’t have air conditioning. Your only respite from the incendiary heat was to luxuriate in a cold pool or head to the closest park and sit under the shade of the trees. People also started to find other creative ways to beat the heat until the incredible invention of the modern air conditioning unit – as the old say goes: “necessity is the mother of all invention.” Yet, today many of the old methods of beating the heat have gone by the wayside as we mainly rely on our A/C units to stay cool. However, constantly blasting your air conditioning unit can be expensive and bad for the environment. Here are five commonly overlooked ways to keep the heat out of your home in the summer.

1. Paint your home’s roof. Just like snow can cool down your home by reflecting the warm rays of the sun, painting your roof white can do the same thing. If you live in a building with a flat roof, you might want to paint it white in order to reflect the UV rays. If you live in a home with a more slanted roof, you could install white slats or terra cotta tiles. The key is to deflect the direct heat coming down from the sun.
2. Install an awning. Much of the heat that comes into our homes in the summer is from direct sunlight, especially on the south and north sides of your home. Many older homes and buildings have awnings for this exact reason – to keep the heat out in the summertime. Having an awning will also protect your floors if they are hardwood – and furniture too. Mostly, though, you will benefit financially from not having to rely too much on your air conditioning unit.
3. Plant vines. It might take a while for the vines to climb over your walls to provide the most coverage, but when it does it can cut down the warmth created by direct sunlight by up to 60%. If you want to get the most coverage, it is recommended to use a vine species that has the fastest and widest climbing range. Also, you might want to choose a vine with deciduous leaves, so that in the winter you can maximize the heat from the sun.
4. Use the heating power of the core of the earth to cool your home. By installing a geothermal HVAC system, you can have sufficient cooling for your home in the summer and sufficient warming in the winter. Geothermal heating works by extracting the earth’s natural warmth, but in the summer it effectively turns the heat into cold air by a process of conversion. With a geothermal HVAC system, you could effectively be spending a fraction of what you used to spend on heating and cooling your home.
5. Don’t do things that make your home warmer. You can effectively raise the heat in your home by up to 30% in the summertime, simply by using your oven and keeping all of your electronics plugged in. However, by eating out or using the microwave, and staying diligent about making sure phones and computers are not plugged in, you can effectively keep the heat out of your home in the summer and save money too.