by Be it a single storey residence or a muti-storey apartment, one thing that matters the most is how to reduce the temperature inside the building without using active cooling systems. Passive home temperature reduction techniques can reduce your cost of cooling your space, without resorting to extravagant retrofits or skillful installations.
Therefore, here are some tips for keeping your home temperature cool with less impact on the environment:
1) Understanding the ideal building orientation
Importance should be given to the sun’s path and prevailing wind patterns to reduce the home temperature and increase the air flow. The largest dimension of the house can be oriented towards north and south with maximum windows on those sides. Care should be given to give more windows in south than east or west. As a result, you increase airflow and cool down the building.
2) Cross ventilation matters!
A properly ventilated building ensures that the temperature inside is lesser by maintaining a steady circulation of air from one side of your building to other. Since wind ventilation is the easiest, most common and least expensive form of passive cooling, maximum cross ventilation should be provided in the design considering the prevailing wind pattern.
We can use operable windows, louvers, rooftop vents etc to attain maximum ventilation. Design the sizes of the windows and doors carefully as their sizes impact the extent of cross ventilation.
3) Keep your roof cool
Since roof is one of the largest sources of heat gain, shading the roof plays a major role in reducing the temperature. Therefore, we can apply a reflective coat of any light color on the roof of a building. This will prevent heat from entering in to the building.
Tiling the roof is also another option to reduce the heat since they offer very good thermal insulation and thus reducing the heat conductivity of the roof. A layer of white lime wash will act as a reflective surface but it washes away in rain. As a result, you will need to re-apply.
In addition to that, providing roof garden or cultivating plants on the terrace helps to cool down a residence/building naturally.
4) Adoption of suitable construction materials
Materials for construction should be chosen with utmost care. Keep in mind to use materials with good thermal insulation considering their ability to re- release passive cooling, low reflection and slow heat transmission.
5) Use shading devices
Probably the simplest and effective way to cool your home is by providing shade for the building as it acts as a barrier for the solar radiations. Sunshades, vertical louvers, roll down blinds, shade screens etc can be used. For instance, external shading will be much more effective than internal shadings since they cut off the path of radiations right at the window.
6) Go green!
Trees and foliage which provides maximum shade and lower air temperature surely add beautiful landscaping to your yard. Maintaining trees over east and west side provides shade. You should take care to select the right plants, trees and creepers which should be planted at the right location.
Opting for mud or earth around the building rather than having hard pavings reduce heat reflection. These can be adorned with lawn, water-bodies or plants.
7) Charming courtyards
Providing an internal courtyard is indeed aesthetically appealing as well as works as a passive cooling agent. Internal courtyards will help improve ventilation greatly. It provides fresh air, flood the space around with daylight and offers maximum cooling effect. Therefore, you should choose to go with internal courtyards if that is an option.
8) Double glazed windows
Double glazed windows consist of two layers of glass with a layer of inert gas sealed between them. They significantly reduce the amount of heat that enters or exits the building. As a result, the building temperature will come down.
In conclusion, you can reduce internal temperature by keeping an open mind and planning carefully. Share your thoughts below!
Some of my friends put coconut tree leaves on top of concrete roof slab and it worked well. Reduced heat to an extend
Hey Sahad, growing a rooftop garden will also give a similar effect. What it effectively does is to work as a shading device, by preventing direct sunrays from hitting the roof. A rooftop garden could be seen as a little more productive than a pile of leaves that you have to replace and all 🙂
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Thank you for sharing about these 8 sure shot ways to reduce temperature of your home and keep it cool with us, these will be really helpful to many. I love reading this blog; it talks so much about planning a great idea about it. Keep sharing such informative articles in future, will be appreciated.