EVER THOUGHT OF KEEPING YOUR HOME COLD ENOUGH WITHOUT PAYING HUGE AMOUNT OF ELECTRICITY BILLS?

By: Hassan Zubair

Every year when summer season is right around the corner , we often find elders of the house in the dilemma of how to keep their homes cool .Every season the air conditioners require general service which is quite hectic when there are 12 to 13 air conditioners in a household. Unlike another country, in Pakistan there are very rare households where one can find a centrally air conditioning system. People in Pakistan still believe in conventional technique of installing a air conditioner .In fact that wall is designated for that air conditioner the very moment when the house is under construction. Summers in Pakistan are getting more crucial and unbearable as each year goes by . Some scientists believe its because of the climate change that has altered climate globally ,however in Pakistan there is not only the hot weather that is devastating for the people. It’s also the curse of having incompetent leaders who bring along the problem of load shedding and high rates of electricity with them. Which forces us to think of ways by which we can keep our homes cool enough and make temperature endurable for the kids even if there is no electricity. Many families are raised and taken care by one elder of the family .Only he is responsible to put food on the table for his family .So with a house where there are around 10 air conditioners , load shedding itself is a relief for that person . No one can imagine the frustration of an employee who ,at the end of the month, has to pay almost all of his salary on electricity bills and taxes. So without further ado let me share a couple of techniques with my fellow readers to keep our homes cold enough, naturally .

BLOCK UNWANTED HEAT

First, the only way from where heat enters indoors is from the windows. Many people think that with installing double glazed glass they can avoid that heat wave from entering in the house . I feel sorry to inform them that they are mistaken . Only double glazed glass is not enough . We need to go for breathable curtains like jute or cotton ones .Most importantly keep those curtains closed from late morning to early evening .You can also use bamboo shades to avoid the heat wave from entering your home.

PREVENTING HUMIDITY TO ENTER YOUR HOME
Secondly we should not think twice before buying a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier will extract the humidity from the air. Many people mistakenly believe the functionality of a dehumidifier to cool the air whereas its only function is to soak up all the moisture and keep the air fresh. A few premium one even clean the air and fight against the nanoparticles that are present in the air and are harmful for human health.

PROPER VENTILATION
All the above mentioned techniques are useless if you don’t do something about the ventilation. If there is no proper ventilation you will never be able to keep your house cooled down naturally . Windows must be used strategically so that it’s adequate enough for proper ventilation. The best time to let in the fresh air is 5:00 Am till 8:00 Am and then 8:00 PM till 10:00 PM at night .

BED SHEETS / FABRIC
There is also the question of bed sheets that are used where we supposedly sleep for the night ,thinking that we may get a sound sleep. There are certain types of sheets that should be kept a mile away from the bed .Like Satin ,Polyester or silk can be your worst nightmare if you are looking to cool down your home by natural means . We should only use light-colored ,cotton or breathy texture linen like sheets. As these sheets without a doubt help in enhancing the overall ventilation of the house ,significantly.

POSITION OF CEILING FANS
There is another misconception of having ceiling fans installed in our rooms which do not help at all when the season is at it’s peak. In fact there are often times when these fans feel like throwing hot air instead of cold air ,even if the air conditioner is on. There is a very simple way to avoid such catastrophe . All you need to do is that you configure your fan to rotate anti-clockwise instead of clockwise so that it can fetch that warm air from the room, which ultimately gives a cooling effect. So if you are using an air conditioner you should position that fan accordingly and let it fetch warm air out of the room while rotating anti-clockwise.

WHITE LED BULBS

Last but not the least .So far I have only been able to test these techniques . Believe me they work . There is very high chance that almost every household is installed with warm/yellow light bulbs . Those yellow lights are very effective for winters. However for summers we should get rid of them right away and install white light bulbs all over the house . Not only any white light bulb, but white LED bulb for your entire home.

These were the few techniques that are very effective in keeping our home cool enough by natural means .If you follow these techniques .Hopefully you won’t have to pay huge amount of electricity bills . In fact you can even save enough funds to go on a vacation with your family when weather gets horrifyingly hot . So keeping in mind these ways to avoid unnecessary expenditure one should always seek out new methods of making life easier without loosing your comfort zone.