Summer has turned on its heat volume, and it’s going to hit max in the coming months. Whoops. Bad news. Okay, so apart from the usual cool colada and the buttermilk that everyone knows of, what other cool stuff can you do to beat the heat? Specially at home? Everyone can turn the AC to make it feel like Bangalore. While that’s cool in your home, it’s not a cool idea when thought of in terms of environment and sustainability. So how about checking out some greener, more responsible alternatives?
The basic idea here is to stop your interiors form absorbing heat in excess. That brings us to the question, how to prevent the surfaces like roofs, walls and windows from letting in the sun’s angry rays? Here’s a quick look at ten cool hacks that will get you through the summer in style.
Green Roof your home:
Green roofing your home is one of the best urban cooling tricks. If yours is an independent house, do a rooftop garden of kitchen plants and flower beds such as zinnia and O’ Clocks. Not only will the plants bear the occasional lemon and chilli, your roof will have a flowery bloom to show off as well. Green Roofing goes for apartments as well. The effort here is a community effort, a common gardening activity which can be made fun and joyful.
Don’t burn the gas:
This one is evident, but not that easy. Obviously, the less you fire cook indoors, the cooler your home will be. What you can do is try and reduce the high flame cooking during the summer months, and use the induction cooker more often. Try and have salads and juices as dinner. [We know your stomach is already growling, but believe us, ten days on, you yourself will much cooler inside, as will your home.].
Cover them up:
As long as you don’t have an underground house with garden on the top, you can at least drape up your windows. Normally, we’d drape with synthetic slits and silk curtains. They don’t do much in the way of keeping heat out. So drape with dried leaf woven rugs and mats. These awesome covers not only shield the rays, they can also be watered down from time to time, to give off that cool vapour.
Water, water everywhere: Why do you think glamorous hotels have flower tumblers in the lobby? Fragrance, yes. But another idea is that water is an excellent absorber of indoor heat. Ever notice how the lakeside is always cool? Even in the glaring midday? Ancient hotels used to use the trick of having flower baths in lobbies. Modern hotels have conditioning, but the tradition has lived on.
Change the lights: This may sound a bit expensive, but it isn’t, really. Just change all CFLs and LEDs in your home and switch to softer argon tubes and lampshades and you will feel the difference immediately. The inert gas lights give off far less heat as compared to other white lights used indoors, and help the home stay cool.
So that’s for now, folks: 5 tips to cool down the home without using the AC. Hope you have fun trying the tricks. Until later…