How a Tampa Home Builder Can Help You Survive a Florida Summer

Floridian summer is plain dreadful. During the summer months, temperatures vary between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. But discomfort is not all. In the Sunshine State, summer is synonymous with additional expenses that mostly happens due to the continuous use of AC. Against this backdrop, the question that every homeowner in Florida wants to be answered is how can I keep my home cool, naturally, so that I can lower my dependence on air conditioning? For ages, people have been utilizing traditional techniques to keep their interior cooler. Using ceiling fans and covering windows with thick shades are the most popular methods among them. However, it is least likely that these tricks will work in Florida. Unless your home has inbuilt architectural features that help it deflect the summer sun, it will be difficult for you to combat the tropical climatic condition merely with these meek weapons.

Have you already grabbed a parcel of land somewhere in the state? Are you planning to start the construction of your new home, soon? Well, here is good news for you – it is possible to avoid this seasonal assault. Just use the right designs and building technologies for construction. It is not hard to achieve that; any reputable contractor will help you integrate cooling features into your new home. If your lot is located near a tourist-heavy city like Tampa, it becomes even easier for you to find qualified home builders who specialize in these types of constructions.That is because, being in the middle of a real estate boom, these cities house the head offices of nationally and internally acclaimed construction companies. Here are a few tricks that your Tampa home builder might follow to help you reduce your dependence on mechanical heating needs:

Integrate Passive Design

As far as the interior temperature is concerned, much depends on how and where your house is built. Since you are going to build your home from scratch, you are in a position to take advantage of the ‘passive design’ technique which allows you to position your home in a way so that it can make the most of the seasonal sun. For example, if possible, give it an orientation so that all windows of your house face the south rather than east or west. Since more sunlight enters a room through east or west-facing windows rather than south or north-facing windows during summer, a south-facing orientation will keep your house cool and get plenty of summer breeze.

Here are two more passive design techniques that can help your home to make the most of the seasonal changes. These techniques may appear to be trivial at first glance, but they will keep your energy bills lower in the long run.

• Install windows throughout the house in such a way that they facilitate cross-ventilation, subsequently helping to offset the effects of the glaring sun.
• Plant trees around your home. When they grow up (within a few years), they will provide your home cool shade.

Install Proper Window Glasses in Proper Orientation

An experienced builder will never use the same type of glass for all the windows in your home. This is because the capacity to deflect sunrays varies with the type and quality of a glass. Not all the windows face the sun the same way throughout the day, so why use a similar type of covering for all of them? You may use Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) glasses for your south-facing windows, but for the east and the west facing windows, low-SHGC glasses are a must. Since Florida does not become too cold in the winters, you may not need too much of passive solar heat, and therefore, do not have to use more than 0.5 SHGC glasses for the south-facing windows.

Use Proper Insulation

Windows are not the only opening through which the sun’s heat energy penetrates your home. It may seep into your house even through the walls and the roof of your house. That is why you need to shield the entire exterior part of your house through proper insulation. This technique will contribute greatly to keep unwanted heat gain at the minimum. Your builder is going to refer to the BC Building Codes to determine the appropriate levels of insulation for your Florida home.

Use Reflective Walls and Roof

There is a reason why homeowners in the Mediterranean region have an inclination to wards using white. The homes that are painted white can repel the sunrays more efficiently. The same rule is applicable to roofs that are light-colored and reflective. These specially designed overhead coverings help to keep unwanted heat out of your house. While selecting the material for your roof, make sure your builder uses a type which is not only reflective but also has high emissivity. For example, a bright-colored, galvanized-metal roof may come with a high reflective index but will have low emissivity, and so, it can cause substantial heat gain. These days, all reputable builders in Florida use materials certified by the Cool Roof Rating Council or the Energy Star Roof program. These energy-efficient roofs are particularly useful in reducing the urban heat island effect,an urban area specific warming phenomena.

Design to Allow for Adequate Ventilation

Make sure that your house has a lot of windows. The more the windows the better will they help with the process of ventilation. Keep the windows closed during the day to prevent sunlight from entering your rooms. During the night, when the temperature drops significantly and the humidity is also low, open the windows to trigger the process of ‘night-flush’ that involves letting out the warmer indoor air and replacing it with cooler outdoor air.

Take Moisture Control Measures

It is not the heat alone that makes summers miserable. Humidity adds to the discomfort level, making it impossible for Floridians to turn off the AC during the day. Your builder should be able to use passive design techniques effectively to minimize moisture accumulation in any part of the house, especially the basement, baths, and the kitchen. Also, install exhaust fans,in places such as bathrooms, where there is the maximum chance of moisture accumulation.

Home builders based in any Florida cities like Tampa well understand the state’s climatic patterns, and that is why they are the best persons to guide you on the choice of the right building materials and technologies. Hiring a contractor with expertise in ‘passive design’ is the best way to stay protected against Florida’s fierce summer.