Hi there, time to share ways to keep your home cool during hot times
So ok, usual ways I use:
- open everything during night
- close everything during day
- external sheets on windows without shutters
- some curtains to prevent heat from going upstairs
I was also wondering if plants could also help inside, any ideas ?
Share your advices !
If you can afford it, buy a single window AC unit, install it in your bedroom, and then live in there all summer. That’s what my parents did when I was little and we lived in a house with no AC. If you can’t afford that, a box fan in the window once the sun goes down, then shut it off in the early morning and close/black out the window/draw shades as soon as the sun is up to try and keep the cooler air in that one room for as long as possible.
What part of “without AC” did you fail to ducking understand?
I mean, pretty much any person with central AC would read that as “without central AC.” And the answer would be the same: Fucking install AC. Installing central AC is too big of a project for most, so a window unit is a decent stopgap.
Yup. A $100-200 window unit(personally I prefer “portable” units with the exhaust hose to the window - keeps the main unit out of the sun that causes it to work harder) will be your best bet every single time. But sure, go ahead and check the price of tinting every window(about $20 per window) or getting blackout curtains(~$20 per panel in my experience) or any of the myriad of lesser solutions. Then, when you’ve spent as much or more with worse results and finally cave on getting a small unit, you’ll wonder why you ever did anything else before. Nevermind the fact that OP basically said “so aside from all the normal passive options, what else is left?” AC. That’s what’s left. Unless you want to advise them to replace all the insulation/windows/seals in their house.
tin foil and painters tape $1.50 per window.
winter blankets and old shirts.
couple with a window fan and a swamp cooler can reduce internal temps 10-15°.
poor af growing up. that’s what we did. bonus points if you’re in a trailer. you can open both ends and have fans blowing from one end to the other.
I mean, sure, if you want to look like you live in a meth lab. Or you could spend a little bit and have something 100x better and actually functional and not be miserable. This is like that whole boot problem: you can only afford $20 boots so you buy them and they wear out in 6 months. Over 5 years you spend $200 when a nice pair that would’ve lasted as long or longer would cost you $100.
You can get an ac for like $60 new, like $20 on Facebook. Walmart has Artic Kings on sale every year for that much. But yeah, spend hours of your time Macgyvering a makeshift solution that maybe drops you 10°. You know what “10° degrees cooler” is where I am? 100°. You’d still be plenty miserable.