5 Green Ways to Stay Cool This Summer

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Summer means no school, pool parties, barbeques, sunshine and fun. Summer also means sweaty clothing, hot rooms and desperate attempts at fanning yourself. You probably have plenty of things you like about summer, but the odds are that you have tried and failed to successfully combat the summer heat. If you have succeeded, you probably winced when you got the bill for the air conditioning.

Keeping cool in the summer is tricky enough, but it gets even harder when you want to stay green. No matter how well it works, blasting the AC all day, every day is not the best thing to do for the environment. Staying green, however, does not mean you have to stay hot during the summer. There are ways to both do your part for the environment and still keep your home and yourself a comfortable temperature. Here are five green ways to stay cool this summer.

Wear light, loose clothing.

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You may want to show off your bathing suit body, but skin tight clothing will have you overheating quickly in the middle of the summer. Tight clothing traps the air warmed by your body heat against your skin which keeps you warmer. Tight clothing can also inhibit the airflow needed to help your sweat evaporate. When your sweat does not evaporate, you feel hotter than ever. This is why humid days feel so much warmer than dry days.

Wear clothing that does not stick to your body such as loose t-shirts, jersey shirts, maxi dresses or peasant skirts. Stick with lightweight, natural fabrics as well. Cotton and linen are good choices during the summer. Polyester and spandex are not.

Stick with light, loose clothing inside as well as outside. This will help you keep your air conditioning use minimal instead of turning down the AC because you are lounging on the couch in a pair of jeans. If you are someone that just cannot live without denim, go with a pair of jean shorts instead.

Limit your oven and stove usage.

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Anyone who cooks regularly knows that it gets pretty toasty in the kitchen when the oven is running and that standing over a frying pan can leave a person feeling uncomfortably warm even in the winter. As such, lots of stovetop and oven baked meals are a bad idea if you are trying to keep cool. During the summer, try to make meals that require minimal oven and stove usage. When you do need to use the oven or stove, use it for as little time as possible. Cut meat into thin strips and chop veggies into small pieces to facilitate quick cooking.

As much as professional cooks and home cooking experts would be horrified, the microwave is your friend during the summer. Stick scrambled eggs in the microwave to cook rather than standing over a skillet or use it to steam vegetables instead of sautéing them. If you have a grill, that is another appliance that makes summer living much easier. Grill your food instead of cooking it on the stove. You can also have your grill double as your outdoor oven during the summer. Wrap foods that you want to have an oven taste in aluminum foil and put them on the grill. Close the lid to the grill and you have, essentially, an oven.

Eat and drink carefully.

You probably do not think about what you are eating or drinking as seriously contributing to how hot you feel during the summer, but what you put in your body effects your temperature quite a bit. When you eat spicy foods or heavy meals, you tend to feel warmer. This is not just all in your head either. Certain spices have been shown to actually raise a person’s body temperature slightly. So, if you really want to stay cool, stick with light, cold-served meals. Salads, raw vegetables and chilled fish work well for cool summer meals. They also tend to be lightweight which can help you stay cool.

Water is essential for every aspect of life, and bodily temperature control is no exception. If you are dehydrated, your body cannot produce sweat as effectively. While this may seem like a good thing at first glance, no one really likes being sweaty after all, the inability to sweat effectively will quickly leave you roasting in the summer. Sweat is how your body gets rid of heat. When you are dehydrated, your body cannot rid itself of heat as effectively, so you feel too hot. In addition to helping you sweat, a glass of cold water can temporarily bring down your internal body temperature helping you cool off.

Time your showers carefully.

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Very few people take cold showers by choice. If you are one of those few, you have little to worry about when it comes to showering during the summer. If you are part of the majority of people that prefer warm or hot water in their showers, you need to think carefully about when it makes the most sense to shower during the summer. When you take a hot shower, the air in the bathroom heats up and the steam from the shower spreads throughout the house. Even if you turn on the bathroom fan and shut the door, some of that heat will escape and warm the rest of your home. As such, shower at a time during the day when the extra heat will not be a problem such as shortly before you need to leave. If you shower before work or before running errands, you will not be home to be bothered by the excess heat. Showering before bed, on the other hand, is not a good idea during the summer. While nights are cooler, the excess heat is not likely to have enough time to dissipate before you go to sleep. This can, in turn, effect the amount of rest you get as human beings tend to sleep best at temperatures in the mid to low 60’s.

Manage your windows.

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The sun is hot. If you have ever sought shade during the summer or sat in a patch of sunshine on a cold winter day, you are acutely aware of exactly how warm sunlight can be and how it warms your surroundings. As such, when you want to stay cool and stay green during the summer, you want to keep that sunlight out as much as you can. Close your blinds or curtains during the day so that the sunlight does not come beating into your house. To let in natural light while keeping out the heat of the sun, close the blinds on windows that face the sun and open the curtains above windows that are facing away from the sun. If you are going to be gone during the day, simply close all of your blinds and curtains before you leave to keep the sun out.

If you live an area that has low humidity or you are lucky enough to get cool summer nights, open your windows at night. This will both let some of the built up heat in your house dissipate and allow fresh air inside. Check how warm it is before you start opening windows, though, no matter how much you want some night air. Summer nights are not always much cooler than the days, so if you are not careful, you might be inviting that heat you worked so hard to get rid of right back inside.