Coping with Summer Heat

The heat of a Missouri summer not only can make for high utility bills, but also can be deadly. Here are some tips to help keep you comfortable, healthy and penny-wise.

Help your air conditioner help you

• Install window air conditioners snugly. Insulate spaces around air conditioners for a tighter fit.
• Plug up all cracks and spaces around room air conditioners to keep out the hot, humid air.
• If you have central air, set your thermostat no lower than 78 degrees F.
• If you want to set your thermostat above 78 degrees F, you will adjust more easily to a gradual change; move it up one degree a week until it is at 82 degrees F.
• Change or clean your air-conditioning filter once a month.

 If your home is not air-conditioned, use moving air to beat the heat

• Open all your windows early in the morning to get rid of heat and help cool the home.
• When the temperature begins to rise, close the house. Often you can keep this coolness until late afternoon.
• Keep the house closed during the hottest time of day. Check your indoor and outdoor thermometers to make sure that the indoor temperature is still cooler than outside. Later, open up your house so the cool nighttime air can lower inside temperatures.
• You can help the rising hot air move out of your house by opening windows on the lower floor toward the breeze and on the upper floor away from the breeze.

Keep your cool

• Use floor and ceiling fans as much as possible to circulate a cooling breeze. Also use window fans if not using air conditioning.
• Pull down window shades or draw curtains or blinds to block out the heat of the sun.
• Sleep in a cooler part of the house, such as the basement.
• Take showers and baths early in the morning or late at night.
• Use appliances that give off heat (iron, clothes dryer, hair dryer, etc.) only in the early morning or at night, not during the middle of the day.
• Serve your family cool meals such as sandwiches, salads or fruit dishes. Try not to use your stove, if possible, to keep from heating up the kitchen.
• Drink plenty of cool fluids (but not beer or other alcohol) to replace sweat loss.
• If your house becomes too warm, try to be in a cooler place during the hottest part of the day – a friend’s or neighbor’s home, a senior center, a shopping mall, a library or even outside in the shade of a tree.

Updated 12/12/07