Beat the Heat – Tips on Keeping Your Home Cool

Summer is here in full force. Hardly a day goes by without one reading about summer foods that are cooling to the body, summer activities, summer vacations, summer clothes, etc. Almost everyone today has an air-conditioner, or cooler and other such cooling gadgets in their home, these gadgets work full time during the swelteringly hot months while also contributing to one’s energy bills. The following are a few tips that shall definitely help in cooling down one’s house in summer. 

For those that live on the top floor of a building – the sun hitting the roof in the day makes it extremely hot for the inhabitants living on the floor below. A very cost-effective and simple option would be to whitewash your terrace/roof. The stark white deflects sun rays and looks good too. One can also go for other similar reflective coatings – solar reflectance and thermal emmittance being the two key material surface properties that determine a roofs temperature.

If one has space on the terrace or in the balcony – growing plants is a very good idea. Apart from cooling down the area and looking good, gardening is a very soothing and satisfying hobby, albeit hard work. There are very few that don’t love the smell of the Earth after the rains. Imagine sitting on your terrace or in your balcony, sipping a cup of tea on your deck chair/swing, combined with a faint whiff of flowers and wet earth from the just watered plants – BLISS!

However, in order to prevent one’s plants from getting burnt or dying out it is necessary to have a form of shade for them. One can cover an area with green nets (agro-nets) that are very easily available at the market or even at your local nursery where one buy’s the plants from. These agro-nets are not only eco-friendly but also keep out about 70% of the heat. 

The balcony too can be covered with this green netting. Though using bamboo shades is a good idea too. Again, this not an expensive option, and is easy to install as well. Bamboo shades require no maintenance, filter out sunlight and block direct heat.

One can cover windows with roll up bamboo shades or also use light flowing curtains. Going for lovely light pinks, blues, greens and oranges for windows not only makes the room cooler but looks very attractive too. Having a room with light colours on the walls automatically cools down the space.

Ideally, one should get air-conditioners and coolers serviced before the onset of summer. This ensures that they will work effectively. Also, then one does not have to worry about waiting for 2 odd days without any cooling because the product conked out as it was not serviced.