thePULSEVincent Pacifico
Way too often do we just turn on the air conditioner and wait for the house to cool down when there are many ways to naturally help cool down your house, or atleast take the edge off. The concept of passive cooling includes using natural methods of circulating air, trapping cool air and minimizing the transfer of heat between the outside environment and the inside of your house. The opposite and more well known type of cooling is known as active cooling which includes air conditioning machines that use a fuel source to power them. We know that keeping the air conditioner on all day can cost a fortune and be pretty bad for the environment. These passive ideas don’t use any energy and they can work for any size building but for simple purposes, a house is an easy building to focus on which you can apply many techniques that you might already be doing without even realizing it. In a day and age where electricity is expensive, and the earth depends on us, some of these passive strategies can help to minimize your use of an air conditioner this summer and maybe even save you a few bucks on your utility bills.
There are many passive cooling strategies in home design but a few are much more commonly known than others. Have you ever wondered what shutters on a house are for? Well nowadays you mainly see them nailed to the side of a house to add some “curb appeal” but real, true shutters swing on a hinge and close over the window. Not only is this good for protecting your glass during a large storm but keeping these closed during a hot afternoon can help to block the heat from the sun from entering the home. Insulation and thermal performance of windows can play a big role as well but if you can stop the sun before it even hits the glass, you have a much better chance of stopping that heat gain from entering in the first place. Where we are located in the northern hemisphere, the sun travels in the southern sky so those windows on the south face of your house are the ones that you need to keep a close eye on for heat gain.
Come July and August, we are all mostly likely using air conditioners to some degree, whether they are window inserts or central air units. A very effective way to minimize the use of them is to keep windows and shades closed during the hot day while they are in use to trap the cold air. Letting cool outside air in at night and closing windows and shades in the morning helps to trap that naturally cool air when the sun comes back out. A misconception is to keep your windows open during the day to let the breeze in but all you are doing on a hot day is letting the hot air blow in, therefore at night when it cools down, the inside of your house is hotter than it is outside.
It definitely takes a bit more effort and dedication to master a passive strategy than just pressing the on button but it can help you to understand your home’s climate a bit more and how your own house functions. Other strategies include large overhangs to block the sun, cold air chambers in the basement, skylights that let the hot air rise through, cross ventilation and many others. Now these methods won’t make your house icy cold like your store bought air conditioning units might, but they can help to reduce your overall time that you use your machine which will reduce your overall utility bills. During these hot summer months, give passive cooling a try and see how effective a green strategy can be.
