Best AC & Heater Advice

How is it that we forget how miserable summer can be until we’re profusely sweating just from sitting outside for our lunch break? Summer isn’t all beach trips and rosé on rooftops, people! This season has the potential to be a hot, humid, sweaty mess. You could blast the AC for the next three months—but it’s expensive and not great for the environment—or you could use your awesome design skills to hack your way to a cooler home.

While they’re absolute LIFE SAVERS in the summer months (or, if you live in the South like me, 11 months out of the year), A/C window units are pretty much hideous. But, cooler temperatures bring the opportunity to hide or disguise that window A/C during the winter, and it’s a small tweak that will dramatically upgrade a room’s look.

Mara’s condo has a necessary but unsightly feature smack dab in the middle of the living room: a wall-mounted air conditioner. She desperately wanted to disguise the yellowed AC unit so it was still accessible and functional, but infinitely better looking. After giving her IKEA BILLY bookcase a discriminating look, she reckoned it was tall and wide enough to fit nicely around the eyesore. Let the hack commence!

Brrr! Have winter temperatures outside been a little too present in the inside of your home? If you’ve got cold rooms, we’ve got the fool-proof ways to warm them up. Start from the top of this list and work your way down to see if any of these culprits have been keeping your rooms too cold to enjoy! First, check to see if you’re doing everything to keep the cold out. Drafts from windows are the first place to look.

Now the daily temperatures have dipped down into the “gotta put on some socks and a sweater” range, it also means I’ve been adjusting morning showers or post-workout baths into the steamy-hot triple digits.

There’s nothing like the crackle, warmth and glow from a real wood-burning fireplace. But for apartment dwellers without an existing fireplace, alternatives to the traditional chimney and flue are necessary. Ventless designs powered by eco-friendly biofuel are now available in modern materials and as ceiling-mount, wall-mount and floor standing units. Here are a few sleek designs that won’t leave you feeling left out in the cold.

We know, we know. Just writing those words hurt our hearts. But it’s true: the first day of Fall is tomorrow, which means Winter is right around the corner. Now is the time to weatherize your home before the heat is blasting in (and probably escaping out of) your home. Did you know that the amount of heat escaping through cracks in the average house is equivalent to having an open window year round? Inadequate insulation and air leakage are the leading causes of energy waste in homes.

After a collection of heat-wave-days getting a good night’s sleep can be almost impossible. Even if it cools down in the evenings, some homes remain infected with a lingering warmth, making dream time a bit of a nightmare. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up to help me cope, but please share your own —for the summer has only just begun!Clearly, there is no A/C in my humble apartment, so scratch that from the list.

Our readers are in the know. Yesterday, in our post seeking tips for warming up a very cold apartment, several readers chimed in with their hearty recommendations for parabolic heaters. I stopped mid-comment thread with the realization that I had no idea what a parabolic heater actually IS — never heard of them before.A google search followed …According to Answer Bag, this is what they are: A parabolic heater earns its name because of its shape.