A pergola can prevent sun from entering your home and creates shade in exposed outdoor areas.

Summer has arrived, earlier and hotter than usual this year. There are plenty of bonuses to the summer season - like long warm evenings, swimming, boating and barbeques. If your house gets too hot in summer, however, it can be a real pain. What we all want is to be able to escape the sun’s rays to a nice, cool home.

If you’re building a house, you can take this into consideration. Your architect or builder will be able to tell you what you need to make sure you have a ‘warm in winter, cool in summer’ home. For example, fixed overhangs above windows can be incorporated into your build, giving you sun in winter and shade in summer (during the summer the sun is much higher in the sky than in the winter).

If summer heat is something that you didn’t think about during your build, or you’ve bought an existing house, it can be a little trickier (quick fixes like fans aside). However, there are things you can do to keep your house cool, and some of them add to the value of your home long-term, too.

Insulation is key! It’s easy to just think that insulation is for winter. Good heating and wearing extra layers can keep you warm in winter, but you can only strip off so many layers in summer. Unwanted heat gain enters a house not only through windows, but also through the walls and roof of a house. Good insulation will be a worthwhile investment year-round.

Planting a carefully-placed tree or two can be as useful as any electronic cooling system around. Trees also add value to your home and look attractive. They do the legwork for you: trees lets the sun through in winter and grows leaves in summer to block it. Shade trees planted on the north and west are most effective at cooling homes.

A pergola or sun sail is both a practical way to keep the sun out and an attractive addition to your home that is ideal for outdoor entertaining. A large pergola reaching from the outside of your main living area across your deck will give you shaded, cooler area both inside and outside. Smaller awnings can be installed above any other windows that get a lot of sun.

For those of you that don’t want to spend too much keeping your house cool, there are some other simple fixes. Buy some thermally lined blinds or windows for the sunniest rooms in the house, install heat pumps or fans to use at the warmest time of the day, and rearrange your living room furniture to be in shadier spots for summer.

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