5 Ways To Stay Cool This Summer

It seems like in the last couple of years we’ve been hearing the phrase “record high temperatures” more and more often, and beating the heat is only getting harder. When it comes to your air conditioning, Louisville home comfort specialists encourage you to keep your air conditioning filters clean, make sure your unit isn’t sitting in direct sunlight, and keep your thermostat away from heat producing appliances. But, aside from just making sure your air conditioning unit is running in top condition, here are some other helpful, budget-friendly suggestions for keeping you and your family cool this summer:

Whether you’re going to spend your day out and about or just around the house, you should wear lightly colored, loose-fitting cotton clothes. The light colors will help to reflect light and heat away from your body to keep you cool while the cotton fabric will breathe better than most synthetic cloth.

Did you ever wonder why people in some of the hottest places on earth – India, Latin America, or Thailand – eat some of the spiciest foods out there? It’s because eating spicy food is one of the easiest ways to kick in your body’s natural cooling mechanism, sweating. However, eating too much in a single sitting will actually raise your body temperature so that it can burn all of the fuel its taking in. So instead, eat smaller but more frequent meals. You’ll feel cooler and it’s better for you to boot.

The heat can become dangerous if you don’t keep hydrated. Here are some of the Dos and Don’ts on the subject:

Do: Drink plenty of water as well as sports drinks to replenish your fluids and electrolytes.

Don’t: Drink lots of coffee or alcohol because they are diuretics and will dehydrate you.

Often times, we have trouble falling asleep and sleeping well if it’s too hot in our bedrooms. No matter what time of year it is, getting good sleep is important for your health. Back in medieval days people would put hot coals in warming pans, and then slip the warming pans between their sheets to warm their beds on cool evenings. Well, you can do the same thing but with ice. Take an ice pack or two out of the freezer and slip them between your sheets for five or ten minutes before going to bed. The bed will be cooler and you’ll find it easier to sleep.

So many of our day-to-day tasks create heat in our homes and we don’t really even think about it. It is possible to schedule these tasks at the coolest times of the day or plan well enough to avoid them all together. Here are some great ideas:

• Exercise either in the early morning or the late evening when it’s coolest.
• Try to avoid using the oven, range, and dryer during the warmer times of the day. When cooking, use the microwave. It heats your food faster and doesn’t create as much excess heat as an oven or range. When washing clothes, use clotheslines to dry them – that won’t add any extra heat to your home.
• Plan to spend the hottest times of the day in a cool space – working at the office, shopping at the mall, swimming at the pool or even just in the basement.