Kauai Efficient Cooling
There are many ways to cool down your Kauai home without AC to save you energy and money. With all the bright sunshine we get in Hawaii, cooling your home can be a energy hogging task if you use air conditioning.
Under the sun, a roof can reach 150 degrees fahrenheit or more (even when it’s only 80 degrees outside) and transfer heat into your living space. Keeping the heat out of your home is essential to making your home energy efficient. Radiant barriers are thin sheets of reflective material installed in the roof, ceiling, or walls that reduce the transfer of heat and can reflect up to 85 percent of the sun’s heat.
Installing attic insulation will absorb heat passing into the home through the roof. Insulation can reduce ceiling temperatures by more than 15 degrees making you more comfortable in your home.
Hot air can get trapped in your attic and keep your house warmer than necessary. A ridge vent located at the highest point of your roof uses the low pressure created by wind traveling across your roof to suck out the hot air. Ridge vents should be combined with an eave vent or a soffit vent (located at the lowest part of your roof) so that fresh air can be let into the attic to replace the hot air.
Solar-powered attic fans use clean, free energy from the sun to draw out the hot air and reduce attic temperature by as much as 40 degrees.
The easiest way for direct hot daylight to enter your house is through your windows. The best strategy to cool your home is shading. You can try overhangs, awnings, or trees to shade your windows that face the sun during the day. Inside drapes, blinds, or tinting can also help block out the sun’s rays.
Trade winds blow about 90% of the time in summer and about 50% of the time in the winter, so by opening the windows you can harness that energy and let your home cool using natural resources. The further apart the open windows are (opposite corners of the house) the more efficient the wind will be in cooling your home.
Ceiling fans can also create a gentle breeze that can take over comfort duties when the wind quits. Using an Energy Star ceiling fan instead of a typical room air conditioner can save about $446 per year.
