Get Your Home Summer Ready!

Summer is here! With longer days, soaring temperatures and abundant vitamin D, summers bring heftier power bills, quick as we are to crank up the air-conditioning to stay cool. But beating the summer heat doesn’t have to mean racking up your bills. Here are a few energy-efficient ways to buffer your home against the summer blaze:

Close those blinds

An easy way to guard your home against the summer sun is to switch to heavier window drapes and draw your curtains and blinds during the hottest hours of the day. Roughly 30 per cent of unwanted heat comes from your widows, so installing curtains, blinds and keeping them closed helps limit the ‘greenhouse effect’ and lower indoor temperatures by up to 20 degrees.

Upgrade your doors and windows

To keep your home cool and ensure all that air-conditioned cool circulates longer, upgrade your doors and windows to prevent hot air from leaking indoors. Energy-efficient, well-insulated doors and windows can make all the difference: They keep heat and dust out, help your AC cool faster and prevent your energy bills from skyrocketing.

Light it right

If you haven’t made the switch to CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps), do so this summer. Incandescent lights use 90 per cent of their energy in the heat they emit, so getting rid of them can make a difference in cooling your home and generate savings on your electricity bill.

Filter-care

A poorly maintained air conditioner uses 10 to 30 per cent more energy and has a shorter life. Make sure to service your AC as soon as summer begins and clean your AC filters monthly. Dirty air filters not only restrict cooling, and increase energy costs; they are often the cause of air conditioning breakdowns.