Wet T-shirt and sitting in front of a fan.
We naturally cool our bodies by sweating.
You can sort of hack that process by getting a t-shirt wet, putting it on, and allowing the moving air to help speed up the evaporation process.
WARNING: NOT FOR USE IN HIGH HUMIDTY.
Adding more water to an already hot and humid situation risks a Wet Bulb.
And suddenly all those wet t-shirt contest promoters out there became heroes instead of villians.
WARNING: NOT FOR USE IN HIGH HUMIDTY.
Adding more water to an already hot and humid situation risks a Wet Bulb.
If the water coming out of your cold tap is cool (which it should be, since pipes are typically underground), then I think maybe it would still work because you could refresh the t-shirt with colder water occasionally. It’s just less than ideal compared to doing it in a dry climate.
It would cool you a little as the cold water absorbs heat, but you’d have to wring and repeat as soon as it heats up, which might end up being often
You can sort of hack that process by getting a t-shirt wet, putting it on, and allowing the moving air to help speed up the evaporation process.
better when don’t wear a shirt, spray yourself with water and sit it from of the fan; the convection feels fantastic on your skin.
If you have a freezer and a fan, freeze a bunch of water bottles and then put them right behind your fan blades for a cheap AC-like chilly breeze. If you have enough bottles, you can cycle through them and refreeze as they thaw out.
I’m no thermodynamics expert, but wouldn’t this make your house warmer overall, unless the freezer is outside or in a garage/shed?
It will make the air behind your fridge warmer in exchange for making the air around your body cooler. There’s usually not great airflow behind the fridge so it won’t affect the rest of your house much.
If you’ve got an open kitchen or something you can still freeze the bottles at night and use them during the day.
You’re right which is why our freezer is out in the garage rather than in the house.
It will
Wish I knew this a few months ago
Another thing you can do is buy an ice vest - a vest with waterproof pockets for ice packs. They usually come with a load of extra ice packs so you can freeze and cycle through them. They’re great if you have to go outdoors for something.
AC is expensive but the freezer is already on so I’ve been rather creative with its use haha.
Doggo also enjoys a rubber bone thing that I fill with water and freeze so he can chew and stay cool. Also love freezing ice cubes full of berries and stuff too.
Thanks, I’d forgotten about this one. Our AC will be out for a few days. I’ve already started loading water bottles into the freezer.
Run cold water over your wrists when you’re starting to get hot.
Or any area of your body where there’s a lot of blood vessels near the surface of your skin.
I like standing in a cool shower and letting the cool water run over the front and back of my neck.
I used to not have AC. I found the best strategy was to open up all the windows at night and let the cool night air in, and then as soon as I wake up I close all the windows, curtains and blinds to trap the cool air in and prevent the sun from heating it up through the windows. If you live in a house that has a basement and central heating, you could add some intake ducts down there and turn your furnace on to fan only mode to circulate the cool basement air into the rest of the house.
Windows open at night. Curtains or blinds shut during the day.
At night cool your house down by opening windows and using windows fans. I have a two story house. Heat rises so I’ll place window fans blowing out in the upstairs windows and fans blowing in upstairs. In the morning close up the windows and close curtains and shades over the windows that receive direct sunlight. If you have a room that gets hotter than the others shut the door to that room or hang a curtain over the doorway. My hot water tank is in a first floor room so I isolate that room and leave the windows open. Have a ceiling fan? Make sure it’s blowing in the right direction. Most have a switch so you can alternate direction it blows the air. Not always practical but soaking your feet in cool water will lower your body temperature. Much like coolant cools a combustible engine car your blood circulates through your body distributing heat. Personally I avoid using AC while driving as much as I can. It’s my opinion that when we get used to such comforts we suffer without them. I do have a window unit but use it only on the hottest nights. One last thought. Some lights or appliances in your house may give off a lot of heat, feel around them to find which ones do and switch them off. You can’t do anything about your refrigerator (gives off a lot) I had a plasma TV that felt like a space heater and also used a lot of electricity
2 tips.
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Negative air pressure is your friend. If you open the windows upstairs and down and blow air out of the house it’ll suck air from the downstairs to the upstairs cooling the entire house.
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Bernoulli’s principle is your friend. Rather than having fans right next to the windows you’ll move more air if you back the fans a meter or so from the window. https://youtu.be/BhWhTbins_A?si=9LGd0_EmfPFBNnDJ
Never heard of Beenoulli’s Principle before, thanks for sharing.
would that principle still apply in the scenario of a window and wall being in the equation? I would imagine if that were true than more efficiency could be produced with a smaller fan inside ductwork vs a large unit which covers the entire cylinder size.
