In Florida, temperatures remain warm nearly year-round, ultimately reaching sweltering heat during the summer months. Accordingly, people tend to blast the AC to keep themselves cool in their apartments as temperatures begin to rise. However, cranking up the air conditioning is sure to spike your utility bills. Nobody should have to choose between being uncomfortable in their apartment and giving up their hard-earned cash.
Use the following tips to cool your Gainesville apartment without blasting the air conditioner, courtesy of our property management company, Contemporary Management Concepts, LLLP.
Contact us today to schedule a tour of our UF student apartments or our standard apartments in Gainesville!
Windows let far more heat into your apartment than you might imagine. That said, the more sunlight you can block from getting into your apartment, the easier it will be to keep temperatures nice and cool during the day. Draw your blinds during the peak hours of the day, typically between two and six in the afternoon. Feel free to open up the blinds in the morning and once the sun goes down. If temps drop enough at night, you can even crack a few windows open to let some cool air inside.
Similar to how it’s possible to prevent the sun’s warmth from permeating your apartment using your blinds, blackout curtains can be used to even greater effect. Specifically designed to block the sun’s rays from entering through windows, blackout curtains keep rooms comfortably dark. However, blackout curtain’s propensity for deflecting sunlight also makes them incredibly useful for insulating your apartment. Switch out your current curtains for blackout curtains and draw them during those peak hours to keep your apartment’s interior a few degrees cooler.
Sustaining adequate airflow is key to keeping your apartment comfortably cool, and fans are the perfect tools for creating a crisp, refreshing breeze. Place portable fans (preferably oscillating for whole-room coverage) in the places you spend the most time and turn on any ceiling fans located around the apartment. If your fans only seem to be pushing around warm air, try placing a bowl full of ice in front of some of the fans’ blades. This trick may not seem like much, but putting something cold directly in front of a fan will cool down its air stream by a few extra degrees, which can make all the difference on a hot day.
Electronics let off more heat than one might expect, enough to spike the temperature in a room by a couple of degrees. Therefore, it’s best to leave electronics such as TVs and computers off and unplugged on hot days. Keep in mind that merely turning off electronics won’t sufficiently reduce a room’s temperature, as even electronics that have been turned off may continue to produce heat so long as they’re plugged in. Be sure to unplug your electronics after shutting them down to see a temperature difference.
Who doesn’t love swaddling up in clean bed sheets after a long-drawn day? Well, how does swaddling up in clean, cool bed sheets sound? Heavenly, we know. Luckily, there are a plethora of relatively inexpensive sheets and pillows on the market that make use of remarkable self-cooling technologies and fabrics to provide that exact heavenly, refreshing comfort. Invest in some cooling sheets or a cooling pillow to keep comfy on those sweltering summer nights.