On a normal day, a kitchen is a magical room in the house where delicious treats come to life! It becomes the busiest area whenever it’s time to prepare for daily meals and for special gatherings at home. However lovely though, kitchens undeniably get so hot and suffocating during summer because of the heat outdoors and the heat indoors! The scorching heat of the sun makes cooking at home something that many homeowners wish to avoid, but of course, that’s difficult to do because people need to eat everyday.
To keep yourself comfortable and productive in the kitchen, you can do a few adjustments in it to lessen the intensity of the heat or to at least make it bearable. Check out these 5 simple tips to make your kitchen cool in the middle of a hot summer!
1 – Use electric fans, especially an exhaust fan.
Number one on the list is the most obvious of all the right things to do in such warm situations. Use electric fans in the kitchen. Have them installed if they aren’t yet, or add another one if one is not enough to cover the whole room.
Some people feel bad about opening two electric fans at the same time, as they also point in the same direction, because of financial costs, but think about giving yourself a break from that guilty feeling for now. It’s summer, so it’s understandable to spoil yourself with something you extremely need: more air. What’s more, rainy and cold days will come soon after summer, and that’s the time to make up for those electric bills.
Exhaust fans are also a must, especially during terribly hot summers. Use one in your kitchen, so that air circulating gets replenished. The heat that comes from cooking inside will be thrown outside. Home air pollutants that warm and/or dirty the air indoors can be eliminated by exhaust fans as well.
2 – Cook early in the day.
It gets hotter as noon time approaches, so avoid cooking when it is already almost time for lunch. Cook early in the day to avoid the summer lunch’s peak heat phase. Cook in advance during low or average temperatures. If you want to, you can just reheat the food later on if they get a bit cold.
You can avoid the most uncomfortable time to cook if you choose to be an early bird that prepares food fast.
3 – Turn off the kitchen lights.
Operating lights can add heat to an already hot kitchen, so if you have windows around, turn off the kitchen lights during daytime. Natural light from the sun will enter your house anyway, so you can still move and function without issue. By doing this, you are not only lessening heat but also cutting down on energy costs. This also gives you another valid excuse to switch on another air source in the kitchen!
4 – Cover the windows.
Yes, natural light can brighten up your kitchen, allowing you to shut your artificial lights off, but if the natural light is too intense, it can bring in more strong heat. If you want to balance the temperate and the lighting, while keeping the kitchen cool, cover the windows with sheer curtains. Don’t use thick and heavy curtains. Use thin and flowy ones because they are breathable and airy.
5 – Cook outdoors if possible.
If it’s possible for you, cook outdoors. That is if you have a dirty kitchen, slash a secondary kitchen at home. Cooking outdoors relieves heat from inside your house, and it’s snugglier and safer too. Heat will not build up inside the house. Your sweat will be lessened, and your safety is secured. Speak with your trusted custom and new home builders to create a secondary kitchen for you as you need.
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IN THE KITCHEN
When it’s terribly hot and bright outside, and you’re grilling or boiling over a fiery flame, you’re sweating buckets even before you realize it. It’s annoying and unpleasant. The sticky, yucky feeling ruins your mood and your desire to cook good. Of course, left with no choice, you’ll have to keep cooking to finish and prepare meals for yourself and for your loved ones. When you don’t want to or cannot order food for delivery, it’s almost unavoidable, but the good thing is you can improve your kitchen’s conditions by seemingly simple yet helpful hacks, like those mentioned above. They don’t require expensive financial costs as well!
Besides the fact that you can stay cozy, you will be safe too, so be smart! Make your kitchen cool on a hot summer, so you can cook yummy food while feeling better than good!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nicole Ann Pore is a writer, an events host and a voice over artist. Quality and well-researched writing is her worthwhile avenue to enlighten and delight others about things that matter. She is a daytime writer for Horizon Homes, a boutique home building and designing company in Australia. Nicole graduated Cum Laude from De La Salle University Manila, Philippines with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Arts.
