Okay, we’ve not seen it just yet this year. But we’re optimists. And as optimists, we believe we’ll have weeks of glorious hot sunshine this summer. When this happens you’ll need to be prepared with some ingenious ways to keep cool.

If you’re lucky you’ll have air conditioning in your office and car, but if you live in the UK you’re unlikely to have it in your home. What you most likely do have is lots of appliances. So make the most of what you’ve got by using them to your advantage to keep cool when you’re feeling hot, hot, hot.

Ditch Your Oven for Your BBQ

In hot weather, you’ll soon find yourself sweating if you switch your oven on. To avoid raising the temperature of your kitchen make the most of the sunny weather and cook up a storm on the BBQ instead. You can also prepare meals with your microwave and slow cooker or prepare meals that don’t require cooking to stop your oven pumping out heat into your home.

eSpares Tip: In winter the opposite applies! Cooking with your oven can help keep your home warm, especially if you leave the oven door open after you’ve plated up.

Avoid Leaving Your Appliance on Standby

It may surprise you to learn that appliances that don’t have anything to do with generating heat like TVs and computers can raise the temperature of your home too. When left on standby they use a little energy, some of which is lost as heat. If you get in the habit of turning your appliances off at the wall when they’re not in use your home will be cooler and you’ll save a little money on your energy bills. Double win!

Run Your Appliances in the Evenings Whilst It’s Cool

Using appliances like washing machines and dishwashers later in the day is also a good idea. These appliances just like all the rest give off a bit of heat as they run, so putting on a cycle in the middle of the day when your home is baking will raise the temperature even more. Just don’t switch your appliances on too long after the sun sets to avoid annoying your neighbours!

Keep Cool With a Good Quality Fan

To painfully state the obvious turning on a fan will cool you down when you’re hot, but perhaps not quite so obvious is how much of a difference a quality fan makes. The higher-end models don’t just cool more effectively or more quietly, they do both and use less energy at the same time!

Dyson are masters at this (yes they make fans as well as vacuum cleaners and darn good ones too!) Dyson fans heat in winter as well as cooling in summer and add a gentle whoosh rather than a jarring whirr to the ambience of your home. When it comes to fans, like so many things in life, you get what you pay for.

Use Your Fridge to Cool Your Bedding

If it’s so hot you’re finding it hard to nod off at night time one novel idea is cooling your bedding down in the fridge. Pop your pillowcases and a sheet in a plastic container to keep them clean and just refrigerate until required. That way you’ll have deliciously cold bedding come bedtime. You will, of course, have to make the bed whenever you do this, but who doesn’t love reclining on wrinkle-free sheets?

If you find your fridge isn’t cooling quite as much as you like, there are a couple of possible reasons why.

Cool Lotions in the Fridge Too

If you’ve caught the sun on your shoulders or back, rubbing on some after-sun lotion to soothe the burn feels super refreshing. Moisturising, in general, will help you keep cool in hot weather and if you store your preferred lotion in the fridge during heat waves, it’ll be even cooler. The fridge could help keep your moisturisers for longer too as beauty products, just like food, expire after a time.

As an added bonus to keeping cool, you’ll also have silky smooth skin!

Enjoy Cold Drinks Without Diluting Them

An ice-cold drink really hits the spot when you need to cool down. The only problem is, all that ice dilutes your drink. The solution is simple, freeze ice cubes made with your beverage of choice, be it orange juice, coffee or coke and pop them into your drink as required. There are also re-useable cubes out there that can be frozen and added to your glass without melting and impacting the taste of your drink.

If you were ever a girl guide or scout you know the importance of being prepared and now thankfully if the sun does shine you’ll be able to enjoy it to the full with none of the sweaty uncomfortable downsides!

In the meantime, what else could you be prepared for? An appliance breakdown perchance? Well if that unfortunate scenario ever happens to you, you know where to find us.

Tags: appliance tips, cooling appliances, keep cool