While most guides obsess over keeping your home warm and warming it up in winter, in some regions, the real challenge is keeping your home cool enough and the atmosphere indoors pleasant. In areas with continental climates, you might face both of these challenges, depending on the season. 

Still, just keeping your home cool is not that big of a challenge. You just buy a powerful AC unit, close all the windows, and set it up on full blast 24/7. Problem solved, right? Yeah… until your power bill arrives. The true trick lies in keeping your home cool while spending as little power as possible. Here are five tricks to help you do so. 

1. Upgrade Your Insulation

First, you want to add insulation to the walls and attic. Your walls are the largest surface of your home; if they’re not thick enough and thermally efficient enough, you’ll lose a lot of heat this way. Hot air also moves up, and most attics don’t have that great insulation. So, by adding just a bit here, you stand to make a world of difference.

One interesting thing that people do to make their attic more insulated is to use radiant barriers. 

Next, you want to identify and seal air leaks. It doesn’t matter how thick your walls are if they’re a crack or a hole next to the window where the air will come gushing through. You can feel the draft, inspect critical areas visually, or even conduct a smoke test (light a match and see where the smoke is going). Either way, the sooner you find and seal it, the better. 

You also want to insulate ductwork. You should never underestimate how much cold air leaves this way, especially if it wasn’t done properly the first time around.

2. Install a Programmable Thermostat

The first thing you want to do is set temperature schedules. You see, you want to keep the place cold, but you also want to do so with as little money as possible. So, while you could keep your AC on full blast 24/7, what you’re actually trying to achieve is energy-efficient cooling of your home.

The first thing you need is a programmable thermostat. You want the AC to run during the hottest periods of the day, but overnight and early in the morning might be unnecessary. In fact, if you’re at home during these periods, opening your windows and letting home “breathe” could help you get much closer to this goal than you would expect. 

There are so many smart features that you can use and even remote-control access that you’ll have full power to handle what’s going on in your home, even when you’re not there. Programmability and responsiveness, thanks to sensors, make this process fully autonomous. They make energy optimization during this process into a piece of cake. 

3. Work on your windows

Next, you want to replace your windows. Just think about it this way: windows how roughly 35% of your home’s heat and cold air leaves the place. So, if you’re trying to cool the place down, you need to know that the windows won’t let the heat in or the cold air out. The problem is that window replacement, although worth it, requires a significant one-time investment. 

Instead of fully replacing windows, you may want to try window inserts. Thermal window inserts can be just as efficient as switching from single- to double-glazing windows. They’re far cheaper, and they don’t require a specialist to install them. 

You may also want to work on your windows. Make sure that they’re sealed and try your best to weatherstrip them. A leak around your window can make you lose all the heat. You can seal it with several dollars’ worth of tape and save hundreds on heating.

Keep in mind that blinds and curtains also make a difference. After all, rays of sun hitting directly at your windows will make the place heat up quite efficiently. More often, they create an additional barrier between your home and the exterior. 

4. Improve Your Roof

The next thing you need to do is work on your roof. We’ve already mentioned that a lot of heat is leaving your home via a roof. We talked about this when stressing out the importance of insulating your attic. However, getting reflective roofing materials instead of standard shingles can make your home significantly cooler during summer.

Cool roof coatings are criminally underrated. Sure, they’re expensive, but they pay themselves off over the course of years. Moreover, the solution provides cumulative gains, which means that the sooner you get them, the more money you get to save in the long run.

You must also consider better roof ventilation. This way, the airflow in the attic is better, keeping your home cooler and prolonging the life of your roof. 

Indirectly, you could also install solar panels, which will make it cheaper to keep your home cool during summer. This way, you can rely more on your AC unit without breaking the bank. 

5. Enhance Air Circulation

Another thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that while not every room can have an AC unit, most of them can have ceiling fans. This is a small investment, but it can help keep the room cooler by improving airflow. Again, it doesn’t even have to be in every single room. 

You also want to rethink your cross-ventilation strategies. If air flows from several different directions, there is such a massive difference in the airflow in the room, and it can be achieved quite cost-effectively.. 

One of the most important things, but also one of the last things that will ever cross your mind, is to install attic fans.

Most importantly, you need to use exhaust fans in kitchens and bathrooms. Proper airflow is the most important factor here, and opening windows during summer heat will kill indoor temperatures. 

Wrap up

In the end, you need to understand that any money you invest in the energy efficiency of your home is bound to return. First, it will be returned with the money you save on your power bill. Second, it will increase the quality of life in your home, which is already a huge thing.