How to Keep Your Home Cool Without AC

Let’s admit it. We live in a world where the increasing effects of climate change and the scorching summer heat is unbearable in many areas. As the temperatures continue to rise, it can be challenging to keep your home cool during the summer without relying on an air conditioner. In addition, the summer heat can lead to heat strokes and exhaustion, making it crucial to implement these methods to keep your home cool without using an AC. By reducing our dependence on air conditioning, we can not only lower our electricity costs but also contribute to a more environmentally friendly approach.

Designer: Cortney Bishop

Use Curtains and Drapes

Designer: Helena Jonsson

Leaving windows uncovered during peak sun hours allows a significant amount of heat to enter your home. Research shows that about 75 percent of sunlight transforms into heat that can penetrate indoors. By covering your windows, especially if they are north or west facing with curtains and drapes, you can prevent the harsh rays of the sun from entering the interiors. Opt for blackout curtains as they act as protective barriers, reflecting sunlight and reducing heat by approximately 33%.

Install Double-Glazed Windows

Designer: U Fit Sash Windows

Double-glazed or insulated windows provide excellent thermal insulation, reducing the amount of heat that enters or exits your home. These modern aluminum or uPVC windows consist of two glass panes filled with inert gases like xenon, argon, or krypton, creating an insulating barrier between the indoors and outdoors. This is an effective way to enhance your air conditioner’s performance, reduce power consumption, and minimize your carbon footprint.

Unplug Appliances

Plugged appliances have the tendency to emit heat even when they are not in use. Hence remember to unplug appliances such as TVs, laptops, dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers, as they can emit heat and contribute to the increase in the indoor temperature. If you are planning to buy a new air conditioner, consider one with a high energy-star rating that can reduce the running cost of the AC.

Install Awnings

Designer: The Terrace Room Company

By installing awnings above windows, you can significantly reduce the amount of heat that comes in. Awnings are available in four shapes, namely sloped, domed, concave, and convex; they can be fixed or retractable and can provide external shading to the windows. They are available in fabric, metal, and polycarbonate.

Insulate Doors and Windows

Weather stripping and caulking around doors and windows is a cost-effective method of preventing heat from entering the indoors. Hence if you notice any gaps in external doors and windows, seal them using weather stripping.

Keep Windows Closed During the Day

Designer: Classy Homes

If the outdoor temperature is higher than the indoor temperature, it is advisable to keep the windows closed. This helps maintain a cooler environment inside your home for a longer period. However, if the temperature cools down at night, you can open the windows before going to bed or early in the morning to let in the cool air. Remember to close the windows when the temperature starts to rise. Additionally, close the doors of any unused rooms, especially if you have a central air conditioning system, to optimize cooling efficiency.

Cross Ventilate

Designer: Romina (toujourspaloma)

Cross ventilation keeps your indoors cool by allowing free airflow through doors and windows. If you have two windows that are opposite or diagonally opposite each other, open them to promote cross ventilation. However, this should be done early morning or after sunset so that the cool breeze enters and facilitates cross-ventilation. It’s a great way to reduce indoor temperature and minimize the need for air conditioning.

Switch on the Fan

Designer: Sofucor Fan

Turning on the fan creates a comfortable indoor environment. In dry climates, you can use an evaporative cooler, which adds moisture to the air and reduces indoor temperature.

Use Exhaust Fans in the Kitchen and Bathroom

Designer: Khushi Suriya (Matter of Space)

Switching on the exhaust fan in the kitchen helps eliminate hot and moist air generated during cooking. Similarly, using the bathroom fan helps expel hot and humid air from indoors to outdoors, especially after a steamy shower.

Swap Incandescent Bulbs

Designer: Carmen Cyrzan

Incandescent bulbs waste approximately 90 percent of the energy they consume. Consider switching to CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) or LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs. Not only do they help keep your home cooler, but they also reduce your electricity bill, have lower carbon emissions, and do not contribute to global warming. During the day, it is advisable to maximize the use of natural light by refraining from switching on the lights.

Install a Dehumidifier

Designer: Xiaomi

In humid climates, high humidity levels can make the summer months uncomfortable. Therefore, investing in a dehumidifier can help maintain a comfortable environment in your home during these humid months. It’s important to note that a dehumidifier does not directly reduce the summer temperature but rather controls the hot and sticky humidity that contributes to discomfort. These devices extract moisture from the surrounding air, and it is recommended to keep indoor humidity below 60 percent.

