Keeping your exterior walls cooler during hot weather can really help decrease the amount of energy your air conditioner consumes and decrease the amount of very hot air your AC’s condenser expels outdoors (a major "urban heat island effect" contributor). Since many regions are warming up and heat waves are more common, I felt moved to explore this topic a bit and share some of what I’ve learned from living in the desert. So learn from my experience of prepping my desert home for the summer. Last year we broke heat records and this summer I was determined to do some simple, inexpensive things to keep us cooler. !

Learn more by reading my Cool Walls, Less Air Conditioning article which has more background info, some fun infrared pict ...