Many houses heat up in the summer. However, if you pay attention to a few little things, you can reduce the temperature in the living rooms sustainably.
Many people know the problem: As soon as the outside temperatures climb up, it often gets unpleasantly warm in your own home. On really hot summer days, there's really only one way to keep the rooms reasonably cool – by darkening them. But you can also start in other places to lower the temperature in your own four walls. The consumer advice center gives a few easy-to-implement tips on how to keep the heat out.
If you ventilate well in the early hours of the morning, you have already gained a lot. But that alone is not enough. © Roman Möbius/Imago
Sustainability: tips on how to keep your home cool in summer
External blinds and shutters: The experts recommend solutions that are mounted in front of the windows from the outside. External venetian blinds or roller shutters are ideal as heat protection; They can also sometimes be retrofitted at a later date. In a rented apartment, however, you first have to ask the landlord for permission. "Less effective" than external protection are sun protection films or interior roller blinds, according to Verbraucherzentrale.de. If this variant is chosen, one would like to pay attention to "systems with white or reflective surfaces with low transparency", according to the council. After all, the higher the reflection, the better the protection against overheating. Another tip if you want to go quickly at home and there is no other protection: "Hang a white cloth outside the window."Eliminate superfluous heat sources: It is not only the sun that heats up the apartment, as the experts describe. Electrical appliances also produced heat in continuous operation. These include lamps, refrigerators, freezers, televisions or computers. The tip: "Unplug if you are not using the devices at the moment or for a long time – instead of just going into standby mode." A second refrigerator may come in handy. "But what it extracts from its contents in terms of heat, it releases directly into the room," emphasizes the consumer advice center on its website. You should defrost the freezer regularly anyway.Shut down the heaters if necessary: If possible, the experts advise switching off the heating completely in summer – "or stop summer operation". Do you also use the heating in a single-family house for hot water? "Then you can't just turn off the heating," the post reads. But: "An additional control system for the hot water circulation can be useful here."Ventilate properly: During the day, you should not open the windows too often if you want to keep the heat out. At night or in the early morning hours, on the other hand, the air is even cooler - that's why you should take advantage of these times for extensive ventilation in the apartment. Ideally, night ventilation is ideal, according to the consumer advice center. As a result, the stored heat can escape from the house for several hours. Moving air feels cooler than stagnant air, according to the note. "Are you missing a breath of fresh air? Then a fan could be a good alternative to the expensive air conditioner," it says on their website, among other things. Fans can be bought from around 25 euros.You can find everything you need to know about household and gardening tips in the living newsletter from our partner Merkur.de.
If you want to save energy at home, you should also know what consumes a lot of electricity in your home.
