Summer is coming, and the slowly rising temperatures are proof of that. Luckily, we haven’t quite reached the hottest parts of the year, so you still have a bit of time to prep for the scorching sun.

The easiest way to beat the heat is by cranking your A/C up so that your house is a cool 68 degrees. Not only would that be an extremely comfortable temperature to be in, but it would also send your electricity bill higher than the mercury in the thermometer.

A growing consensus says that 78 degrees is the best place for your thermostat to be: it’s a cool enough temperature to keep you comfortable, and it’s a warm enough temperature to keep your electricity costs down.

Here are five things you can do to welcome the incoming heat.

Close the blinds and the curtains

It’s no secret that the sun’s to blame for a hot home, so doing your best to keep the sun out of your house is the first step to keeping your house cool. Sure, drawing the curtains or shutting the blinds won’t stop the sun’s heat, but creating shade within your space will help the temperatures down.

In fact, according to an article published by Family Handyman, you can save up to 7 percent on your energy bills by keeping the sun out of your house using blinds and curtains. Not only that, but keeping your blinds and curtains closed can lower interior temperatures by up to 20 degrees.

Don't turn your A/C off when you leave the house

It's common practice by a lot of people to shut their A/C off completely when they leave the house. After all, if you’re not there to use it, why would you have the cool air running all day, right?

Actually, it’s a bit of a balancing act when it comes to energy conservation when you’re out of the house. You don’t want to shut off the A/C completely, but you don’t want to cool an area where no one is there to enjoy the cold air.

When you leave your house, set the thermostat to 82 degrees. That way, your A/C unit won’t have to go into overdrive to cool your house back down, but it will still be saving energy because it won’t be at the 78-degree level.

Do the heavy cleaning at night

Dishwashers and laundry machines use quite a bit of hot water, so consequently, they give off a lot of heat. The dishwasher uses hot water to get all of the caked-on food off of your dishware, and then it uses heat to dry the dishes off. Pair that with the heat that comes from washing a load of laundry using hot water and from drying your clothes on high heat.

Plan on doing laundry on nights when you don’t run the dishwasher and save yourself the sweat (and the money) by avoiding morning cleaning.

Take advantage of the weather and have a cookout

The heat stoves and ovens create can warm your house up in a hurry. Once the oven door opens up, all 325 degrees that were kept inside cancel out all of the work that your A/C did to cool your house down.

You can use this as an excuse to break out the grill and have a cookout. By cooking outside, you not only keep the hot air in the oven that you would have used from heating the house, but you can also give your A/C a break and set the thermostat to 82 degrees while you’re all outside with the family.

Give your A/C unit the tune-up it needs

Even after doing all of this, you are still going to want to use your A/C unit. In order to get the best out of your air conditioning, both financially and temperature speaking, you may want to give your A/C a tune-up.

Professionals at places like SameDay Heating & Air can come out to your place and take a look at your A/C unit, checking for proper operation and functionality of the most important gadget you’ll need this summer. For more information on getting an A/C tune-up, visit SameDay’s website

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