When spring arrives in Melbourne, we love opening up our windows and doors and letting in the sunshine and warm weather. But as summer temperatures start to rise, we inevitably start to think about ways to keep our home and ourselves cool.

Before you invest in another air conditioner, there are a number of things you can do to heat proof inside your home, using passive cooling solutions. 

Passive & Active Cooling

Passive solar principles may be unfamiliar, but they aren't complicated. There are a few basics to know about, and once you've implemented them, you'll be kicking yourself, you didn't know sooner. Cooling your home passively is about understanding the orientation of your home in relation to the sun's movement throughout the day, and implementing some basic insulating, shading and ventilation practices to offset summer heat. These methods are passive because they don't require the use of energy to cool.

Active cooling uses energy to cool your home. Air conditioners and fans are active, because they use electricity. Active cooling isn't 'bad' - many passive homes will use a combination of active and passive principles in the height of summer. There are also some things you can do to make active cooling solutions in your home work more efficiently and save you money.

Ideally, to reduce costs, you want your home to be able to stay cool using the least amount of energy as possible. While you can't change the direction your home faces or do much about where windows are located, there are still many affordable things you can do that will cut the heat in your home, improve energy efficiency, and reduce your energy bills. 

1. Windows

Windows transfer a lot of heat into your home, particularly on the north and the west in Australia. We all love windows and newer homes tend to have a lot of glass. While that's great for light and views, glass transfers a lot of heat and depending where they face and how big they are, they will act like a hot house in summer.

Curtains: Investing in good quality blockout curtains over your north and west facing windows will help reduce heat.

Blinds & Awnings: External blinds are even better than curtains and will block the heat of the sun before it hits the glass.

Solar Window Film: More affordable than blinds is solar window film. Solar window film or winding tinting won't block the light or your view. It blocks between 78 and 99 percent of UV light, and can lead to a 30 to 40 percent drop in energy bills. Installation is easy and affordable and there's no ongoing maintenance. Good quality solar window film will last for 20 years or more - an affordable investment for a significant energy saving. 

2. Garden & Landscaping

When it comes to cooling our cities and our homes, plants are our friends. Trees and greenery can lower the temperature in city streets by a staggering 10 degrees.

In Australia, the full brunt of the heat in summer comes from the north and west. We rely on winter sun to help warm our homes, so planting deciduous trees on the north side that shade in summer and bring in the sun in the winter are best. Alternatively, a pergola over north and west facing windows with a deciduous vine will make a big difference. 

3. Insulation

Properly insulating your home roof, walls and floor is important for keeping you cool in summer. Insulation creates a barrier that keeps out the heat in summer and traps warm air inside in winter.

Poorly insulated roofs can increase your energy requirements in summer by up to 40%. Check your roof and insulate or top up with insulation that has a high R rating.

If you are renovating or replacing cladding or weatherboards on your home, use it as an opportunity to increase the insulation value in your walls. And a tip - if you are installing yourself, make sure to fill all air gaps. Don't forget about under your floors. Underfloor insulation helps, particularly in winter and is often forgotten about. 

4. Draughts

We tend to be aware of cold draughts around doors and windows in winter, but air gaps are equally bad in summer, as they allow hot air in and cold air to escape.

5. Ventilation

Proper ventilation is important in summer. At the end of the day, when the temperature drops, open up windows to take advantage of cool breezes. If you can open a window on the opposite side as well, it will help draw the cooler air through your home, cooling down your house more quickly. 

6. Improving Active Cooling

After implementing a variety of simple passive solutions, you can reduce the cost of summer energy bills even further, by making some tweaks to the way you use an air conditioner and ceiling fan.

A little bit can make a big difference. Increasing your air conditioner thermostat by just one degree will reduce the cost of running it by 10 percent. If you haven't already, consider installing ceiling fans. Most ceiling fans have two settings: clockwise for winter and anti clockwise for summer. Check to make sure your fan is on the right setting.

Finally, although incandescent light bulbs were phased out many years ago, many households still have them, and they generate a lot of heat. Replacing them with halogens, compact fluorescents, LEDs will reduce heat in your home. 

Conclusion

If we could all build an energy efficient home, sited the right way, with non existent or low energy requirements, it would be fantastic. But, unfortunately many of us live in homes which were not built for maximum efficiency. Many were built at a time when energy was cheap, before global warming was a major threat, or energy efficiency was a priority.

Today, energy efficiency and a home's green credentials are becoming increasingly important. There are lots of things you can do to improve summer temperatures in your home. As we have seen, one of the most important ways is to shade your windows - particularly on the north and western sides.

Home window tinting is one of the most cost effective ways to reduce summer temperatures in your home by blocking up to 99 percent of UV and providing an energy saving of up to 40%.

Contact us to install solar window film. We install across all Melbourne suburbs.

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Take control of your summer energy use and stay cool by installing solar window film. Reduce energy bills by up to 40%. The team at Apply? cut and install premium window film in homes, businesses across Melbourne.

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