Consider Insulated Window Films

Designer: Window Makeover

Consider installing insulated window films, as it forms an insulating barrier between the indoors and outdoors. It helps in reducing energy costs by preventing the penetration of sunlight indoors and allows one to enjoy outdoor views.

Bring in Plants

Designer: Time with Liberty

Plants and trees help keep the surrounding air cool via the process of transpiration. Planting vines that grow along the windows can provide natural shade and help block sunlight that heats the external walls. It is advisable to grow shady deciduous trees along the boundary of the house as they cast shade over the home in summer and bring in sunshine throughout winter.

Choose Organic Materials

Designer: Piglets in Bed

Good sleep is essential for rejuvenation, so one must not let heat disturb your sleep. Switch your bed linen seasonally, as materials like silk or polyester are best suited for cooler nights. Consider using light-colored bed linen and cotton sheets, as they are breathable materials that promote good ventilation and airflow. Additionally, these natural fibers help you stay cool while sleeping. Opt for soothing shades such as white and pastel colors, as they reflect light and absorb the least heat. On the contrary, darker shades absorb heat and radiate it around the home.

Invest in a Cooling Pillow or Pad

Designer: Nantong Jialang Home Supplies

A cooling pillow or pad can draw heat from the head and is a great way to reduce or eliminate night sweats.

Bare the Floor

Designer: FCML Coimbatore

Carpets and rugs can raise the indoor temperature as they absorb and retain heat, radiating it back into the room. Consider removing carpets and rugs to reduce the indoor temperature.

Paint the Terrace White

Roofs receive a significant amount of heat from the scorching sun. One effective measure is to paint the roof with white reflective paint so that it reflects the heat of the summer sun. This is highly recommended for houses directly under the roof of a high-rise building.

Create a Green Roof

Designer: Green World Studio

Create a green roof or add plenty of potted plants. A roof garden helps to block heat as the plants and soil in the potted plants effectively absorb the heat that hits the roof. It is one of the simplest ways to prevent heat from entering through the roof and keeps the indoors cooler.

The implementation of these strategies will surely help individuals maintain a cool environment, minimize the use of air conditioning, and effectively beat the summer heat.

The post How to Keep Your Home Cool Without AC first appeared on Yanko Design.

The bottom ventilation + filters of this ultra-thin stovetop keeps your home odor-free!

The foods I enjoy cooking the most, the ones that remind me of my Filipino childhood, are also the least ideal for my apartment’s older cooking unit. They require long simmer times, large pots, and well, are a bit pungent. They’re a hassle to make, so I can never enjoy them. It’s a shame because cooking can be a soothing, comforting experience. But that process requires the right equipment.

The BORA X Pure stovetop takes away all the undesirable aspects of a typical cooking surface. The first thing you notice is its flat, minimal design. The stovetop itself is only 200mm thick, which means the unit can be installed without taking up significant storage space below. The electric surface allows for extra-wide cooking zones, to accommodate larger pots and pans (perfect for those homey stews). It also has a compact set of touch controls embedded in its surface, which contributes to its elegant, minimalist appearance.

However, the BORA X Pure’s most notable feature isn’t related to its cooking abilities at all: it’s the exhaust filter. Let me explain. Unlike most stove/oven units, which have a ventilation chimney installed above, the BORA has embedded its filter in the cooktop itself. Why does this matter? First of all, the downdraft ventilation system contributes heavily to the BORA’s minimal design. Second, an overhead filter does not get cleaned often (speaking from personal experience), because the food splatter isn’t immediately visible. Out of sight, out of mind. But this means that, when someone (aka me) finally looks at the damage, it is quite filthy.

The BORA X Pure designed an exhaust system that would be as easy to clean as possible. The filters sit inside a wide, circular inlet embedded in the cooktop. They’re easy to remove, and all the pieces that come into contact with the cooking vapors, including the filter’s lid, are dishwasher safe. Also, and this is the last thing I will mention about the filter, the BORA X Pure’s ventilation system is silent and effectively eliminates odor. The exhaust fan above my apartment’s stove is loud enough to overpower my laptop speakers, yet barely stops my smoke alarm from ringing. (The after-smell, by the way, is just a given – you can’t fight it.)

