Green Horizons

Nature's own air conditioner

By Jon Skinner

It might be cold outside right now, but summer is coming and high air conditioning bills with it. You can do something now to help lower your future air conditioning bills - plant trees!

Trees provide cooling by direct shading of buildings, driveways, streets, air conditioners, and lawns. Wherever the shade is cast will be several degrees cooler than surrounding unshaded areas. We all enjoy sitting in the shade on a lazy summer day as evidence of this. You can use this shade effect to cool your home.

During the summer, heating of buildings by the sun occurs mostly in the morning and late afternoon. This is due to the orientation of the sun in relation to windows in a building. The low sun during these periods of the day provides direct sunlight entry through windows, while during the middle of the day the sun is high and sunlight does not directly enter windows. Blocking the sunlight from entering windows will reduce the amount of heat entering your building and reduce the need for air conditioning by ten percent.

To get the most benefit, plant trees on the east - southeast and west - southwest sides of your home to block windows from the sun. Planting on the south side has less of an effect due to the suns' track across the sky.

Take advantage of our natural air conditioners by planting trees.