If you hail from a part of the country that’s prone to extreme heat, you’re probably all too familiar with excessive cooling costs. Depending on how hot it gets in your neck of the woods, keeping your home nice and cool throughout the entire summer is liable to bleed you dry financially. 

Despite this, many homeowners simply see no way around running their air conditioning 24/7. While AC will always have an important role to fulfill in any modern-day home-cooling apparatus, it needn’t be the only player on the field. Homeowners looking for budget-conscious ways to beat the heat while keeping their finances intact are urged to consider the following measures.

No modern home should be without ceiling fans – particularly homes with budget-conscious owners. Even if you have central air conditioning, your household can benefit from dependable ceiling fans in a number of ways. First off, these fans can work in tandem with your AC and help circulate the cool air it produces throughout your entire home. Secondly, reliable ceiling fans can sometimes take the place of air conditioning entirely. By setting the blades to spin counterclockwise, you can ensure that your fans blow air downward and create a cooling breeze. Additionally, if summertime temps in your area undergo a noticeable drop once the sun goes down, you may even be able to turn off your AC overnight, open your windows and allow your ceiling fans to take over. 

Ceiling fan can also double as convenient light fixtures. Anyone looking to light up – and cool down – a kitchen, living room or bedroom should look into purchasing ceiling fans with lights.   

Unbeknownst to many homeowners, we lose quite a bit of air through our windows. Regardless of whether your windows are opened or closed, indoor air is liable to escape, while outdoor air is liable to find its way inside. This is particularly true in homes that are equipped with standard single-paned windows. In addition to making your home cooler during the wintertime and hotter during the summertime, these windows stand to increase your heating and cooling bills. So, if you’re tired of watching your money fly out the proverbial window, it may be time to do something about your literal windows. 

This is where multi-paned windows can really come in handy. Also known as “energy-efficient windows,” these game-changing windows contain multiple panes, making it much harder for inside air to leave and outside air to enter. Over time, multi-paned windows stand to save you a princely sum in heating and cooling costs. It’s worth noting, however, that energy-efficient windows typically cost a little more than standard-grade windows upfront. While this may present you with a short-term financial setback, the long-term savings these windows will facilitate should more than make up for that.     

Attic insulation is among the most effective ways to help maintain comfortable temperatures in your home. As is the case with windows, a fair amount of air is lost through attics and roofs. By properly insulating these areas, you can help minimize how much interior air is able to escape and how much outside air is able to enter your home. So, if your attic insulation could use an upgrade, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a seasoned pro. Since proper insulation can decrease your heating and cooling costs by 10 to 50%, every budget-conscious homeowner should make insulation a priority. 

In addition to insulating your attic, take care to have your roof thoroughly inspected on an annual basis. If holes are able to form in your home’s roofing, you can expect indoor temps – as well as your heating and cooling costs – to be adversely impacted. 

 

It’s easy to see why so many families look forward to summer’s arrival all year long. The abundance of clear skies, sunshine and comfortable temps make summer the perfect season for outdoor recreation, family togetherness and good old-fashioned R&R. However, as anyone who’s had to pay home cooling costs can confirm, summertime isn’t without its downsides. To help ensure that unreasonable cooling bills don’t put a damper on your household’s summer fun, heed the pointers discussed above.