Keep your body and mind cool this blazing Summer but don’t forget to make your home summer ready too!
The summer brings with it sweat, grime, power cuts and worse still many water/air borne illnesses that get passed around from person to person like summer specials. So while most people ensure to remember they incorporate a special diet with plenty of fluids that keep the body and mind cool through the blazing season, most times the environment where we live is forgotten and often left ignored. Similar to our body, the home also needs a few alterations in order to make it summer ready.
Bring out the juices!
There are a couple of changes that can be introduced in the house in order to make your home summertime prepped, just a few easy things that can be done while you’re sipping on a cool glass of juice.
The typical Indian summer
Summers in our country are usually long periods of a warm, dry climate that can either be too hot for comfort or way too hot to handle. Either ways, there is little respite from the heat except for the solace that can be found in ice candies and the cooling indoors of a well-ventilated home.
However, if you’re among those whose hands are permanently glued to the air-conditioner remote, you may find that it’s not just the hefty power bills that are causing discomfort but also the fact that there are some advance maintenance checks that have gone unnoticed and are the real cause for worry.
Lets take a look at a few tips that should get you started-
To keep your air-conditioner at home in tip top working order ensure to-
Tune up
When you tune up your air conditioning (AC) unit you will be ensuring that your appliance is running and working as efficiently as it possibly can. Much like your regular health checks or servicing trips to the auto garage, a timely check by a qualified electrician/ service agency will remove any clogged up filters, top-up or check the gas/ refrigerant level, make sure that the fan is unclogged and functioning smoothly, clean the coils that are actually very crucial to ensure the cooling is effective whilst making sure that you avoid hefty power bills because of an overworked system.
Changing or servicing the air filters of the AC is usually a sure fire way of keeping your power bills low and keeping the system running perfectly. Experts suggest replacing the air filters at least once a month, especially in the summertime.
Take care of the exteriors
Among the few reasons why summer heat pervades walls and gets to the interiors of the home is because of improper exteriors of the building. That is to say the cracks these non-structural cracks are crevices that happen over time but which deepen over the years and cause problems such as seepage during rains and heat pervading the building causing further damage. Though it cannot be called as a direct problem creator, one thing is for sure, the better managed the exteriors of the building; the more resilient it will be to fluctuations in weather.
Another important thing to keep in mind is the façade of the building, i.e. the exterior part of the building. Ensure that as a practice before the summer sets in, the exteriors are pressure cleaned and the dirt is removed so as to make sure that the white paint (or the lighter colours of the building) can properly deflect the heat.
Driveways of the building
Recent pictures in the newspapers have shown extreme heat melting concretised/ tarred roads and highways, which is why it is no surprise that even the roads, pavements and other exposed surfaces need to be checked for cracks. Needless to say, these cracks need to be repaired.
Very often common areas such as clubhouses and community halls are standalone structures and because of improper cover on them are the direct recipients of extreme heat. The roofs and the windows of these structures need to be checked for ensuring that no cracks and peeling paints cause unnecessary heating within.
Windows of the house
Imagine switching on the AC and waiting for eternity for the room to cool up. Needless to say, heat coming in from the outside through the windows needs to be checked and sealed if necessary. Likewise this check will also make sure that your cooling AC air doesn’t go out the window’s open area.
