Outside of some platitudes and general advice we hear through the grapevine, it’s fair to say that moving from one temperature zone to another isn’t given the attention it deserves. Such an experience is often framed in a positive way, after all, who doesn’t want to move from a freezing climate to a hotter one? Or perhaps if you’re tired of the sunlight, heading to a less temperate climate can help you cool off and think a little more clearly, again, this is portrayed as a nice change. Sometimes it is.

But what if you’re struggling to cope with living in your own home due to the difference in your experience? Might it be healthier to take a step back and try to adjust the situation? We believe so. In this post, we’ll discuss how to move to a hotter area with confidence and potentially find yourself some comfort with the right investments:

Install Evaporative Coolers

You may find that the usual air conditioning can feel harsh and dry, but evaporative coolers are different. They add a bit of moisture to the air while cooling things down, so your skin and eyes don’t get irritated, and they cost less to run. This is pretty important when you need cooling most days. A lot of people don’t realize how much gentler these systems feel compared to traditional AC. The air stays fresh rather than feeling stale and recycled, and you won’t get that shock of walking into an icebox every time you come home, which can be a benefit all by itself. It will also help you convince your partner to install a unit even if they’re quite frugal.

Perfect Ventilation

When you open windows on different sides of the house, you can enjoy comfortable cross breezes flowing through. A lot of people living in hot places put ceiling fans in their main rooms and bedrooms too. It’s quite instructive to see how older houses in warm areas were built, as they usually have really high ceilings and big windows. People figured out what worked best over hundreds of years of dealing with the heat for that exact reason. Sometimes just changing when you open your windows makes a fair difference. Many residents in hot climates open everything up early in the morning to let in cool air, then close up before the day heats up, and we’d recommend that too.

Window Seals

Nobody particularly thinks about window seals until they live somewhere really hot. But if you have gaps there, they let all your cool air slip right out and hot air sneaks in. New sealing materials hold up better in the heat and sun than the old stuff does, especially in houses with character and history. It might seem like a small thing, but it keeps your house cooler and your energy bills lower. You can easily find weatherstripping that’s made specifically for hot climates now, which won’t melt or degrade in the sun like regular seals might. Even the space under doors can let in surprising amounts of hot air, but door sweeps are an easy fix for this common problem.

With this advice, we hope you can make your home more livable even in hot environments, and benefit as a result.

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