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Some summer cooling options are more earth friendly than others. For example, if you run AC through your entire house, all day long, it's a huge waste of energy (you're not in every room all day) and bad for the environment due to the coolant that's added to air conditioners. So, what are some other options.

First of all as a safety warning - we all like to save the earth, but young children and the elderly are very sensitive to heat related issues. It doesn't take much to overheat a very young or older individual, so if AC is necessary, well, it is. Don't sacrifice health for the planet, not in this case, because many heat related deaths among these age groups occur each year.

Now, on to greener options:

If you live on the ground floor, in a semi warm but not blazing hot area, you may be able to get by with opening your windows in the early morning, allowing cool morning air in, then shutting both your blinds and windows for the remainder of the day. It's a dark, but cool option.

Fans can work to a point. They don't remove humidity from the air, so very humid areas won't be helped much by fans. Less humid areas can often use fans efficiently though. Fans use less energy than AC and if you set one in front of that open morning window, you'll really get your home cool before midday hits.

So far as fan options go, ceiling fans are thought to be the most efficient, but you can't take one into the bed room from the living room, so they're limited. If you use a typical fan don't forget to only use it in the room you're in and to unplug when you turn it off.

Tomorrow and the next day, we’ll look at how to use AC better and in a greener way, if AC is your only (or best cooling option) and some other greener cooling options.