Keep your cool this summer
By Nicole Vaive -- Calgary Sun
Hot summer days mean barbecues, gardening and soaking up the sun.
For some homeowners, though, summer also means stifling indoor temperatures and sleepless nights, tossing and turning in a steaming hot house.
So we decided to ask the experts: How can I keep my house cool when it's hot outside?
"Definitely fans do work well at cooling down the room," says Signature Lighting and Fans' Lorie Aaron.
"They're really good at re-circulating the air. It's like a convection type of effect."
And ranging in price from less than $85 to more than $1,200, ceiling fans are often cost-effective, too.
The only catch: Making sure you have the right one for your home.
"Ideally, you want the fan blades eight to 10 feet from the floor," Aaron says.
"If you've got this high, vast ceiling, you're not going to feel the wind chill. It's the wind chill that keeps you cool."
Aaron says different sized blades, different pitches and different arm lengths can all noticeably affect the temperature.
For those piping-hot days when a fan isn't enough, though, Jordan Derdall says air conditioning may be the answer.
"You can turn your fan on continuous, but when it gets above 20C, it doesn't do much for your house."
The president of W and J Heating says Calgarians have various options when it comes to keeping cool.
"You can get room air conditioners which are only cooling one room," he says.
Those typically cost between $300 and $1,200.
But, if you're willing to shell out a little more dough -- around $2,500 to $3,000 -- central air conditioning can be installed.
"The luxury of central air conditioning, of course, has a price, but it's worth it. It raises your resale value on the home right off the bat."
Derdall says another way to stretch your money is to buy a medium-efficiency system.
"We don't live in California," he says.
"A 13.5 seers rating is not the highest efficiency, but it's not the lowest efficiency. The problem with going high efficient is we're not using it 12 months a year."
But, for those two months when the fan or A/C will surely be switched on, homeowners will be sleeping easy.