Make Your Home Cooler

Summer is around the corner, but it's been quite hot already. We had issues with heat in our house and found ways to make our home cooler. We got advise from architects and contractors. The most important thing to do is to make sure that the heat trapped in your ceiling has a way to exit. 

Here are some tips I learned the past few years:

• 
  Cross ventilation - the key to having a cooler home is to make sure that the hot air is not trapped inside your house. Air should be able to flow across the house. 
• Put vents on the eaves of the roof - an architect told us it is better to have bigger vents on the eaves of your roof. Even better if the whole stretch is a vent. The roof usually has a gap from the wall and that's how the hot air escapes out. 
• Use high quality insulation for the roof - insulation is sandwiched between the roof and the trusses, so it's best done while your roof is being built. The only way to add insulation is to physically remove the roof again. So don't scrimp on roofing. 
• Attach indoor vents to your ceiling - I see this more often in offices, but it can also be done for houses. If your home doesn't have windows across each other to allow cross ventilation, installing vents on your ceiling will help release hot air. 
• Whirlwind - most commonly used in factories, but there are available smaller whirlwind for houses. We went for this since it's cheaper and less obtrusive than other solutions. We opted for the non-solar whirlwind since it's windy in our area. 
• Tint your windows (window film) - this helps if you have a lot of windows for your home. If you're just building your home, you can order tinted windows/doors. If your home is built already, there are options to have this installed. Of course, don't use reflective window film for your house. Be nice to your neighbors. 
• Use block out curtains or blinds - we use both for our home. We normally bust out the block out curtains when the temp starts reaching 32'C. I normally make our curtains at home, but have also used the block out curtains from Ikea. They're really effective. 
• Air circulator - we recently discovered the availability of air circulators. We got one for our sala and have been happy with it. We like its timer feature the best and it also displays the room temperature. 
• Airconditioner - I think this is the most expensive solution to make your home cooler.

There are so many options, best though to integrate plans to keep your house cool from the time you build your house. It will be cheaper and you won't have to find solutions post-construction. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Home Improvement: Reducing Heat

A huge chunk of my time has been spent solving issues at home (mostly at Mom's house). One of the items on my check list was to reduce the heat at our home. I noticed that at night our living room and dining area would still be very warm even with fans. The heat that goes up to the ceiling apparently goes down at night according to Architect Ed (watch his video on ventilation). 

Architect Ed has several suggestions on his video how to reduce heat. It's ideally implemented though during house construction. I don't have budget to get a floor mounted airconditioner. If I did that would also increase electricity cost. We do have enough windows for air to come in. We realized though that the issue was the glass windows were bringing in and trapping the heat inside the house. Mom's jalousy windows bring in more air than our modern sliding windows. 

Our windows made us feel like we were inside an oven. It wasn't good also for our things and I had to move my medication downstairs where it's cooler. I saw an ad a few months ago for window film. It works like car tint. After months of weighing pros and cons we finally decided to have our windows tinted. They explained it's used for heat reduction and privacy.  We prioritized heat reduction. 

Kuya Francis, Kuya Jayson and Kuya Danilo worked really fast yesterday. They finished the windows upstairs yesterday. I was cooped up downstairs while they were working, so I just got to see their finished work after they left. And wow, I immediately felt the difference. It was definitely cooler and the area did not feel like an oven late in the evening. The kitchen also felt cooler this morning when I prepared breakfast. 

It's just been a day so we'll see how effective it is in the coming days. The tint also helped reduce the glare of the street light across our bedroom. We've been using block out curtains the past few months to keep the heat out and block the outdoor night light. Now maybe we can use normal curtains, we'll see. 

Now that we've reduced the heat in our home, I can probably move on to other home issues haha. I've been trying to figure out how to bring in more air to Mom's house. Some of the improvements they made in the last two decades, blocked air from coming in. Ahh, it's a problem I listed for the architect to think about. Gotta get better though so I can work on it. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely