In Your Home Environment

There must be Shade: Perth homes need effective shade for east and west facing windows. Sometimes the South African weather can be unforgiving. Extra shade means your house stays cooler, and your air conditioning doesn’t need to work as hard and there is a lot of air circulation.

Plant Some Trees: If you own a house, plant a range of attractive and useful ‘Shade Trees’. Make sure you have passive solar heating in winter.

Close Up: Keep your house closed where possible on hotter days to stop any unwanted heat or humidity seeping through.

Open Interior Doors: Make sure you keep your interior doors open to allow cool air to flow through your house.

Ventilate in the evenings: When it cools down in the evening, open up your windows and let your house ventilate natural.

Weird Cooling Tips

Eat Fresh Fruit: Whether you realise it or not, you dehydrate really quickly when it’s hot. To cool your body temperature, eat a lot of fruit that naturally contains water, like Pomegranates, Oranges,Bananas, Cranberries, Pineapple and Persimmons. Pick up delicious seasonal fruit from local markets in Johannesburg and Pretoria for a cooling snack.

Avoid Caffeine: If you can resist it, avoid caffeinated drinks such as coffee as caffeine promotes dehydration also avoid eating a lot of carbs which are then turned into excess sugar which the body doesn't need.

Wear thermal heat vests inside to keep warm in winter : and wear lighter colours Darker colours tend to absorb more heat.

Freeze Your Sheets In Summer: Place your pillowcases and sheets in bags in the freezer. Take them out before you go to sleep. But more importantly keep your hot water bottle to avoid getting too much cold through the night.

Freeze Some Bottles: Place them in front of a fan. As the ice freezes, the air will cool down, and the fan will blow the air towards you.

Quali-Tea Cooling: Brew some peppermint tea, and leave it to cool in the fridge. Once it has cooled down, transfer it to a spray bottle, and you’ve got yourself a refreshingly cool body spray.

Maximising Your Air Con

Maintain: Make sure you maintain your system properly, to maximise efficiency. Aim to clean the filter at least once a month during Johannesburg’s warmer months.

Don’t Dehumidify: If you have air conditioning, try not to have it running at the same time as a dehumidifier. It will increase amount of energy your aircon needs to use, and make the aircon work harder for the same result.

Don’t Waste Energy: If you’re going to be out of a room for more than an hour, turn off your air con.

Replace: If you have an old air conditioning system, it is not going to be as cost-effective or energy efficient as its younger, cooler counterparts. Consider whether it’s time to replace it with a more modern system.

If all else fails, just follow Edna’s lead and roll around in something cold!

Stay Cool This Summer

If you’re considering replacing your system, then check out the ‘Hottest Ever Summer Sale’, or head to your local Ambience Air store and talk to our friendly staff about updating your system.