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Extreme Heat Warnings: 5 Tips to Keep Your House Cool

How do you deal with extreme heat warnings? When the temperatures are in the mid-to-high thirties and humidity is pretty high, too, the best thing to do is to stay inside. But what if your home isn’t all that cool either? How can you make your home more comfortable and safer when temperatures are so high? It is an especially important question for those with elderly parents living with them, who tend to be less able to control their body’s temperature.

Consider What Generates Heat

The last thing you want to do is add to the heat in your home and force your air conditioner to deal with it. Knowing what might generate heat and avoiding it can really help. Some of the major ways to prevent adding heat to your home in extreme heatwaves includes:

• Avoid the oven: Either use the oven at night or try to choose meals that don’t require the oven at all. If you have to bake, try using a toaster oven instead, as it generates less heat. Those who stick to weekly meal planning can benefit too because you might only be using your oven once per week!
• Close the blinds: Of course, the sun is a major source of heat. Leaving your blinds open brings in sunshine and a few degrees of heat with it. If you can close your blinds or even get thicker drapes to block more sun, then you can benefit. Those who are really invested might plant shrubs outside to block the sun more completely.
• Electronics: Many electronic devices, especially old ones, generate a lot of heat. Older televisions, powerful desktop computers and large printers are some of the worst offenders. Turning them off will help.
• Showers: Hot water can increase humidity, which allows more heat to linger in the air. Try a cool shower, it’ll be more comfortable anyway.

What are the Benefits of Good Ventilation?

Good ventilation reduces pollutants in the home while helping maintain moisture levels in rooms like the bathroom, laundry room, and kitchen. Since we can’t open the windows in the dead of winter, our homes require “mechanical” assistance to improve the quality without wasting energy. Good ventilation offers several benefits including:

• A continuous supply of fresh outdoor air
• More control over outdoor air
• Reduced indoor contaminant potency
• Reduced odours
• Better control of relative humidity and moisture throughout the year

A proper ventilation system also helps improve energy efficiency.

Use Fans

Fans can help circulate air, which can make your home more consistently cool and help the warmer air get to the air conditioner—which then scoops it up and sends it outside.

Consider Zone Cooling

Your HVAC technician can design your home with different zones, each of which can be set to different temperatures. You can then cool the section of the home you’re using, making it more affordable to cool that section to lower temperatures than trying to cool the home as a whole.

Control Humidity

Humidity can make the heat less tolerable. A home that is more humid will feel warmer because the moisture in the air retains heat. If your humidity is high, a dehumidifier will help.

Invest in a Better Air Conditioner

Of course, a more efficient or a higher quality air conditioner can provide you with cooler air.

Do you need help adjusting your HVAC system to keep your home cooler? You can reach out to Handy Bros Home Comfort to get the support you need. Contact us today.