Smash your bills: how to stay cool without using the air conditioner

CHOICE recommends we turn to fans before an air conditioner.

"We estimate you could run a fan 24/7 all across summer, and it probably wouldn't cost you more than $40 in electricity," CHOICE household expert Chris Barnes said.

In comparison, running an air conditioner could cost hundreds or possibly thousands, Mr Barnes said.

Fans cool your body but they don't change the temperature of the room, Mr Barnes explained.

"Fans have a cooling effect by evaporative cooling. Basically, as you sweat a little bit, whether it's noticeable or not, the movement of air across your skin helps cool your skin down...fans just help accelerate and accentuate that process."

"Once it's hot inside, the fan will help a bit, but it's not actually going to make the air any colder."

Experts recommend closing any blinds or curtains and using shades to stop the heat from entering through your windows.

CSIRO reports that up to 40 per cent of the energy used to cool a home could be lost through windows. To reduce this loss, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) recommends installing double-glazing or roller blinds.

"Unfortunately, a lot of Australian homes are not very airtight. They're not very well designed for thermal efficiency," he said.

Mr Barnes suggests checking for air leaks around your home by using an incense stick.

"Where does the smoke flutter? Under the doors is an obvious one. A good old door snake can do the job there," he said.

A higher-tech option is using a thermal imaging camera which could reveal the "thermal hotspots" in your home.

Some libraries allow residents to borrow these cameras for free.

Western Sydney University Associate Professor Stephen Healy said there are cooling strategies we could recover from decades ago.

"These are all kinds of know-hows that were ready to hand 50 or 60 years ago, but in a sense, air conditioning has sort of obliterated our memory of those cultural practices," he said.

The geographer interviewed social housing residents in Western Sydney about their cooling strategies. During extremely hot days, the region is often 6 to 10 degrees hotter than the city.

"In one of the communities we've been looking at in Riverwood there's a large elderly Chinese population and one of the things that they talked about was using cooling foods,"

"They switched their diet during summer months eating things like rice congee and mung beans, which bring down bodily temperature."

Associate Professor Healy recommends planning your daily schedule around the heat by cooking and exercising during cooler parts of the day.

"Opt for things that don't require cooking particularly in the evening. So things like salad or pre-prepared foods from the night before," he said.

Residents also opted to wear loose-fitting clothes and use 'body wraps' refrigerated damp towels draped around their necks or wrists.

"Foot baths are another thing if you can cool the feet, that also has an effect on overall body temperature and the feeling of coolness," Associate Professor Healy said.

Residents also searched for 'cool refuges' like libraries, lakes, pools, community halls, and shopping centres.

"It's not that there's no place for air conditioning, but when that's our only response, it's a self-limiting proposition," Associate Professor Healy said.

"And really what it does is it forces life indoors, and then as a consequence, we have other issues like isolation and loneliness, and lack of social cohesion."

While using a fan is the more cost-effective and environmentally friendly option, an air conditioner is the best option for humid weather.

"If it's hot and dry, fans are great. If it's hot and humid, there's a limit to how effective they are," Associate Professor Healy said.

If you do reach for the air conditioner, CHOICE expert Mr Barnes suggests you "don't turn it down to an arctic level" as this doesn't cool the house any quicker.

"The hotter it is outside and the colder you try to make it inside, the more energy the air conditioner has to use to try and meet that goal," Mr Barnes said.

An eight-degree difference between outdoor and indoor temperature "is the sweet spot," he suggested.

"24, 25 degrees is fine for most people. Particularly because air conditioners also control the humidity in the room,

"If it's a 40-degree day, obviously you're still gonna try and set it to the mid-20s and you're just gonna have to wear that, that's gonna be a bit harder work for the air conditioner."