How to keep your House cool Without Air Conditioning

Are you one of those unlucky people without an air conditioner, and tired of being so hot? You can keep cool without an air-conditioner.

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Guys, it’s hot outside.

I mean, I like it, most of the time. Us Canadians wait ALL Winter for the warmer weather. Contrary to popular belief, we aren’t in all our glory in the winter.

I DO enjoy winter, actually. Just not when it drags on incessantly.

This year was one of those years. Even the farmers couldn’t get their crops planted according to their regular schedule due to cold and rain.

So you’d think every single day of hot, hot weather I would be soaking it up.

And I am, for the most part. But when the humidity comes out, my body just doesn’t like it. I mean, I like it – but my body slows down, and doesn’t feel so good.

When we were first married we had one of those window air conditioners in our bedroom of our tiny 600 square feet apartment, but after that we pretty much gave it up.

We knew we didn’t have the budget for central air, and we kind of didn’t want it. Yes, it’s nice to enjoy an air conditioned home on those blistering hot days, but my husband works outside all day. If he is used to a nice, cool home it would be more difficult for him to work in the hot sun.

So, we’ve never even considered getting central air. However, over the years we’ve learned some secrets to keeping our home cool. While some days you just can’t avoid the heat, we’ve managed to keep our home comfortable most of the time.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR HOUSE COOL WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING

Keep the windows open at night, close them during the day. During the night the open windows will let the cool, night air in, while during the day if you have them closed you will keep the hot air out.

The only issue with this one is if you live in an area where the air just doesn’t cool down in the evening.

Use dark curtains and close them during the day. Blackout curtains will especially help keep the sun from warming up the house. Now, I like to open my curtains to let the sunlight in because I find it depressing if I don’t, but for some areas of the house where I am not spending my time during the day in, like our bedrooms, I close all the curtains.

Put a fan in the window at night. We have a huge industrial type fan and we put it in our window. For the first few hours we put the fan facing outside to push the hot air out of our house. Once it’s cooled off some we like to turn the fan around and face it towards the room to bring in more of the cool air in.

You would be amazed at the power those industrial fans have and how they cool down areas of the home. The only downside is they are quite loud, but frankly, I’ll take loud over insanely hot on those unbearable days!  We use a fan like this one, but you can also get a window fan too.  A window fan like this one has two fans so that they are going too different directions, allowing for better cool air flow.

Use the BBQ. Summer equals BBQ season, and the more you use the BBQ the less you are using the oven and stove inside your house. While we LOVE to warm up the house by cooking and baking extra in the winter, in the summer we like to avoid using the stove as much as possible.

Use the slow cooker. While a slow-cooker will still heat up the room a bit, it won’t give off the same heat an oven will. If you have a safe spot you can put it outside on your porch, you can take it out there to keep the house even cooler!

Use cotton sheets on the bed. Sleeping on something like flannel is great in the winter time, but in the summer it can just add to the heat. Cotton sheets are what you want to use when temperatures are skyrocketing.

Go for a swim. Swimming always cools me down and is a perfect activity on those hot days. A nice evening swim can help cool you down before you go to bed, helping you sleep. However, if you don’t want to go for a swim you can always take a nice, cool shower.

Plant trees. So, this is not a quick fix, but if you know you are going to be in your home for years to come, planting trees strategically so that it will shade your home can really go a long way in keeping your home cool.

In our last home we rarely ever felt too hot because we had huge trees surrounding the home. It was amazing how well the trees shaded the house.  When we were house hunting for our next home, we stayed away from homes that didn’t have any trees around them.

Eat foods that keep you cool. That’s right, there are certain foods you can eat that will actually help bring down your body temperature. Watermelon is my favorite one. Because it has such a high water content it cools you down. Watermelon is also pretty cheap during the hotter months.

Any kind of leafy greens can help cool your body temperature too, so eating a lot of salad can help! Peppers are also a great option because their spiciness cools you down by making you sweat. That’s right, sweat actually gives you a cooling sensation.

KEEPING COOL AND MAKING MEMORIES

These tips above will hopefully help avoid you finding the kids with their head stuck in the freezer with the door wide open. I used to do that as a kid, and I’ve caught at least one child doing that once!

To help keep the kids cool we do a lot of swimming, and they eat a lot of popsicles. 🙂

I will say that even though I don’t have air conditioning in our home, I do appreciate and enjoy it very much in the vehicles!

The various seasons always makes me think how us humans are funny things. We complain it’s too cold in the winter, and then we complain that it’s too hot in the summer. We just aren’t happy!

Even in Spring we complain about too much rain, and in Fall we complain about….well, maybe we don’t complain TOO much in the Fall. It must be because we’re eating all things pumpkin by that time and so we’re actually happy for once. 🙂

But I won’t get ahead of myself and start wishing for Fall season. There’s still a lot of summer to be had, and memories to be made with some paddle boarding, swimming, bonfires, berry picking, and so much more. It’s the time of year where schedules aren’t so rigid and we can actually take the time to soak up a little more moments with our family!