How to Keep Cool(er) During the Dog Days of Summer.
With almost universal air conditioning, we have become lulled into the habit of flicking a switch for instant cool. But this dependence on air conditioning is costly in both dollars ($$$) and natural resources. Use light and heat-blocking window treatments to keep your home cooler.
The Greenhouse Effect
You know about the Greenhouse Effect and its impact on Global Warming. Every time you get into a car on a sunny day and the interior of the car is hotter than the air outside, you are experiencing your own Greenhouse Effect. But do you know how the Greenhouse Effect works within your own home? Sunlight enters your home through your windows, bringing light energy and heat energy. The glass in your windows traps the heat energy, causing your home to become hotter and hotter. This can be perfect on a cold winter’s day, but during the hot days of summer, either your air conditioning goes into overdrive or your home stays hot. (Note: The all-glass modern houses of the 1950s and ’60s were designed when fuel was cheap.)
This is where smart window treatments come in. Learn how your grandparents kept cool(er) and what Europeans in old houses still do today. For part of the day, you want to block out sunlight and radiant heat from your home. I have written about window treatments that open your views and connect you with nature. You can have both, provided you use the right light and heat-blocking window treatments.
What are the four reasons for window treatments?
- Protection from the sun’s glare and heat.
- Protection from winter cold and drafts.
- Protection from unattractive views.
- Protection from nosy neighbors.
Learn how to use window treatments to keep your home cool.
Before the day heats up, in the early morning, close your windows and draw your drapes, blinds, and shutters, especially in bedrooms, sun-drenched rooms, and unused rooms. (Some of the older houses on Beacon Hill, Boston, have interior shutters for just this purpose. (In the old days, shutters weren’t for decoration.) In modern Rome, there is a daily ritual of opening, closing, and adjusting windows and solid shutters as the sun moves across the sky. Are your drapes lined to keep out sunlight, heat, and cold? Are your shades room-darkening? You may want to close out the heat in all the windows of your home, or maybe just the rooms facing the sun. If you have skylights, consider adding adjustable shades to them for the hot days. As the day gets cooler, you can open your window treatments.
The trick is to have light-blocking or at least light-filtering window treatments.
This means curtains made from a heavy fabric, or a thinner fabric with light-blocking linings. If your curtains don’t have light-blocking linings, you can improvise using an extra curtain rod, clip-on curtain rings, and light-blocking fabric. Measure, cut, and hang the lining fabric from the extra curtain rod tucked behind your decorative curtains. This way, the curtain is between the window and your decorative curtains.
Too often, we keep our window treatments open all the time. This is great for light and views, but we need to remember that our window treatments give us the option to close them.
If you feel claustrophobic or cut off from nature when your window treatments are closed, then consider solar shades or variations on them. They are mounted like window shades and are made of one of several densities of heavy plastic mesh that block out different degrees of light (and heat) while allowing a veiled view of the outdoors. You have probably seen them at your local Starbucks.
Open and Close: Take advantage of the cooler air outside
If it is a cool evening, open the windows to catch the cooling breezes. If the night is cool and humidity is not an issue, leave your windows open and sleep with the cool air from outdoors, moved by a fan placed in or by the window. If you need to keep your windows closed, then adjust your AC settings for a night without radiant heat from the sun. This won’t eliminate your need for air conditioning on blistering hot, humid days, but it will keep your home a bit cooler, so your HVAC system doesn’t have to use as much electricity. Your approach to using window treatments will vary as the warm months progress, and overcast days may not require any sun blocking. Experiment with this and see what works best for you.
Air conditioning makes life easier during the hot months, but we don’t have to rely on it exclusively to stay cool. Reclaim some of the wisdom of your ancestors. Use light and heat-blocking window treatments. Stay cool, save money, and conserve energy at the same time.
plantation shutter photo by simonsimages