Save Money and Cool Your Home the Eco-Friendly Way

Using ceiling or portable fans are one of the cheapest, most practical ways to cool a home on less energy. They can make rooms feel up to seven degrees cooler, and cost $10 or less to run each month, even if you leave them on for 12 hours a day.

If your home is not insulated properly, you could be spending a lot more money cooling it than you should. Air conditioners have to work extra hard when there is not proper insulation around ducts, or when cool air escapes through cracks in the seals of doors and windows.  An energy audit with a professional can help to determine where your home is leaking, as well as identify other ways you can save energy. 

Sometimes it’s not just about keeping the heat outside, but eliminating the heat generated inside. All appliances, lighting and electronic devices generate heat while running, so be sure to turn them off when you don’t need them. Try switching your incandescents to compact fluorescents, which use 1/5 the energy and heat. 

Become familiar with which sides of the house the sun hits at certain times of the day. Before you go to sleep at night, close the blinds or curtains of the windows that the sun will hit in the morning. Use light-colored window treatments that will reflect light and heat away from your house. Energy-efficient double-glazed windows can help in some cases, but you can also apply heat-reflecting film to the interior surface of windows which can reflect up to 70% of solar heat.

Don’t forget the area surrounding your house! Trees and other plants are nature’s own way of keeping us cool. Planting shade-providing plants around windows and air-conditioning units (without blocking airflow) can reduce utility bills by over $100 per year.