✔ Fans are 25 times more efficient than portable air conditioners
✔ Painting your roof white can reduce the temperature inside by 2-5°C
✔ Get some plants to instantly cool down the inside of your home
When it's too hot, no-one can function properly - and climate change means you're increasingly enduring high temperatures.
But life goes on, and you can't always lie in a cold bath all day.
Here are all the best ways to keep your house cool in summer without spending too much or adding a lot to your carbon footprint.
The best ways to keep your house cool at a glance
1. Install insulation
2. Buy fans or a portable air conditioning unit
3. Paint your roof white
4. Keep your windows closed in the day and open at night
5. Shut doors when you can
6. Hang shades or curtains
7. Put some plants in your home
8. Try to avoid using your oven
9. Change your light bulbs
10. Plant some trees
11. Buy an air-to-air heat pump
1. Install insulation
The best first step to cooling your home is insulation.
It allows you to maintain a consistent temperature, without letting in all the heat that makes life so difficult in the summer.
You'll also be able to achieve a cool home with less energy, which will allow you to save some money - and if you choose to insulate your loft, you can usually do it yourself.
If you're looking to be as green as possible, use wood fibre, sheep's wool, recycled plastics, cellulose, or cotton. Other common insulation materials like fibreglass and mineral wool will also do the job nicely, and achieve the same eco-friendly rise in energy efficiency.
Make sure you also insulate your doors and windows by filling in gaps with tape, seals, and draught excluders.
2. Buy fans or a portable air conditioning unit
These are both good, affordable options to swiftly cool your home down, instead of installing a costly, time-consuming air conditioning system into your whole house.
Portable air conditioning units are more effective than fans, as they pump hot air out the window and push cold air into the room, while fans just move air around more quickly.
However, fans are much cheaper and more energy-efficient - they use around 25 times less energy - plus they're much lighter than their bulky air conditioning cousins.
Whether you choose to buy a fan or an air conditioning unit, try to get a cross breeze going for maximum results - and if it's really hot, place a bowl of ice in front of the machine for a refreshingly cold blast.
If you get a ceiling fan, make sure you put it on high and set it to rotate anti-clockwise in summer to send air straight down, cooling down the room.
In winter, it should rotate clockwise at a slower speed, to warm your space.
6. Hang shades or curtains to keep the heat out
This is another way of quickly insulating your home from heat, in a relatively affordable manner.
High-quality thermal curtains usually cost around £100, but any curtains or blinds will block some heat from entering your home and therefore save you money on cooling your home.
If you can't wait, or you're on an especially tight budget, covering your windows in bubble wrap is a legitimate option, or if it's easier, you can use pieces of cardboard wrapped in aluminium foil.
