How to keep your home cool in a heat wave

How to keep your home cool in a heat wave

Feeling the heat before you’ve even walked out the door? Here are some handy tips to ensure your home stays cooler during the hot summer months.

1. Keep curtains and blinds closed

The simplest way to avoid the heat of the sun is to block it out. Close any curtains and blinds on the sun-exposed side of your home – and remember that this side may change throughout the day.

2. Avoid generating heat & humidity

When the mercury rises, it may be advisable to shelve those plans for an oven roast and opt for a cold salad instead. Similarly, cover pans on the stovetop and take shorter showers to avoid increasing your home’s humidity through the generation of steam.

3. Set trickle ventilators to the open position

With the sun’s heat dissipating at the end of the day, it’s natural to want to let the cooler night air into your home and even to leave windows open overnight.

In this case it is important to make sure security latches are set, or if you have trickle ventilators to simply verify these are in the open position – allowing cool air to flow in while maintaining the security of a closed window.

4. Use high efficiency lighting

The light bulbs in your home give off heat as well as light. Fluorescent and LED light bulbs generate significantly less heat than incandescent bulbs, so switching to these can make a real difference.

5. Open windows to create airflow

Opening windows on opposite sides of a room or your house can create a corridor for air to flow through, resulting in a refreshing breeze circulating in your home. Remember to consider the security requirements of any open windows to protect your property and possessions.

6. Investigate glazing solutions

If your home has air conditioning, insulating glass units such as double glazed or triple glazed window units can assist in keeping the air in your home cooler and minimise heat transfer from the outdoors entering via conduction. Solar control glass types are widely available if you are considering installing new windows.

7. Consider window film for your windows

Applying solar control film to your home’s windows can reduce the amount of the sun’s heat that penetrates through them and into your home. Talk to a glazing professional about whether window film could help keep your home cooler in summer.

Related topics

• Trickle vents and types of ventilation
• Trickle vents: ventilation for windows
• Find out how much you could save by upgrading windows with the GGF Energy Savings Calculator
• Read the free GGF brochure on window film
• Top 10 tips before you buy glazing products

GGF Member companies offer a range of solutions to keep your home cooler during the summer (and warmer during the winter). Find a local GGF Member company