As the days of constant and irritating sweating are near, it’s time to set up your apartment for the upcoming hot days. The sweltering days of summer heat will certainly want you to get an air conditioning unit for your apartment that not only cools everything down but also keeps the energy bills at bay.
As we have energy-efficient air conditioners in the market that are known to save energy costs, our usage has increased substantially after the pandemic. So, it is important to find out additional ways that complement the usage of air conditioners. In this blog, we will help you find out some amazing ways to cool your apartment without causing a substantial surge in energy costs.
In summer, the apartments with an air conditioner system will see an increase in electricity bills. Moreover, 30% of the energy costs go towards cooling the premises.
In the pandemic, the USA residents spent $6 billion more on at-home energy consumption. This was between April 2020 to July 2020 compared to the normal times (without the pandemic).
One of the best ways to keep the apartment cool is to close the blinds. The majority of the heat that falls on the closed windows enters the apartment and turns into heat. Closing the blinds will restrict a majority percentage of this heat from entering the house and keep it relatively cool.
Among the blinds and shades, experts recommend installing solar shades. These are known to reflect the heat and still remain transparent. So, you can always see from the window and stop heat from penetrating the apartment. You can also try installing bamboo shades because bamboo has natural cooling properties. Using these with the residential air conditioning will cool the apartment quickly, and the shades will help sustain the set temperature for a longer duration.
An excellent support system for through-the-wall air conditioners is an evaporative cooler. One of the issues you might face with a wall air conditioner is inefficient sealing. This can lead to heat breaking in from the crevices along the unit. However, an evaporative cooler or a ventless air conditioner will provide the same cooling effect.
You can install this in the rooms that don’t have a window and don’t have an AC. You can switch on the AC in one room and open all the doors and use the evaporative coolers in rooms without an AC. This will help cool down the entire apartment and give you proper ventilation. The reason for opening the doors is that you need warm air to go out.
Getting an air conditioning unit is not the only thing you can do to keep the apartment cool in the summer. There are a few other things that you must try. One of them is changing the light bulbs. Even though every household today uses CFL or LED bulbs and lights, we still use incandescent bulbs in some places.
90% of the energy an incandescent bulb uses is released in the form of heat. So, the chandeliers we use mostly have these bulbs, which emit heat upon usage.
In addition to switching the bulbs to LED or CFL, try using smart switches and technology. This way, you can set the bulbs at optimum brightness for best usage and lowest heat emission.
Take inspiration from Mother Nature and bring in some plants into the apartment. Bamboo and snake plants, when in close proximity to light-facing windows, will protect the apartment from the sun’s heat rays. They will help in reducing the amount of heat coming inside the apartment.
When going for plants, choose the ones that have large leaves. As these leaves are easy to take care of, they also enhance the apartment’s appearance.
Most of the households with an air conditioning unit refrain from using the fans. It is true fans don’t emit cool air like an AC, but fans have an important function here. They help circulate the air, which helps in creating a cooling effect. So, when using fans with an AC, you can actually bring down the cost of using an air conditioner.
However, the trick here is that in summer, the fans must rotate in the counterclockwise direction. This will force push the hot air away and cool down the air. Use the fans with the AC as the latter will produce cool air, and the former will spread it throughout the room.
We have been talking about using an air conditioner to cool down the apartment throughout the article, but let’s focus on this method exclusively. Air conditioners are great for cooling down an apartment and sustaining the set temperature.
Yes, there is one issue with them, which is the increase in the electricity bill. But with smart usage and a great AC unit, you won’t have to worry about increasing bills. As you read the pointers above, you will see that AC must work in tandem with other ways to cool down the apartment in the summer.
This way, you won’t have to depend on an air conditioner in the summer. With Hamilton Air Conditioning, you can get customized solutions for your apartment as we install ACs that are suitable for an apartment of every size and configuration. We install health conscious air conditioning systems that won’t harm your health and surroundings.
An air conditioner has become a necessity rather than a luxury today. With the increasing amount of heat due to global warming and related factors, our cities are getting hotter. In addition to this, the urban jungle we are creating is also contributing to the increasing heat.
One of the ways to cool down the home is using an air conditioning system. But it must be used with other heat-reducing methods and strategies we have highlighted in the article above. For more smart ways to cool down the apartment with an AC, Contact Hamilton Air Conditioning as we provide you with bespoke solutions to keep your apartment cool and comfortable during the intense summers.