As much as 40% of your home’s heat comes through your windows. So, block light and air during the hottest time of day. Shutters or window awnings are best. Even thick reflective shades help. If mornings are cool and afternoons hot, open windows and shades in the a.m. and shut them before it’s really hot. If it’s hot all day, shut everything until evening. With access to a cross breeze, open an incoming breeze window a little and the out-facing window a lot, thus pulling air through the house. With only two windows facing the same way, open both, placing an inward fan on one and an outward on the other. The feeling of air across your skin can make you feel comfortable even if it’s hot air. A ceiling fan helps the whole room feel cooler and uses less power than a floor fan. Personally I’ve found it helps to sponge my wrists and forehead with cold water. Fans of course use less power than an air conditioner. A small unit cooling a single room, on average, consumes more power than running four fridges, while a central unit cooling an average house uses more power than 15. It’s projected that as the rest of the world reaches levels similar to ours, air conditioning will use about 13% of all electricity worldwide, and produce 2bn tons of CO2 a year.
grist.org/ask-umbra-series/air-conditioning-heats-the-climate-so-how-can-i-keep-cool/?utm_campaign=ask-umbra&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/29/the-air-conditioning-trap-how-cold-air-is-heating-the-world
Conventional air conditioning technology needs to be replaced by Air Source Heat Pumps (including mini-split systems) and Ground Source Heat Pumps (also misleadingly referred to as geothermal systems). Both types of heat pumps also provide highly efficient air conditioning.
When planning for more efficient cooling in a warming world (a literal lifesave as well as critical to comfort and productivity), it’s equally important to address building envelope efficiency. Stop the leaks, increase the insulation and, as Gail, wrote cover those windows! The better we air seal and insulate our buildings, the less energy they need to stay cool. Combining good air sealing and insulation with Air or Ground Source Heat Pumps will go a long way to reducing energy demand.