When it comes to beating the summer heat, air conditioning remains the king. After all, an air conditioner’s singular purpose is to cool the air in your Los Angeles home in multiple ways and as quickly as possible. Sometimes, though, it’s good to have other cooling options so that you can save some electricity and add more cooling capacity on exceptionally hot days. At JW Plumbing, Heating and Air, we want you to be able to beat the heat no matter how hot it is outside, which is why we offer this list of six ways to keep your home cool all summer long.
1. Remove the Hottest Air
Part of keeping the air in your home cool is ensuring that the hottest air doesn’t stick around long. Since heat rises, the hottest air in your home typically hangs out around the ceiling. One great way to keep your home cool, then, is to run your exhaust fan in your bathroom. Since this fan vents air outside, it will help draw hot air out, allowing cool air to replace it. This is especially important to do after you take a shower, as the warm moist air that your shower creates can quickly disperse around your home and make it uncomfortable. If you have a kitchen exhaust vent that vents outside, you can also use this to help cool your common areas.
2. Be a Fan of Your Fans
Fans of all types can help add cooling capacity at a fraction of the cost of air conditioning. When your home is feeling warm, then, it makes sense to switch on ceiling fans, box fans, stand fans, or any other types of fans you have around your home. If you really want your fans to provide some heavy-duty cooling, you can place a bowl of ice in front of your fan, which will cool the air that blows in your direction. One thing to remember when it comes to fans is that they only help you feel cooler and don’t actually cool the air in a room. Therefore, just like you turn off the lights when you leave a room, you should turn off the fan, too.
3. Get Some Free Air Conditioning
Even when the days are brutally hot around here, at JW Plumbing, Heating and Air, we know that the nights can become quite cool. Therefore, if you need to cool your home, it’s a good idea to open your windows and let the cool night breeze blow in. The key, of course, is to ensure that the temperature outside is lower than the temperature inside. If it’s not, then you’ll only be releasing the cool air in your home into the outdoors. Of course, if it’s just a couple degrees warmer and there’s a nice breeze blowing, this can still help you feel cooler thanks to the moving air.
4. Keep the Light Out
Another way to keep your home cool is to do all you can to keep it from heating up in the first place. One great way to do this is to keep the sunlight out during the times of day when it shines directly into your windows. To do this, keep your curtains open for an entire day and note the times that the sun shines in and warms the interior surfaces. Then, when the next sunny day comes along, you’ll know what times you need to close your curtains and when you can keep them open.
Preventing excess solar energy from entering your home will prevent the surfaces inside your home from heating up, which will greatly reduce solar gain that we work so hard to overcome. Additionally, closing the curtains when the sun is shining in helps to block the sun’s harmful UV rays. This action helps to protect your interior surfaces from fading, cracking, and splitting.
5. Use Your Air Conditioner Wisely
When JW Plumbing, Heating and Air installs an air conditioner for you, you can be sure that it’s able to efficiently cool your entire home. However, there are steps you can take to make your air conditioner even more effective, especially on the hottest days. One thing you can do is to limit which rooms are cooled. By shutting vents and doors to unused rooms, you can increase the cooling that occurs in other rooms. This will help to bring the temperature down more quickly so that your air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard.
You can also allow JW Plumbing, Heating and Air to clean your ducts to ensure that all the cool air that your air conditioner produces actually makes its way into your home. Dirty ducts can cause mildew growth and can slow down the flow of air, lowering your air conditioner’s cooling capacity. Also, make sure your air conditioner is properly maintained and that you change out your furnace filter at least once a month.
6. Add Cooling Capacity
If you have an especially large room in your home, it may be difficult for your central air conditioner to fully cool that room using the vents that are in place. If that is the case in your home, then you may want to consider a ductless air conditioner from JW Plumbing, Heating and Air to help add cooling capacity.
These units are designed to cool a single room with a unit that is mounted directly in the room and a compressor that is mounted outside. On hot days, you can use your ductless unit to pump cold air directly into the hot room, quickly bringing the temperature down. Another great way to use a ductless unit is if you are only occupying that particular room for long periods of time. You can then run only the ductless unit while keeping your central unit off.
Plenty of Options
As you can see, when the temperature goes up, you have plenty of options to keep your home cool. To determine the best methods to use for your home, it’s important to have a knowledgeable partner to ensure you make the best use of your resources. That’s just what you’ll find when you reach out to JW Plumbing, Heating and Air. We are proudly family-owned and have over 10 years of experience serving this community.
When it comes to keeping your home cool, we can help you maintain and repair your air conditioner or install a new ductless mini-split system. We can also take care of your duct cleaning needs to help keep the air in your home as healthy as possible. Speaking of healthy air, we offer indoor air quality testing and remediation to ensure that the air you breathe isn’t making you or your family sick. We can also install new thermostats, zone systems, and furnaces to help keep you comfortable year-round.
We are proud recipients of the Angie’s List Gold Award, signifying our outstanding commitment to integrity and customer service. We have also won the Angie’s List Super Service Award, the Best of HomeGuide Award, and the Pulse of the City Award. In addition, we also maintain an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. This all comes back to the countless five-star reviews that real customers leave for us all the time. If you’re ready to face the summer heat head-on, give us a call at JW Plumbing, Heating and Air in Los Angeles today. We can talk about your options regarding indoor climate comfort.
Business Hours
Quicklinks
