Trying to maintain a comfortable temperature in your home during a heatwave can be tricky, particularly if you're eco-conscious.  Here are a few ways to stay cool when the temperatures rise, without harming the planet.

Invest in solar panels

Keeping your HVAC system on full-blast during a heatwave can dramatically increase your household's energy consumption.  However, there's no denying how effective these systems are at creating a comfortable, cool living environment. If you want to make use of your HVAC unit but are concerned about the impact this will have on your household's carbon footprint, it might be a good idea to have solar panels fitted onto your property's roof.  

These panels will enable you to use a renewable resource to generate electricity for your HVAC system (as well as your other electrical appliances).  Although there is a substantial upfront investment involved, this approach will also ultimately save you money, by lowering your energy bills in the long-term.

Monitor and reduce your usage of heat-producing goods

Electrical devices can produce a considerable amount of heat, both when they're in use and when they're in 'stand-by' mode. As such, you can reduce the temperature in your home, along with your electricity bills and your household's environment impact, simply by making more of an effort to cut down on your usage of gadgets and appliances and by unplugging them immediately after you're finished using them.

Additionally, try to be selective about the times of day that you use appliances which generate a lot of heat, such as the oven or the washing machine; using them early in the morning when the sun is at its weakest, rather than during the middle of the afternoon when it's at its strongest, will ensure that they don't make an already-warm environment even hotter.

Seal up draughts

If you have an air-conditioning system in your home, it's important to take measures to prevent the cooled air it produces from escaping from the property, as this could lead to you extending the length of time you keep the unit switched on, which will increase your energy consumption and your environmental impact.

There are a number of different ways to do this; you can use foam to seal up gaps around your home's windows and wall-to-ceiling joints and place a rubber strip at the bottom of interior doors to close up any open spaces. A word of warning, however: make sure not to draught-proof areas of your home that require ventilation, such as the bathroom. Sealing up humid rooms can result in the development of mildew and mould.