Cooling Your Home Without Electricity

Monday Jul 2, 2012

Northern Virginia went through a very intense storm this past weekend. With hurricane force winds, trees were ripped out of the ground and fell upon homes, cars, and blocked streets. Power outages have affected millions of people throughout the DC area, and many cities are predicted to be without power for up to a week. With incredibly high temperatures recently, this is an awful time to be without air conditioning, so I will provide some temporary solutions that will lower the internal temperature of your home as much as possible.

1. The first thing you should do is close your blinds and curtains. Letting in any sunlight dramatically increases the temperature of your home. After the sun sets, open the blinds and windows to let in the cool air.
2. If you’re in an extreme situation, you can even purchase new blinds. Aluminized blinds reflect the heat very well. But in case you’re not looking for new blinds, hanging curtains or sheets on the outside of your home’s windows will also keep the sunlight out, but will continue to let a breeze in.
3. Opening the windows at night seems like an obvious solution, but leaving all of your interior doors open can help reduce the heat even further. Heat is stored inside of your kitchen cabinets, closets and drawers throughout the day. Opening them at night will allow the warm air to exit the home and be replaced with cooler air.
4. Use ceiling fans! Position the fans to push the warm air outside of your home. Possibly in an attic or upper room of your home.
5. For those that have trouble sleeping without AC at night, place ice in a bowl and position a fan next to it. The cool air will blow over you as the ice melts making for an improv air conditioning unit.

After this storm, you may have a need for AC maintenance. Whether the outage shorted your AC unit, or the storm damaged your exterior unit due to high winds or debris, AC maintenance is something that may be needed. After experiencing a weekend without air conditioning, AC maintenance is something you will definitely need to make it through this summer.

If your air conditioner unit is beyond repair, AC installation may be necessary for your home. AC installation will guarantee that your home’s cooling system is up to date and much less susceptible to damage during storms.

For all of your AC maintenance and AC installation needs, contact Climatic Heating and Cooling in Middleburg, Virginia. We service all of Northern Virginia for your convenience!