Forget AC: Natural Home Cooling

Slash (or eliminate) your air conditioning bills by using natural home cooling with these simple tips and remodeling recommendations.

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Slash (or eliminate) your air conditioning bills by using natural home cooling with these simple tips and remodeling recommendations. Houses before air conditioning had many tricks up their sleeve. In addition to natural ventilation, the most effective cooling strategies, in order of increasing cost, are: the minimization of indoor heat generation, weatherization, insulation, window shading and glazing, roof whitening and attic ventilation, and trees and landscaping.

Natural Home Cooling

Space cooling and heating can account for up to 45 percent of your total home energy use every year, but there are numerous strategies you can employ to reduce cooling costs. For instance, a ceiling fan used in conjunction with air conditioning lets you raise the thermostat by as much as 4 degrees while maintaining the same comfort level in a room. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that each degree below 78 degrees on your thermostat will increase your air conditioning bill by 8 percent. You also can use natural ventilation to capture and create breezes, or to help you take advantage of nighttime drops in temperature.

Other money-saving ideas include minimizing heat gain, weather sealing, insulating, window shading and glazing, roof lightening, and landscaping (see Passive Cooling Techniques). Because natural ventilation is one of the most cost-effective ways to cool your home, we’ll examine it here in greater detail.

Natural Home Ventilation

  • Updated on Jul 25, 2022
  • Originally Published on Aug 1, 2007
Tagged with: home design, natural cooling, passive cooling, passive solar
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