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Also, close the blinds during the day, keeping the sunlight outside the house/apartment prevents it from getting warm.
However, a lot of things depends on the architecture, look at the house you see around the Mediterranean, small windowswith blinds, , porch to get more shadow, large wall, sometimes inner courtyard.
Go to the movie theater or supermarket for some AC.
Library is free
Around here, Portugal, were every Summer the temperature exceeds 40 C for at least some days in August, we have outside rollup shades on every window, so one of the tricks is to keep the shades down and and the windows closed during the hottest and sunniest parts of the day, at the very least the afternoon.
Then at night you open the windows and let the cooler night air in (even better if you do it early morning, around sunrise, which is the coolest time of the day).
Note that this doesn’t work well with curtains or internal shades, because with those any conversion of light into heat when the light heats the shades/curtains (as they’re not mirrors and don’t reflect all light back) happens inside the house and thus that heat gets trapped indoors.
I have internal curtains and blinds and this actually still works well, at least better than keeping them open. Maybe it would work better with externals but this is still worth doing if all you have is internal
Agreed. We do the same. It would work better externally but price is exorbitant here for such options. We also do all the same as OP and it works really well. Especially opening early morning at dawn to cool everything down.
Well, the more light you reflect out the better (I would expect that, for example, darker color curtains would be a problem) and ideally you want that whatever light does get converted into heat does so outside.
As it so happens, were I live the heat has been a problem in the Summer since well before AC was invented, so roll-up external shades are standard for all houses and apartments and that stuff definitely works if used as I described it.
Your feet and head are both very vascular, so cooling them will help lots to cool the rest of you.
Head -
Ever been buzzed or bald before? If no, now could be the time to give it a shot. Worse case scenario, you look like shit and let it grow back to whatever’s the shortest length that looks decent. Bonus: you’ll save a ton of time and money on hair cuts/care.
Keep a container of water water and washcloths in your fridge. Take a cloth out when it’s time to veg on the couch, and slap it on your noggin. When it dries, grab a new one. *recommend not throwing used ones back in the water w/o washing first, or your water will get nasty fast.
- If you decide to go buzzed and have never done it before, PROTECT YOUR NOGGIN/SCALP FROM THE SUN. Burns up there hurt like a mofo.
Feet -
This is trading heat discomfort for wet sock discomfort; but if that’s a fair trade, then… yeah, wet your socks with cold water. A tub a cold water at the base of your couch can give you something to dip in while you’re watching TV or something. Same spiel as the wash cloths - keep your socks/water/tub clean and don’t reuse without washing first, or you’ll get yourself trenchfoot or some nastiness.
Also, if you’re in an apartment that disallows window units… they fit great in a fireplace, and the hot air just vents up the chimney. Your lease likely doesn’t say anything about fireplace units. Just sayin’. Just make sure to seal the edges really well so hot air doesn’t leak back into your living space.
Those soakable cloth neck-wraps work as a cheap personal cooler($5).
The Coolify2 works as an expensive personal cooler(~$200).
If you have a fridge, freeze 2 litre ice-cream containers filled with water to make large ice blocks. Then put the block in a tub to melt, and sit your feet on it to stay cool(budget-mode, $cost of tap water)
I have a basement where I swear it’s 10°C colder than upstairs.
I mean, given heat rises, the basement probably is 10 degrees cooler
Not surprised, my basement is 58-64F (~14-18C) year round, no matter how hot or cold it is outside.
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If you’re in a humid environment and you have a way, dry the air. It makes any other cooling thing you do more effective.
Buy a dual hose portable AC, that’s what I did when I lived in an apartment that would get VERY hot no matter what. (Actually, to save some $$ I got a single hose and modified it to a dual hose, but depending on the specific model and the tolerances they built it to, it risks short cycling and possibly burn out)
They’re still not nearly efficient as a window AC, but far far better than those single hose ones
If you can fit a window AC do that instead, if you are able to make modifications, a small mini split/heat pump system would do wonderfully. Though I have heard that they make mini splits that go through small windows rather then needing to drill through the wall, so that might be an option too.
The other tips and tricks are nice, if you have exhausted all other AC options and simply can’t have an AC at all (Which is mostly due to cost, dual hose portable ACs are pricey) but they really don’t compare to an actual AC system.
I didn’t go through all the comments so sorry if thus is a duplicate.
Last year I learned that having a wet (not soking-weat) towel on your feet or your belly can keep you cool during the night. If you struggle falling asleep without a blanket and your’re to hot to sleep it might help.
