Cooling your home is a significant cost that can absorb an undue amount of your summer budget. That being said, you should know that the cost of cooling a home is not set in stone. In fact, there are steps that you can take to improve the function of your AC unit and thus decrease your cooling costs. Some passive cooling techniques will help to dispel heat before it has a chance to heat up your home, and adding a house fan can help to decrease the load your AC unit has to contend with. 

Use Trees to Your Advantage

Trees are constantly involved in a process known as evapotranspiration, which releases water vapor into the air. This water vapor absorbs heat from the surrounding air, and this cooler air will then settle down onto your home. Thus, careful placement of trees can help to keep your home cooler than it otherwise would be. 

A second advantage of trees is that they create shade. If you position your trees so that their shade falls on your AC unit's condenser coils, they will help to boost the function of your AC unit. Your condenser coils expel heat from the coolant running through the system. The hotter the coils are, the harder your system has to work to cool the coolant down. Using shade to keep your coils cool will help your system to run more efficiently. 

Install a House Fan

A house fan is a large fan that you install in your ceiling so that it can extract hot air from your home and vent it out of your home through the attic. Once the outside air starts to cool, you can use a house fan to pull cool air in through your windows even as it pushes hot air out of your home. In this way, a house fan can cool your home in a matter of minutes and keep your home cool through the night while using a fraction of the heat that an AC unit would use. Thus, by running a house fan at night instead of your AC unit, you can save money on your cooling costs. 

Don't rely solely on your AC unit to cool your home. By strategically planting trees and using a house fan during the evening and nighttime hours, you can decrease your cooling costs while improving the comfort in your home. Click here for more information about air conditioning.

Share