air conditioning??

LaurierGirl28

DH & I have a new house. And it has central air. I try not to use it, but DH loves it and would have it running ALL the time.

What are some ways I can keep the house cool that are environmentally friendly, without running the AC?

FWIW, we do have wood blinds that we keep shut during the day. 

CarrieB.

our house is really old with really thick walls, so while we are at work during the day, we basically close everything up, the windows and curtains.

When we get home at night, its usually cooler in the house then it is outside. Then I can open the windows to get the breeze going and turn on the ceiling fans. We don't have AC at all.  

jebuell

You could pick up some swamp coolers to cool off one room at a time instead of the whole house.  Or block the vents in rooms you don't use during the day.  Also open windows and shades at night and then at 10AM-ish close everything up on hot days to hold all the cool night air inside.  We had no AC at my house in San Diego and this is what we did during the really hot weeks in summer and it worked out great!

CurbsideProphet

do you have ceiling fans or an attic/exhaust fan (not sure the technical name of it).

belovedbride07

CarrieB.:

When we get home at night, its usually cooler in the house then it is outside. Then I can open the windows to get the breeze going and turn on the ceiling fans.

This is what we do, but it freaks me out to have the windows open at night so we close them after it gets dark/before we go to bed.  We have an indoor/outdoor thermometer so we can keep an eye on the temperature difference.

Where we used to live, with no AC, we had a window fan in the bedroom.  It worked wonders at getting (and keeping) the house cool at night.  It had a thermostat, so it would turn on when the room heated up to a certain temperature, and then turn itself off once it was cool enough again.  (The bedroom was upstairs, so I was able to get over my fear of open windows there.  )

Tyrna

Ditto what others have said, we open the windows early in the morning and then keep them shut until it cools off in the evenings.  Keeping the blinds shut when the sun is beating in makes a huge difference.  If you are having a hard time getting the cool air to come in on nights with no breeze you could put a small fan in the window to pull in the cooler air without having to turn on the A/C to cool rooms you aren't in.

LolitaC

Use a programable thermostat.  You can set it to run at a certain temp for an allotted timeframe.  Unfortuantely AC is the one thing I can never give up.

Alisha_A

I always grew up with AC, and now I don't have it at all, and I'm glad. Its just not typical here, and I love how it forces us all to deal in other ways, and spend more time outside. True, its not usually as hot here but we do get hot, and our houses are built to retain heat. Last summer we hit 104, and had days on end well into the upper 90s, and around 100. Yeah, it sucked, but we got through it. I don't know that I'd ever want AC or want to live anywhere that its standard again.

Durve2008

We have window awnings.  It keeps the sun from beaming in- and I can keep the windows open in the rain.  I love them.

FoxinFiji

jebuell:

You could pick up some swamp coolers to cool off one room at a time instead of the whole house.  Or block the vents in rooms you don't use during the day.  Also open windows and shades at night and then at 10AM-ish close everything up on hot days to hold all the cool night air inside.  We had no AC at my house in San Diego and this is what we did during the really hot weeks in summer and it worked out great!

Swamp coolers only work well in climates with high temperatures and low humidity.  For the op they wouldn't be a good application in Ontario.  Also be very careful to regularly clean a swamp cooler since they use open water sources which promote mold growth.  Commercially they aren't used in San Diego because there isn't sufficient water.