Clean-up is one of the least enjoyable aspects of cooking, and it is more inconvenient with subpar appliances. You use your stovetop daily, which means that seemingly minor improvements, like an embedded vapor filter, can greatly improve your experience. It’s a small luxury, but one that many apartment-dwellers like myself would love to have.

Designer: BORA Vertriebs Gmbh & Co KG

The world’s first no-chimney kitchen exhaust uses a drawer for ventilation

Okay, I am just going to say it, I have never met a kitchen exhaust or vent that has helped prevent the ringing of the smoke alarm when I cook. Some that are good certainly delay it, but if you have a small New York City apartment then your house is going to smell like your dish for at least a day. I am glad someone out there thought we needed a more innovative solution and designed the world’s first downdraft with a central cooking plate and underhung drawer! A top-notch setting that controls ventilation, making cleaning easier, and elevates the aesthetics of your kitchen.

Gutmann is a global leader in manufacturing high-quality exhaust hoods for households and is trusted by the best of specialized kitchen dealers. The design team combined their superior engineering with their own creative vision to give the users a cleaner experience. To come up with the solution, the team had to understand that performance, cleaning, and changing the filters are the core pillars of creating an efficient product. “With downdraft becoming the new norm, power was questionable. We said it had to step above the current noise. Emphasizing airflow, and creating clarity in the UI were our central points,” said the design team about their goal to create a downdraft hood that had the same (if not better) impact as the ceiling hood.

Each kitchen is different, there is a large variation in depths and heights of cabinets and drawers; so the design of this cooktop was kept lightweight without compromising on the advanced technology and materials. It was important to highlight the drawer during use and assembling all components in a central zone for intuitive user experience – optimizing storage and making cooking a stress-free process. Cooktops are used every day and they have to be durable to endure the constant cleaning and cooking. It can wear down even the most enthusiastic chef and homeowner to maintain appliances. To make this easier all the components were made with precise dimensions so they would fit directly into the dishwasher. This cooktop set up should go straight on top of your kitchen wishlist!

Designers: Oliver Hatton and Nicolas Schmitt for VanBerlo Agency

This conceptual Dyson ventilator reduces 95% fine dust in urban farms!

Breathing is such an automated bodily function that it doesn’t even occur to us to think about what we are actually inhaling. Fine dust is not seen by the human eye but we very well know when that same speck of dust goes in our eye, it wreaks havoc. Similarly, for any living organism to be breathing in fine dust is harmful because at the moment we won’t see its effects and it will keep accumulating to cause big trouble later. Humans can still comprehend this and take precautions, but what about plants? With the growing trend of urban and city farming, fine dust can be a dampener on our sustainable efforts and overall health.

This conceptual Dyson air purifier, Ventila, is specifically designed to combat the fine dust problem in city farms. Ventila’s aim is to improve the ventilation system in these farms to create a healthier environment that results in a quality crop – pesticides are not the only toxins we consume and we must learn to be more aware of where we source our food from. Ventila has a simple but effective mechanism, it creates a barrier by merging vapor with fine dust. When both combine, the mere weight of the particle makes it drop to the ground with the water. Condensation but now it wears a cape!

The Ventila prototype was created to see how effective this method will be, to understand the results better, there has to be a number attached to the impact which the experiment provides. The water rises through a pipe in the ventilator and 12 pumps are used to convert it into water vapor. This water vapor is evenly dispersed using the basic working module of a humidifier. The prototype was tested and was found to keep 95% of fine dust particles at bay which instantly improves the quality of the plant’s health (and invariably ours) by A LOT. The build is made to be as transparent as possible so the farmers can see the health of the device too and maintain it well. We can wear masks but plants can’t, so let’s make design inclusive for all living organisms.

Designers: DeokYoun Kim, John Park, and Fountain Studio.

 

Theoretically a “cool” chair

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Made from ventilation/cooling pipes, the Tubular Armchair by Lucas Munoz may theoretically be the coolest chair ever. Designed as a part of his collection ‘Objects From Interstitial Space’, Munoz hopes to bring the background to the foreground, by using materials and elements that usually are hidden from sight behind drywalls or above false ceilings, and play more of a functional role than an aesthetic one. In their new avatar, these objects that are normally hidden from visible architecture suddenly become show-stealers.

Using steel piping and elbow joints, Munoz created the curvaceous body of the chair, before using a copper panel that he shaped by hand for the seat. The entire seat is held together using aluminum rivets that help retain the raw feel of what is in fact, a beautiful, finished product!

Designer: Lucas Munoz

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