At Home with Lisa: Tips to stay cool when it's hot outside

This summer seems is a lot hotter than usual, especially this week. Generally, the weather doesn’t start to get really hot until after the Fourth of July.

We’ve already had several scorching days here in the Spokane area, and summer is just getting started. I don’t mind—I’ve always tried to appreciate the hot days because there seem to be fewer of them then the really cold ones.

That said, I don’t really feel like heating up my house with a lot of appliances this time of year, either. The last thing I want to do during the day is turn on my hot oven or clothes dryer.

Avista’s summer energy savings tips suggest using heat-producing appliances, such as clothes dryers, ovens, ranges and dishwashers after 7 p.m.

This works well for me, especially on these long summer nights that don’t really get dark until around 9 p.m.

These last few months have been preparing these me for this hot summer: my plan to keep cool while being energy efficient revolves around a lot of the stories I’ve written lately.

On a recent hot day, I kept the curtains in my living room closed all day to keep the sun’s rays from heating up my living room. I turned on my ceiling fan to circulate the air instead of the air conditioner. For dinner, I decided to have salad, since I didn’t want to heat up my kitchen by using the range or the oven.

I had a chance to relax for a little while after that. I read for a little while and let the stress of the day fall away. Starting chores later gave me a chance to decompress and breathe before plunging into the next task, laundry. I can either wait until the evening, or I can get out my laundry rack and dry my clothes outside instead of using my dryer.

This summer, saving energy will be super easy if I just slow down and wait until the day cools off before I start my chores.

Lisa, an Avista customer, bought her 1910 house because she loved the old-world character, some of which doesn’t make her house very energy efficient. Lisa is sharing her experience on taking some simple do-it-yourself improvements to inspire others to do the same. You’ll find her stories right here every Tuesday.


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Tags:

  1. At Home with Lisa
  2. Summer
  3. Energy Saving

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