Even though temperatures are still in the 70s, the heat of summer isn’t far off. And already, our apartment has been heating up during the day. I’d made my own heavy, dark curtains for the sunroom (which has EIGHT windows), the spare bedroom and the dining room, and installed shades on the ones in the living room.. But I wonder if that will be enough to keep us cool.
We only have one air conditioner, so I’m wondering if there are additional things I can do to keep us cool. We can’t put an air conditioner in the bedroom, because unfortunately, the outlets are not polarized and I don’t think the circuit could handle the load, anyway.
I found this article on MSN Money, 25 cheap ways to keep cool in summer, and it mentioned using LIGHT-colored curtains to reflect the sun away from the house. But I still think keeping the dark curtains closed works better. We have light ones in the bedroom, and it doesn’t feel any cooler in there.
Our windows, although only a few years old, need to be weatherstripped or caulked — there are a few where you can actually see the curtains move from the wind whistling through the cracks. I might suck it up and do that.
I’m also thinking of making a set of curtains for the archway between the living room and the sunroom, since those eight front windows seem to be the source of most of the apartment’s heat.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep cooler this summer and save more on electricity than we did last year!
