Windows open at night. Curtains or blinds shut during the day.
Open the windows at night and close them in the morning. If you have many electric devices, like I do, turn them off or put them into a dedicated room. With many, I mean lots of devices.
I have a basement where I swear it’s 10°C colder than upstairs.
Not surprised, my basement is 58-64F (~14-18C) year round, no matter how hot or cold it is outside.
I mean, given heat rises, the basement probably is 10 degrees cooler
Plus at least part of the walls will be exposed to the ground, not the air, and since past the first layer the ground stays consistently relatively cool, that helps a lot.
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.
It will
You’re right which is why our freezer is out in the garage rather than in the house.
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.
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.
Drink lots of water, I guess? An air cooler might also come in handy - they’re way cheaper than an AC. And yes, don’t hold your yellow pee, because the burn will be intolerable.
Keep windows open at night and into the morning
Fan pointed straight at you, on max blast through the night
It’s significantly worse if your house is humid, and dehumidifiers increase the heat, but they’re still worth it
The difference between how 80 F feels at 65% humidity vs 45% humidity is ridiculous. Lower humidity also makes cooling yourself by misting or damp cloths a lot more effective, because it will evaporate quicker.
It’s significantly worse if your house is humid, and dehumidifiers increase the heat, but they’re still worth it
Fun fact: the reason air conditioners are called “conditioners” instead of “coolers” is that they were originally designed for dehumidification.
Dehumidifiers should make it feel cooler since sweat evaporating is how we cool ourselves. Too much humidity means our sweat won’t evaporate and we can’t cool off.
Go for a drive, I have AC in my car…
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.
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.
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.
Open everything up really early to cool the house and use fans to direct airflow. Close all the blinds facing the sun and follow it around the house through the day doing the same. We are lucky to have a basement so we also direct cool airflow from the basement to upstairs and through the house on the hottest days. We also run a dehumidifier because it’s very humid here.
If you live in a dry climate you can create a makeshift evaporation cooler with a fan, tub, water pump, and evap material.
Set it up in front of an opened window, blow it into the house, and open a window at the other side of the house. You can easily get 20 degree F drop in temp.
If no ac then stay in the basement while I reasonably can. Drive with windows open. If my work has no ac then the business closes. The material we work with has to be temperature controlled.
When I worked in a restaurant kitchen, we used to soak rags with water and freeze them in the walk in freezer, then once it’s nice and frozen we’d wear the rag around our necks.
There’s large blood vessels in the neck feeding your brain, so if you’re able to cool down the blood there, it’ll spread to the whole body surprisingly fast.
I actually managed to get cold in hot humid july summer in the kitchen with that method.
Never take a hot shower. In fact turn off your water heater if you can. The goal is to avoid having hot water in your pipes heating the house
Legionnaires Disease bacteria will grow if you turn down or off the heat though.
This seems like not a problem if you turn it off and drain it during the summer. But imo the real LPT is leave the hot water heater on its normal setting and just try not to use the hot water, especially during the day
