Using Your Windows to Trump the Weather

Windows and Weather

With regard to the sporadic weather patterns of recent years, there is something that we can all agree on: the summers are getting hotter, the winters are getting colder and the springs and falls are much shorter than they used to be.

There are lots of things that you can do to beat the oppressive heat of the summer and the bone chilling cold of winter. You can use fans, heaters, fireplaces, your own clothes, etc. to help you regulate your body temperature and the temperature of your home. You can also use your windows.

Summer Windows

During the summer, one of the best things you can do to reduce the amount of heat in your home is to hang up some blinds (thick wooden ones, like bamboo) over the outside of your windows. When you hang blinds on the outside of your window, you keep the heat of the sun from making contact with the glass or plastic in your windows (which effectively turns your windows into giant magnifying glasses and you into an ant).

If you don’t own your home and aren’t able to put up blinds on the outside of your house, that’s okay. You can buy heat absorbing film and put it on the inside of your windows to help reduce that ant/magnifying glass scenario we just talked about.

Tip: Keeping your windows open during the cooler parts of the day and closed during the hotter parts of the day also goes a long way toward helping you regulate your home’s temperature.