Guess what else is soaring along with the temperatures these days? Your electricity bills! The ACs that are switched on through days and nights do not help global warming either, which seems to be one of the primary reasons for these extreme conditions anyway. Left to the millennials, you would pack your bags and head out to the hill stations for the entire summer. But unfortunately, that helps neither your pockets nor the heat. Instead, how about we look at some inexpensive yet effective ways of keeping our houses cooler this summer? Let’s go old-school and try the tricks our grandparents used decades ago to beat the summer heat.
Use Khus
Remember the desert coolers that have basically defined our summer vacations? No, we are not suggesting you rebuy those. The sides of the coolers used to be made of khus which, when wet, has a natural cooling tendency. A brilliant way to stop the heat from entering your house is to have makeshift curtains made out of khus and to hang them on the doorways. Yes, it might be a bit of an effort to keep them wet, but trust us it is absolutely worth it!
Dehumidify The House
Since technology has entered every space in our lives, you will find dehumidifiers all around in summer. They are required to be plugged in and they make air fresher by absorbing humidity. We have a better idea. Get yourself some indoor plants that have dehumidifying as one of their properties. For instance, Peace Lily, Boston Fern or even Reed palm will absorb most of the humidity stuck inside the house and at the same time provide you with more oxygen.
Treat the Roof
The primary reason for a house to heat up is because the roof absorbs a lot of heat from the sun and passes it on inwards. However, there are ways to counter this. Close all the water outlets on your roof and fill it up with water. By the time the sun evaporates the water on the roof, you’d have had some peaceful and cool hours away from the intense heat. Another way to counter the heat on your roof is to paint it with soda lime or Chuna. The white colour and properties of the substance keep the heat at bay.
Soak the Curtains
The idea here is to have the breeze cool down before it enters your house so that the heat it brings along with it, does not get trapped in the house. Firstly, do away with the heavy curtains and instead use cotton or mulmul drapes on your doors and windows. Fill a bucket of water and soak the ends of the curtain in it. As the water seeps through the hems of the curtain, the breeze turns much cooler.
Turn Off
The most important of it all is to reduce the use of electronics as much as you possibly can. The heat that gets radiated and transmitted because of these appliances, is silent yet harmful. Even when you open and shut the refrigerator too many times, it causes the motor to get heated up and increases the load. Let’s keep the house darker and most of the switches turned off.
The more we progress as a race, the more we find our lives skewed towards technology. What we don’t realize is that adding more stacks of technology is not going to make our lives easier. Temporarily yes, perhaps. But we ought to leave some room for our future generations to see our planet in all its glory too. The effects of global warming are quite visible for each of us to take notice. Hence, let us do our bit and go natural. Here’s hoping our tricks will help you breeze through this summer!
Stay Cool. Stay Healthy!!
