How to cool a room without air conditioning in the summer heat

Systematic ventilation of the room

Creating a constant flow of air can lower the temperature in the room. Remember some points:

The lowest temperature is recorded in the time period from 4 to 7 am. It is at this time that it is worth saturating the room with freshness and coolness. If you can’t imagine how you can wake up so early, then open the windows the night before at 22.00-22.30.

Ventilation is perhaps the most effective way to cool down, if you don’t break your schedule.
If you open the windows at 12-16 o'clock, you will only worsen the situation, because the room will be filled with scalding air.

How to reduce body temperature

While you're trying to escape the heat without air conditioning, it's important to not only cool the room, but also your body. If you do nothing, the stuffiness may cause you to suffer from heatstroke.

In order not to encounter unpleasant symptoms of this disease, you need to follow a few simple rules.

Reduce activity

On a stuffy and sunny day, try to reduce your activity. Postpone all activities that involve a large amount of physical activity until another day. If possible, then at least for the evening.

Keep your head cool

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If you feel tired and unwell, immediately wrap two wet, cool towels around your neck and head. It is better to use this method throughout the day until the heat subsides.

Take cool showers periodically. It will make staying in the apartment easier, at least for a while. They just seem to be careful with drafts.

Drink more fluids

On warm summer days, it is important to avoid dehydration. To prevent this from happening, drink more fluids.

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However, do not overuse iced drinks, as they can cause a cold or sore throat. Let it be room temperature water or cold green tea. It quenches thirst well and tones up.

But you will have to give up coffee and alcohol. Both drinks promote fluid removal, which means they lead to poor health and dehydration.

Save a bottle of water for the night and place it on your bedside table. This way you will replenish your water supply even while you sleep.

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Choose the right products

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In hot weather, we advise you to avoid fatty foods and fish. Try to eat more watery fruits and vegetables.

Cut the fruit into small pieces, place in special molds, fill with juice and place in the freezer for several hours. You will receive delicious and refreshing homemade ice cream.

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Systematic humidification of the apartment

To cool a room by 2-5 degrees in hot weather, regularly humidify the air. This can be done using an ordinary spray.
The heat is felt even more strongly if the humidity in the house is low, but high humidity is also not acceptable. The main thing is the right balance.
To cool down, you can hang wet clothes around the room or spray water on the curtains from a spray bottle.
Place containers of water around the perimeter, and if desired, you can flavor it with a few drops of aromatic oils of citrus, mint or lavender.
We recommend filling the dishwashing detergent container with running water. Spray the liquid over the entire area of the apartment every hour. And for greater effect, spray a little liquid on yourself. With evaporation, the body will noticeably cool.

Wet cleaning

This method is similar to the moisturizing method mentioned above. If you wet as many surfaces in the house as possible, especially metal ones, they say it will become easier. In fact, the method can only be called working with a stretch. Experiments show that in the first minutes after wet cleaning, the temperature actually drops slightly, but very quickly returns to its previous levels, and the one who started this wet cleaning will not even have time to notice this insignificant result, since he will be drenched in sweat after physical activity .

It is better to use the above methods in combination - then the result will be much better. For example, we ventilate well at night, close the windows and blinds during the day, turn on the fan and put ice in front of it. We enjoy the resulting effect.

Using foil to cool a room

Oddly enough, this material copes well with high temperatures.

Buy rolls of 5 meters or more.
This material should be glued to walls or windows on any side. To achieve maximum effect, cover the entire glass area.
This method is especially relevant if you live in an apartment whose windows face the southwest and south. It is there that the greatest intensity of sunlight is observed.
You can also use foil to cool your house in hot weather because the material prevents the sun from penetrating carpets, furniture and other interior elements, the heating of which causes an increase in temperature.
Research by scientists has proven that any room is heated not just by the air, but by the objects on which the rays fall. Heated objects exchange heat with the air, which is what causes suffocating heat in the house.
The only negative is the aesthetic component. Foil pasted on walls and glass does not add beauty to the interior.

Turn off the light

The simplest and most logical way to cool a room is to block light. Not just direct sunlight, but light in general. This is worth doing even in cloudy weather. The fact is that thermal (infrared) radiation enters the room not only directly from the sun, but also in a diffuse form through the clouds .

To do this, it is best to install white, iron or fabric blinds. Regular curtains are less effective. The lighter the barrier, the better it reflects thermal radiation. You can also cover the glass with food foil. But there is a minus - it reflects IR radiation into the room, worsening the cooling of the room at night.

Blackout curtains

Thick curtains not only give the room coziness and beauty, but also help regulate the air temperature.

Starting at 8:00 a.m. or even earlier, draw the curtains tightly to keep the sun's rays out.
Buy thick, heavy curtains and cover windows facing south.

Interesting! Curtains are considered impenetrable if not a single ray of light penetrates through the straightened fabric.

Do not buy products made from synthetic materials, as they will make the heat worse when heated.

Turn everything off

It's no secret that all household appliances emit heat during operation. Even the same refrigerator that is supposed to cool does so only inside itself. It gives off a huge amount of heat outside, which remains in your apartment. Turning off the refrigerator, of course, is an extreme measure, but you can think about minimizing the use of all kinds of vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, curling irons, irons, computers and even televisions.

This advice especially applies to the kitchen, in which, as a rule, the air temperature is several degrees higher than in the rest of the apartment. In hot weather, you should cook less on the fire - this greatly affects the ambient temperature.

You can turn off something else in your apartment. We are talking about a heated towel rail in the bathroom. As a rule, it is connected to a hot water pipe and, in addition to its main function, also serves to heat the bathroom. But when the central heating is turned off, it does not turn off and continues to work all year round. Usually it can be turned off by closing the two valves leading from the riser to the heated towel rail. If there are no such valves in your case, you can try wrapping it in foil. This should prevent heat from the heated towel rail from entering the apartment.

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Cooling blinds

If you don’t want to cover your windows with foil, you can easily replace them with blinds.

Thin stripes, closed all day, block up to 90% of sunlight.
Decide on the material from which the strips will be made. For maximum sun absorption, it is better to choose wooden ones.
Blinds should be effectively washed at least a couple of times a year.
To create a cozy atmosphere, choose fabric vertical Roman blinds.

The right film

A great way to protect yourself from sunlight is a tint film. But when choosing it, two factors should be taken into account:

Light transmittance;
IR reflection level.

The level of light transmission determines how much light will be reflected outward. This is important, because the tinting will remain on the windows during the cold season. Then it will reflect sunlight, which is not very good.

IR radiation is the main carrier of heat. The better the film reflects infrared light , the cooler the room will be during the day. But keep in mind that the tinting will remain on the windows for the winter. It will prevent the room from warming up.

Tinting films with different light transmittance.

Getting rid of unnecessary things

Have you noticed that in the summer it’s a pleasure to walk on the bare, cool floor?

The solution to the problem is to get rid of the carpet and send it for cleaning. It is this that becomes a light reflector that prevents coolness from the floor from penetrating into the room.
If you have wall hangings, it is best to remove and clean them as well.
When removing the floor covering, check the condition of the floor. If it is too wet, fungus may appear on the surface. Remove mold and treat surfaces with primer.

We save electricity

Any household appliance is a source of heat. For example, a working TV emits enough thermal energy to heat several square meters . Therefore, all unnecessary equipment should be turned off.

Also pay attention to the light bulbs. If the room you need to cool uses incandescent light bulbs, replace them. There are three alternative options:

Fluorescent lamps;
Energy saving lighting;
LED light bulbs.

Homemade air conditioner

It is possible to cool the room with a fan; for this you will need several liters of running water.

Fill bottles or bowls with water and place them in the freezer for 3-4 hours.
After the water has turned into ice, remove it from the freezer and place it near the fan so that the air currents from the blades blow across the ice.
Fans that cool the room will help after just 5 minutes of operation.
To prolong the effect, periodically replace the melting containers with new ice ones.

Interesting! Ventilation devices that cool air work by moving air from one side to the other, and during operation their motor gets very hot. Only use them when you are in the room.

Ice and fan

Cutting off the heat coming from the street is only part of defeating it. It is necessary to somehow cool the air, which has already warmed up. Here we need to act decisively. All of you have probably heard at least once that you need to put cold water in front of a fan or bottles of frozen water. This all works, but it can be done even better.

So, you will need a plastic bottle. Pour water, freeze it, take it out of the freezer, cut the bottle (you can use a kitchen hatchet), take out the ice. Somehow we chop it with a knife and add salt. Place the hissing and crackling ice in a large bowl in front of the fan and enjoy the refreshing breeze.

One of the experimenters notes that in 10 minutes the temperature in his room dropped from a terrible 35.50C to a more or less comfortable 260C. The downside is that it takes a long time to prepare, and the ice melts quickly, and within an hour you’ll just have a bowl of warm salt water.

Interesting alternative

It is difficult to cool down without air conditioning and a fan, but there is still an alternative. You can see her in Brazilian TV series. The device is called a ceiling fan. This expensive pleasure (price about 4,000 rubles) is absolutely silent, does not create drafts and does not heat the room with the motor.

Unfortunately, there is no ideal weather. Using the proposed methods, you can cool your living space and increase your level of living comfort in the summer.

Wet towel

A simple and effective way to reduce the air temperature in your home is to use towels soaked in water. They should be hung near open windows. However, it is not advisable to leave it overnight, otherwise the humidity level will increase significantly.

An alternative is to wrap a wet towel around your head or place it on the back of your neck. You can wrap an ice cube in a towel and then apply it to the area of the body where the pulse is felt. For example, in the wrist area.

Humidify the air - life-saving water

Humidity in the room helps to obtain an optimal microclimate at any temperature - be it a little higher or lower than normal. The main thing is not to exceed the values of 50-60%, which are measured by hygrometers and weather stations. You can feel excessive dryness of the skin and “sand in the eyes” - air humidifiers will help with this. Many of these devices have a built-in hygrometer that turns on and off automatically.

The devices can be used almost all year round. In summer, humidifiers add life-giving moisture to the air. In winter, they save you from the harmful effects of batteries and convectors, because heating dries the air, and the humidifier returns the indicators to optimal values.

Cleanliness is the key to health: How to clean an air conditioner: 11 simple steps

Use peppermint soap or scrub for coolness

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If you want to add some variety to your shower or bath routine, you can purchase body washes with peppermint essential oil. American manufacturer Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap is the gold standard in lye-free soap. You can also make your own body scrub by mixing Epsom salts, coconut oil and a few drops of peppermint oil. Apply it to your body and wipe off. The cooling effect of peppermint oil lasts longer than the post-shower feeling and leaves you with silky-smooth skin.

Method 8: Cool the sheets in the refrigerator

An interesting and long-known method, used in villages. To sleep comfortably even in the heat, you can place the sheets in the refrigerator or freezer and lay them down before going to bed. The sheets can be dry or slightly damp (if it is comfortable to sleep on such linen).

In villages where not everyone had refrigerators, cellars and wells were used as an alternative, where the air temperature was low enough to cool bed linen.

Advice. Sheets can be placed in a bag or pouch if the refrigerator does not have a no frost function.

Turning off the lights when they are not needed (+ replacing light bulbs)

Lighting devices can heat the air in a room in a short time. Therefore, light sources should be used only when there is a need for them. This way you can stay cool and save on electricity.

Another life hack is to replace conventional incandescent lamps with more modern ones. Since the former heat up quickly, increasing the air temperature, it is better to use other types of lamps with a minimum heating level. These are:

LED bulbs;
fluorescent (luminescent).

Note: it is better to give preference to LED products, especially if there are suspended ceilings.

Create cross ventilation

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Fans don't so much cool air as they move it. As air moves over the skin, it helps sweat evaporate and keeps you cool. Install fans in windows or hallways to create a pleasant cross-breeze. The purpose of fans is to draw in cooler air from one part of the house or from the street and pull warm air out. Think of the room as a computer with a hot processor that needs ventilation, and set the fans accordingly.

If ceiling fans are available, select the desired rotation direction for optimal cooling.

You can also install a temperature switch to automatically turn the fan on and off depending on the room temperature.

Buy a cooling pillow or sheets

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If you're on a budget, you can purchase pillows and sheets designed to keep you cool during hot weather. Cooling gel pillows are relatively inexpensive, fairly easy to find, and allow you to sleep comfortably in hot weather. There are different offers on the market depending on your expected budget. Pillows with gel can have an orthopedic effect and shape memory.

Turning off unnecessary household appliances

Every home has several types of household appliances. The more often it is used, the faster the temperature increases. Like lighting, appliances should also be turned off or their use minimized.

When it's hot outside, you should cook less often on the stove and in the oven. If you need to heat up food, a microwave comes in handy. It is advisable to turn off electrical appliances at least 2-3 hours before bedtime so that the air has time to cool.

Note: even a TV and a computer generate heat, let alone others (such as a towel dryer).

Turn off heat sources - reduce the number of operating equipment

Energy and warmth are inseparable. If you want to lower the temperature in the room, you need to turn off some household appliances. The kitchen provides more heat - microwaves, electric ovens, kettles and refrigerators. The bathroom also warms up the air well: heated towel rails, heated floors, drying machine...

In the living room and bedroom, computers, laptops and consoles can raise the temperature. The heat is especially felt if the devices are plowed at peak loads and warm up to 60-80°C, and the housings are within 35-50°C. Half a meter from the devices the temperature is 1-2°C higher. This may be a small number, but when it’s hot, such an increase does not add joy.

You also need to take into account that classic incandescent light bulbs heat up to extremely high values during operation (up to 80°C). And in order to improve the microclimate of the room, it is preferable to replace them with LED lamps. They hardly heat up and at the same time save energy.

The opposite rule works in winter - if you want to increase the temperature without turning on the climate control equipment, you need to put as many household appliances into operation as possible.

Read: How to install a mobile air conditioner, avoiding 6 common mistakes

Prepare frozen treats

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Water is not the only cold liquid to quench your thirst. Crush some ice or make delicious frozen juice. This delicacy is known to increase stamina on hot days, especially if you are going to exercise or take a walk outside. If you want something more nutritious, try protein popsicle recipes for extra cooling and energy. This will help you achieve your fitness goals faster. In any case, you should not limit yourself to standard ice water. Try some delicious cold treats to keep you calm and give you endorphins.

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