How To Cool Your Home Without Racking Up Your Utility Bills
Y’all. It is so hot, I just want to lay down on my bed, naked as a jaybird, and stay cool without racking up my utility bill in the process.
It is like 249 degrees outside, and I wouldn’t have to try very hard, at all, to keep my air conditioner running all day.
BUT, I can’t afford to pay the $795 a month it would take to keep this house in air conditioning. So, I have to get creative.
Ways To Cool Down Your House Without Running Your Air Conditioner All Day
1. Use the air conditioner a little bit. Let’s be real honest about this. If you are anything like me, you are going to HAVE to have the air conditioner on, at least PART of the day.
In the winter, we keep the air at about 63 degrees, but in the summer, we are financially forced to keep it between 72 and 75 degrees. That is still pretty hot for us, especially at night, but we can make it work.
So, run the air conditioner, we must — just to get the air to a manageable temperature.
2. Run a fan. It is MUCH cheaper to run a fan, than to keep your air conditioner running. We have a tower fan in each room, just to move around the air.
If you have ceiling fans, you’re lucky! Adjust them to go counterclockwise, and use the heck out of them.
You’d be surprised how much cooler it will feel, just by circulating some of that stagnant AF air.
3. Turn off your lights. You can lower the temperature in the room JUST by turning off the lights!
Is it REALLY necessary that you have that room light on? If it’s not, shut it off! Also, turn off any lights in rooms that you aren’t in.
4. Cover your windows. I used to have a friend whose mom would line the house windows with aluminum foil every year, to keep the sun out. I always thought she was a little weird — Sorry, Patrea — but, now I feel that tin foil with every inch of my soul!
You probably don’t want to go the entire tin foil route, but any covering on those windows will help. Blackout curtains, regular curtains, blinds, or even a blanket — hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.
5. Dehumidify that room. I used to work as a nurse in surgery. We would always monitor the humidity in the rooms. There were a bunch of reasons we did this, but ONE of those reasons was, the higher the humidity got, the hotter it was in the surgical room.
Get yourself a cheap dehumidifier, and suck some of that water out of the air. I promise you, it will feel oh-so-much cooler in your house by just knocking down the humidity just a little bit.
6. Shut your doors. I have a friend that thinks she has to leave the front door open at all times. She feels like it makes her seem more neighborly or something. I’m all for being neighborly, but SHUT THAT DOOR in the summer!
Not only should you shut your front AND back doors, but you should shut the doors to any rooms you aren’t using. Keep that cool air where you need it!
7. Don’t use your stove or oven. WHAT? How, you might be wondering, are you going to make meals. SIMPLE: Air Fryers and Instant Pots!
Basically, anything you could do on a stove or in an oven, you can do in one of these kitchen gadgets — but these cool kitchen accessories don’t heat up the kitchen. I use both my Air Fryer, and my Instant Pot, EVERY SINGLE DAY!
If you are looking for yummy recipes for either one, we got you! Here are super easy and good recipes for the Air Fryer, and here are meals you can cook up in a cinch in your Instant Pot.
8. Don’t do laundry or ironing during the day. This will just add heat to your house, which you don’t want to do, obviously.
Plan your laundry time and your ironing time for after the sun goes down — or if you are a day person (NOT ME!), you can do it BEFORE the sun comes up.
There you have it! 8 simple ways to cool your house down WITHOUT racking up that electricity bill. Stay cool out there this summer!
