How to Keep Your Home Cool During Hot Summer Months

Hi everyone, Beth Dodson here, co-founder of HomeZada, and I am back. I've been traveling for a little bit, so unfortunately I haven't been able to go live with you and share some videos and tips, but I'm back and now we're back at it. So what are we going to talk about today? We are going to talk about cooling your home, especially during these hot summer months. For those of you who have watched us before, thank you for being with us. For those of you who this is your new experience, please check out all of our other videos and we probably have some tips that might work for you. For those of you who are coming back later and watching this later and not go live, absolutely send us your comments, share your thoughts, help us out. So what are we going to do to cool our home? Many people live in parts of the country in the summer that get very hot, even in parts of the, the world, because we do have international customers as well. They get very, very hot. And where I live in Northern California, it's extremely hot this week. It's crazy hot. And many of us already know how to kind of deal with it, so we wanted to share some of those tips with you. One area that I like to deal with when it comes to the heat is my hair. You can see it, my hair. I have a lot of hair and it's long, and so I like to take it off my face and off my neck, so I put it in a little ponytail. Voilà, all done. So change your hairstyle, change your attire, wear hats, wear sunglasses, even make sure you get sunscreen. So just keep it so that it'll start cooling you down. The second option is if you're fortunate to own a pool. If you're fortunate to own a pool because you live in these hot weather places, dive on in, have a great time. Remember your pool safety, but dive on in. It's a great Part of your life that can bring people together, whether it's your family, friends, kids while they're out of school. It's a great time to hang out and keep everybody busy during the day, but yet at the same time cool. If you don't have a pool, you know, you can invest in a little slip and slide. You can invest in sprinklers, even little kiddie pools. And kiddie pools are also great for your pets. A lot of people forget about that. So, um, I used to have a dog. She loved the water, but she didn't like the big pool. She didn't like the big deep pool. So we would set aside a little pool for her, a little kiddie pool, and she would just climb right on in and lay right down. And she loved it, and it was really refreshing for her. So that's another little option. It's also great for little, little kids who haven't learned how to swim yet. So those are some areas. Another way to keep cool is to make sure you use your air conditioning. Now, check your air conditioning. Make sure that it's operating properly. Some people have one unit. Some people have several units in their house. Make sure all the units are operating properly and then set your thermostat accordingly. How else can you keep your house cool? Fans. I love fans. Fans that are overhead, so they're ceiling fans, they can actually circulate the air, not just create cool air, but actually circulate it so that it makes everything a little less stale. in the house. So that's one area. In fact, if you live in some parts of the country, you may have a choice to invest outdoor fans. And they can not only circulate the air outside and create some coolness, but they also remove the bugs at night, which is always a positive. And the bugs just go flying away. So that's another area: fans, air conditioning, pools, slicking back your hair. But also another area that you can gain some benefits from is Standalone fans. Maybe you have a room in your house that you forgot to add a ceiling fan, or you just don't have the time to get that project budgeted. You want to get a standalone fan. You can just plug it into an outlet and turn it on and let it circulate that air. Sometimes you can actually tilt the fan so that it's up and down, or you can change the speed of the fan depending on what room you're in and what have you. So I highly recommend those as well. And I just like good air circulation. That's me personally. And I'm looking at my notes. Another thing that you can do, I wouldn't recommend this inside your house. I recommend this outside. If you like misters, if you don't mind water just slightly misting over you, add those outside. You can get standalone misters. You can attach mister hoses, yeah, it's like a hose, along the edging of an umbrella. So if you have an umbrella for your outdoor furniture, or if you have a trellis that you've added coverage, because umbrellas and trellises are also really good for shade, which we'll get to in a minute. Those misters can keep you a little bit cooler. Also another good reason, slick back the hair. How am I gonna keep talking about this slicked back hair? So slick back the hair because I don't have to worry about it getting nasty. Just let the misters mist and away it goes. So we also mentioned umbrellas. Umbrellas are great for when you're outside, you're entertaining, whether you put them next to lounge chairs or eating areas, or you actually add them just in generic areas just to create shade. That's one area. Another thing that you can do to create shade is maybe you've decided you want to build a trellis or some other component outside to create shade basically for the most of the day, but also to create shade at night. And yes, some people need it at night because it stays late. Excuse me, light really dark. So that's another area. Maybe you want to use sails. So many people have heard of these, or maybe not, but you can actually invest in material like your lawn furniture material, and they create sails in different shapes and sizes to create, um, coverage for parts of your home. Now generally these sails need some sort of post Or some sort of wall to hook onto, to pull, to extend, because they oftentimes do not generally stand alone. But those are also great projects to create coolness both around your house, and then ultimately when you've got trellises and umbrellas and sails outside your house, it can actually create shade in those areas, which also eliminates the sun coming into your house. So there's a benefit to the inside of your house by using outdoor umbrellas and trellises and sails and other coverage. The third thing you want to do— excuse me, not third, I think it's— we're up to like 6 or something like that. But the other thing you want to do is close your blinds. Close your blinds, close your draperies during the day if you're not at home especially, and other areas, because you can keep this— block the sun from coming in. That creates heat, and the sun will create heat on your windows but also throughout your home. And that just really creates heat, but the heat can be so hot that even your air conditioning units have to work extra time. So keep that in mind. The other thing that I like to talk about, and many people may have read our blog and know I love, love, love, love, love, love my whole house fan. So I admit I did not know anything about this component when I lived on the East Coast because I don't really think that I needed it, but I think it can be extremely valuable. But my husband grew up in this part of the world and it gets hot all summer, and so he was familiar with this whole house fan concept and I didn't quite understand it. And then because it gets cool at night here where we live in Northern California, I was able to To open my windows at night, pull in all this cool air that's been just sitting outside, which is brilliant, so that we kind of have— I guess we don't have desert weather, but it kind of has that similar feel where you have hot, hot days and then cool, cool nights. Except for this week, it's a whole nother story. But this whole house fan sucks in all that cool air from the outside. cools down your house, and you've actually eliminated some use of your air conditioning unit. I mean, it's just brilliant, and I love this thing. So, um, I'm a big firm believer— I'm gonna switch arms here, sorry— I'm a big firm believer in this whole house fan. I love it, love it, love it, love it, and I don't know where I would be if I didn't have it before. So it's something to consider. It does It is a project. It does require you to make a small investment, and it does require you to place it in a ceiling, generally on your second or top floor. If you live on a single story, then definitely on one of the areas, usually in a hallway between the house. And then you need a component to pull air out through your attic. So it definitely is a bit of a project, but it's amazing. That's all I gotta say about it. It's amazing. So these are some tips you can do. Um, I'm just looking at my notes here just because I want to make sure I'm covering everything for everybody. I want to make sure that you also remember your pets and your children. So a lot of people forget about their pets and they don't realize that their pets also can suffer from heat exhaustion or heat stroke. So make sure that you keep them cool as much as you can. Give them the appropriate amount of water. Drink the appropriate amount of water yourselves. Make sure your kids are drinking the appropriate amount of water. But keep everybody cool. And by all means, remember sunscreen and all those other activities when you're out in the sun— hats, sunglasses, covers, those kinds of things. But by all means, keeping your house cool can be really simple with some of these tips that we've given. And we hope you stay as cool as you can. Bye! Because the heat can be exhausting. From one person who's living in a very, very hot place trying to stay as cool as I can, we hope you have a great day. Please like us, please share this video if you think that these tips are really great, and by all means, come back and see us any day of the week because we'll be here and I'll post some more live videos. Have a great day. Stay cool.