Tips and Tricks For Cooling Your Home Without Breaking the Bank

Insulate and Air-Seal Your Home

“Adding insulation (or upgrading old stuff) can help lower energy bills and keep your home more consistently comfortable,” states Pearl. Heat pump specialist Phil Bickel elaborates: “Many of the things that help keep your home warmer in the winter also help keep your home cooler in the summer. If you feel the temperature extremes in both seasons, consider a weatherization project.”

By itself, insulation won’t keep the house cool in the summer, so you’ll also have to employ some of the other tips we present here. Insulation will reduce heat exchange at walls, windows and ceilings and make those extra measures more effective.

Use Fans to Circulate Air

Install ceiling fans and run them in a counterclockwise direction, which is the reverse of the direction they should run in the winter. That will push air toward the floor and create a cooling breeze.

In addition, Pearl suggests other ways to use fans to keep the house cool in the summers: “Use bathroom or kitchen exhaust fans after cooking or showering to push hot air out. At night, you can point box fans out the windows to suck the warm air out and pull cooler air in from other parts of the house. This actually works surprisingly well!”

Don’t Cook During the Day

Large appliances give off significant amounts of heat. Bickel suggests waiting to turn on your oven, range, dishwasher, and clothes washer until evening hours when temperatures are cooler. “Also, consider hanging laundry outside to dry. You’ll save the cost of running the clothes dryer while reducing heat and moisture in the house.”

Can’t wait for dinner until the sun goes down? Fire up the grill and cook outdoors. Isn’t that what summer is for?

Open Windows at Night

Take advantage of cooler summer evenings and open your windows to promote a cross-breeze, advises Bickel. “Bonus: This can also help you sleep better! The cooler air will circulate all night, allowing you to start fresh with a cool home in the morning. In building science, this is referred to as night-flush ventilation.”

Worried about bugs? Put screens on the windows or deploy fans that face outdoors to keep them away. If you can’t do either, avoid attracting bugs by keeping the area around the windows dark.

Block Direct Sunlight

Have you ever been inside a greenhouse during the day? It becomes a hothouse, and the same thing happens to your house if you leave south- and west-facing windows uncovered when the sun is out.

“Summer sun delivers heat right through your windows,” says Bickel. “Block the heat with shades or blinds during the sunniest hours to keep your home cool without AC. This is a passive, or “natural” cooling method that is one of the cheapest and simplest way to keep your home cool in summer.”

Grow Plants Indoors and Outdoors

This tip comes from longtime HVAC pro Richie Drew: “Plants are a strategic and attractive way to keep the room’s temperature down. Trees or other greenery can block some of the sun and keep rooms cooler throughout the day.”

Both indoor and outdoor plants can provide shade to keep the house cool in the summer. For example, an old oak tree shades a large portion of the house in which I live, and the temperature indoors is consistently five to ten degrees cooler than outdoors.

Planting trees and bushes outdoors may not be an instant solution, but if you get them in the ground this year, you can look forward to cooler temperatures a few years down the road.

Use Air Conditioning Wisely

If you have an air conditioner, follow these energy-saving tips from Drew to keep your cooling costs down:

• Set the thermostat to a constant, moderate temperature (around 75 degrees) and leave it there. “Many people think they will save money by turning off their AC when they aren’t home during day, however this is not the case. They come home to an 80-degree house and blast their AC in attempt to cool the home down quickly.” That make the AC unit work harder and consume more energy.
• Invest in a smart thermostat. “It’s well worth the money, as your HVAC unit will start to run more efficiently thus using less energy and lowering the monthly bill – especially during peak summer and winter months.”
• Upgrade your HVAC system. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, that can reduce your cooling (and heating) costs from 20 to 50 percent.

Keep Interior Doors Open

This creates a balanced airflow, according to HVAC pro Elizabeth Shavers. “Open doors throughout the home to allow for more even air circulation, helping the system cool rooms efficiently without overcompensating for hot zones.”

This is a money-saving strategy for homes with air conditioning, but even homes without central cooling can benefit. Keep the doors open and use fans to circulate cooler air from the lower floors (particularly the basement) to the upper floors, which tend to get uncomfortably warm on hot days.

Maintain Your A/C System

You HVAC system needs periodic maintenance to keep it running efficiently and keep the house cool in the summer. The following maintenance essentials recommended by Shavers are DIY tasks that take little time:

• Replace air filters regularly: Dirty or clogged filters restrict airflow, reducing efficiency and increasing strain on the system.
• Check that vents are unobstructed: Furniture, rugs, or clutter can block air vents, which limits airflow and forces the AC to work harder.
• Clear space around the outdoor unit: At least two feet of clearance around the condenser (outdoor AC unit) is recommended. Trim back plants, remove debris, and make sure there’s no obstruction to airflow.

Install an ERV

An Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) is a standalone piece of HVAC equipment, and Panasonic Eco Systems representative Leon Van Oostende explains that it’s one of the most economical and overlooked ways to keep a home cooler in the summer

“ERVs work by bringing fresh outdoor air into your home, tempering it, and exhausting the stale indoor air. By transferring heat and moisture between these two air flows, ERVs reduce the temperature and humidity of the incoming air before it reaches your living space.”

When installed in line with your HVAC system, an ERV saves energy by reducing the load on your AC system. Designed to maintain air circulation in well-sealed houses, an ERV can have a cooling effect even when not used in conjunction with a central cooling system.

Use a Swamp Cooler

People living in arid regions west of the Rockies have the option of cooling with an evaporative cooler, also known as a swamp cooler. It works by blowing air through a mesh kept constantly wet by a stream of water to cool the air by water evaporation and circulate it. If you live in a region with low humidity, you can install one on the roof to keep your whole house cool, or you can use portable units to cool individual rooms.

Not ready to invest in another appliance? Try this hack to make a swamp cooler out of inexpensive materials you might already have around the house.

FAQ

What temperature should you set your AC in the summer?

That depends on how cool you like it, but as a rule of thumb, 75 degrees is an energy-efficient setting that should keep you comfortable.

Is it better to leave your AC on or turn it off when you leave the house?

Unless you’re going away for longer than a day or two, it’s better to leave the AC running while you’re away. It consumes less energy to maintain a constant temperature than it does to cool down a room that has become uncomfortably hot.

What direction should my fan spin if I have AC on?

Your fan should spin counterclockwise (leading edges of the blades higher than the trailing edges) even if the air conditioning is on. That way, the blades will help circulate conditioned air down into the room, and the AC unit won’t have to work as hard.

About the Experts

• Uri Pearl is the owner of Nealon Insulation, based in Clinton, CT.
• Phil Bickel is the heat pump program manager at Efficiency Vermont.
• Richie Drew is the VP of Operations at One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning.
• Elizabeth Shavers is the General Manager for HVAC and Plumbing at Oncourse Home Solutions.
• Leon Van Oostende is the Group Sales Manager at Panasonic Eco Systems North America.

Sources

• Urban Health Collaborative: Extreme Heat and Disasters: The Climate Emergency Is Impacting Lasrge U.S. Cities; (2024)
• U.S. Energy Information Administration: U.S. electricity prices continue steady increase; (2025)
• U.S. Department of Energy: Why Energy Efficiency Matters; (2025)

The post Tips and Tricks For Cooling Your Home Without Breaking the Bank appeared first on Family Handyman.

Article source here: Tips and Tricks For Cooling Your Home Without Breaking the Bank