Heat making it hard to sleep? Consumer reporter Chris Olsen has some ideas for keeping your home cool on hot nights.

An air conditioner is a costly solution to this heat wave ---a quicker --cheap fix is to manage the heat in your home. Having a cool home starts before the sun comes up -- with good ventilation. Home inspector Ed Witzke recommends you plan to get up early.

"If it's going to be a very hot day, be prepared to get up say, three, four o'clock in the morning and open the doors and the windows to provide the home with good cross ventilation," he said.

This helps to get a lot of air circulating though your home. But if you don't feel safe with open doors and windows, just open the hard- to reach windows, or get some kind of security on them.

"This is where you may want to approach a security company, you can visit a locksmith um, there's all sorts of locks and gates and chains that can be incorporated on your doors and windows to make them safe," Witzke said.

When the sun rises, around 6 a.m., close all of the windows and doors, as well as the blinds and curtains to keep the cool air in. This should keep your house cool until early evening and during the day, run your bathroom fans and the hood fan in the kitchen, above your stove for more airflow, Make sure your fans are working properly by placing some tissue paper up to the fan.

You can also set up portable fans too. Make sure they're in front of a cold source, like a window on the cool side of the house.

"You have to get some cold air in the system, because otherwise what you're doing is basically circulating contaminated stale air around, but there should be some cold source, again either from a basement or crawlspace," Witzke added.

Opening up the attic access for the summer is also good for circulation as long as nothing is blocking the soffit and gable vents

If it's too hot when you get home , put some ice cubes in a bowl in front of the fan for a nice cool draft --- its surprising how much of a difference that can make.

To keep from heating up your kitchen, opt for a cold supper or BBQ outside.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen