If there's one thing about the weather that you can do something about at least when you're working indoors is the ambient temperature of the room. Many houses that are situated in climates that have to endure hot summers often have air conditioning systems installed to help the occupants cope with the heat and enjoy a comfortable respite from the searing heat of the outdoors.
But what can you do if your home does not have a nice, handy HVAC system installed? Well, for one thing, before you go out and spend your life savings on buying a big cooling system for your home, you should sit down and do your sums.
The Cost of Cool
These days, with rising energy prices and dwindling natural resources, it's a bad call to opt for an expensive whole house air conditioning solution. That's because not only do these things cost a fortune to purchase and have installed, they gobble up energy fast and leave you with a heart breaking bill at the end of each month!
A cheaper solution if you must have a whole house system is to go for a big evaporative cooling system that chills the air by evaporation of water. This is cheaper to run because it doesn't need to use so much power to run a heat exchange like a conventional aircon system uses.
The only major moving part is the fan system, which is much more power friendly. The only real downside to this approach is that it is not very effective in areas that have high humidity.
The Portable Approach
Another cheaper option if you live in a humid climate and have little choice but to go with conventional air conditioning is to opt for one or two smaller room cooling units. These use less power and only cool the rooms that you are using at the time.
They are therefore less wasteful of energy because they bring the "cool" to the place it's needed and you don't end up paying for cooling lots of empty rooms! They still need to be vented to the outside, reducing their actual portability, but as long as you have a purpose fitted vent in each room that you'll be using them, then its not a big deal.
Portable swamp coolers are completely vent free (see here: https://sites.google.com/view/portableswampcoolers for more details) and much cheaper to buy and to run than their heat exchange, refrigerant based counterparts, but as with whole house systems as mentioned above, they are less effective in humid conditions.
Keeping Cool Inside When It's Hot Outside
The main thing to remember is that when it gets really hot outside, it's great to have a place to can retreat to in order to cool down and feel comfortable again. Cooling the inside of your home is the way to do that. Doing it as economically as possible is the common sense way to achieve it.
So you pays your money and takes your choice! At the end of the day, the choice is yours to make, so make it a sensible one for your needs and your budget!
But what can you do if your home does not have a nice, handy HVAC system installed? Well, for one thing, before you go out and spend your life savings on buying a big cooling system for your home, you should sit down and do your sums.
The Cost of Cool
These days, with rising energy prices and dwindling natural resources, it's a bad call to opt for an expensive whole house air conditioning solution. That's because not only do these things cost a fortune to purchase and have installed, they gobble up energy fast and leave you with a heart breaking bill at the end of each month!
A cheaper solution if you must have a whole house system is to go for a big evaporative cooling system that chills the air by evaporation of water. This is cheaper to run because it doesn't need to use so much power to run a heat exchange like a conventional aircon system uses.
The only major moving part is the fan system, which is much more power friendly. The only real downside to this approach is that it is not very effective in areas that have high humidity.
The Portable Approach
Another cheaper option if you live in a humid climate and have little choice but to go with conventional air conditioning is to opt for one or two smaller room cooling units. These use less power and only cool the rooms that you are using at the time.
They are therefore less wasteful of energy because they bring the "cool" to the place it's needed and you don't end up paying for cooling lots of empty rooms! They still need to be vented to the outside, reducing their actual portability, but as long as you have a purpose fitted vent in each room that you'll be using them, then its not a big deal.
Portable swamp coolers are completely vent free (see here: https://sites.google.com/view/portableswampcoolers for more details) and much cheaper to buy and to run than their heat exchange, refrigerant based counterparts, but as with whole house systems as mentioned above, they are less effective in humid conditions.
Keeping Cool Inside When It's Hot Outside
The main thing to remember is that when it gets really hot outside, it's great to have a place to can retreat to in order to cool down and feel comfortable again. Cooling the inside of your home is the way to do that. Doing it as economically as possible is the common sense way to achieve it.
So you pays your money and takes your choice! At the end of the day, the choice is yours to make, so make it a sensible one for your needs and your budget!