What are some good ways to keep your house cool if you dont have an AC?
Question:we have a small house and I was wondering what would be some good ways to keep it cool inside.
especially since the temperature has been reaching the triple digits for the past 2 weeks.
I think the only time it barely gets cool in our house is when its almost morning.
anyway, do you have any suggestions?
Answers:
In addition to your first answer, putting a tub with a block of ice in front or behind your fans will help to blow cool air. Before air conditioning, we had a water cooler. it was huge and was set on legs outside a window, much like an air conditioner. The roll type fan blew over water kept below the 'blower' and through excelsor that surrounded the fan and was somehow kept wet. In real hot weather, we would put ice in the tray of water.
I have used ice with a box fan before I had air conditioning.
I opened the house and pulled the cool night air in by putting the fan in a window, but it must be moved away from the window before the air outside begins to warm. Keep doors and windows closed as much as possible. When coming or going, be prepared with everything you are taking with you so you can get the door closed as quickly as possible.
Check around windows and doors to see if you feel warm or hot air. Seal or cover the window or door to keep them airtight.
Block ice in the kitchen sink and tub adds a little cold to your warm air.
But the best way to keep cool is a cold shower or bath and loose clothes. Water drops body temporature 300 times faster than air. Go outside and hose yourself, and others, down. Play under the sprinkler or just pull up a lawn chair. Fill a kiddy pool. Keeping a damp tee shirt on with a fan blowing is excellent if your at your wits end. A tub of cold water to put your feet in helps cool the body.
Hope you try the cold hose, pool or cold shower. It is amazing. Great for just before bed on a hot night.
One more thing. When mother was a child, she remembers keeping sheets and pillow cases (or the whole pillow) in the freezer (ice box when she was a child).
Summer will be over soon. It is almost August. Just a month to go.
Open the windows at night and close them in the morning. During the day, keep the shades pulled and as many lights off as possible. Fans. Use a dehumidifier if you can; that will make it feel more comfortable. You could try turning on your furnace fan for more air circulation. That's the best I can think of. Hope it cools off soon.
Draw curtains across windows that get sun, increase number of fans. Fit fly screens and keep windows open. You can buy a mobile air conditioner that you fill with ice or cold water, and the fan blows cool air out.
The long term solution is to grow trees close to and that will eventually overhang your house. We planted a tree the year before last and it has grown to 20 feet.
We planted it adjacent to the south west corner to get the best summertime effect, providing shade through the hottest part of the day and the long afternoons.
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