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what are your tips to stay cool during the summer?
U aren't supposed to do anything else than getting used to. Stop burning so much fuel in doing something so futile since once u r on ur way to the job u r gonna suffer like hell even if only when getting down the car.
Wanna do something useful, buy a really hot coffe and drink it, once ur temp goes down ur gonna even feel cold at normal temp from that point foward, u welcome.
I grew up without AC in Florida.
Sit in the shade with a fan, be still. If in the shade and a breeze, and not moving around, a pretty high temperature is comfortable.
Go to places with cold AC or to cold springs to get cold, it will last awhile after you leave.
If it gets cool at night, open your window at night to let in the cold air, close it in the morning to keep that air in for the morning. But once it heats up inside, you are better off with ventilation - open windows on both sides of the house and run fans, to move air throughout the house.
If it's dry where you are (it doesn't work here) get wet and let evaporation cool you. Even here you can get wet and stand naked in front of a fan you will get cold.
STAY HYDRATED.
tuen on the fans, close shutters during the day, drink water
Unfortunately I got used to it. I say unfortunately because lukewarm weather (even something like 22ยฐC) feels extremely cold to me as a result.
I was previously convinced that taking cold showers was my only saving grace during hot summers, but this year I got the advice to try to take a warm shower a short while before bed, and I'm surprised to say that it has helped. This is for high 20s though so YMMV for sure.
Other things that help:
Buy an AC unit. A mini split is fine.
Sleep in the basement
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.
Block out the heat and sun during the day. Have everything open during the night, with a tactical fan placed wherever it helps the most.
But this only really helps the first few days. After that it's down to accepting the situation and being so tired that you fall asleep anyway.
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.
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.
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
A cross breeze is great. I can often turn off the ac during a hot day and just open the windows.
Go for a drive, I have AC in my car...
Funny to see this question here a few weeks ago did I see someone link this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqxjfp4Gi0k&feature=youtu.be
The video shows how to create a salt based pcm (phase change material). You can also buy packs like these but I thought it seemed more fun to create it myself, so it will be my summer project when the heat is not barrable. I think Putting it under a cap would do wonders.
my phone isnt letting me open the link, but is it the nighthawkinlight video?
Yes
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Windows open at night. Curtains or blinds shut during the day.
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)
Check out "radiative sky cooling"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDRnEm-B3AI
There might be some way to do something with this.
At my family cottage, we had it for over 40 years before getting portable ACs. Generally we just avoided the heat waves. Cold waterbottles in between your neck and shoulders really helps circulate the cooled blood throughout your body. We ended up getting portable ACs one year because we were spending a week there and it was over 95f every day. A few years later one of us took a paid early retirement package and we used some of that money to get central AC, best upgrade for our cottage ever.
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
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.
2 tips.
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.
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
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.
Never heard of Beenoulli's Principle before, thanks for sharing.