Summer is here, and temperatures are rising. If you have a room in your house that’s always hot, you might be thinking of installing a single room air conditioner or swamp cooler to keep you cool. Air conditioning is the easiest solution, of course. But it has its drawbacks.
Air conditioners tend to use a lot of electricity, which is a financial disadvantage for the homeowner who has to pay for the power and environmental degradation caused during power production.
Other air conditioning units, including portable ACs and evaporative coolers, take up a lot of floor space and overload an electrical unit. If not plugged directly into an outlet, many portable ACs can become fire hazards. The good news is that you can keep a room cool in summer without AC and cooler by considering the house cooling options in this article.
Some of these options that I’ll share here might even increase the efficiency of your home. Others might lower your utility bills and reduce your energy consumption because you’ll be cooling one room at a time.
Here are the options.
12 Ways To Keep Room Cool In Summer Without AC And Cooler
1. Close the Windows
Heat moves from areas of high temperature to low-temperature areas. If the outside temperature is higher than your room temperature, you may want to close the windows and blinds to prevent hot air from blowing into the room. The benefit of closing the windows is that it also helps to prevent direct sunlight into the room.
However, you have to be aware that closed windows can cause the room to feel stuffy. Therefore, in that case, you can invest in whole house fans to circulate the room’s air. You can also utilize shades and curtains, and it can help save up to 7 percent on bills and lower indoor temperature by up to 20 degrees.
2. Use Blackout Curtains
Another excellent way of cooling your room is to use blackout curtains. The good thing about blackout curtains is that they can block sunlight and naturally insulate the room where they are installed. Another recommendation is to use neutral-colored curtains with white plastic backings to reduce heat gain by up to 33%.
3. Invest in Fans
Fans are known to be quite efficient and beneficial when keeping your room cool during the summer. Not even air conditioners can be compared to the faux breeze that a fan offers.
Here’s another fan hack that you can use: Mix a bowl with ice or something equally cold such as an ice pack, and then position it at an angle in front of a large fan to whip air off the ice in an extra-chilled, extra-misty state.
4. Switch Your Beddings Often
Seasonally switching your bedding is one way of freshening up the room to keep you cool. This is a proven fact that you can use instead of fully relying on a fan or other ways.
Textiles such as flannel sheets and fleece blankets are suitable for insulation. Still, cotton is also a smarter option to consider during the summer since it breathes easily and stays cooler.
You can consider a bonus of buying yourself a buckwheat pillow as well, as they also offer a cooling experience, especially during the night when it’s too hot.
5. Cater to Your Body’s Temperature
One thing you need to note is that your body is the one that feels the heat, mainly in the room. When the room gets hot, a good option is to try and cool down your body through various ways, such as applying a cold cloth to areas of your body such as the wrist and neck to cool yourself.
Another option is to check what you’re wearing as some clothes can increase the heat in your body. You should also avoid cuddling with your partner when there’s too much heat in the room.
Also, you can keep a bowl of water nearby to dip your feet in whenever you feel warm during the day or night. This also helps to cool your body and prevents too much heat from building up and making you uncomfortable in the room.
6. Consider Creating a Cross-Breeze
Using cross-breeze is also a strategy that has been proven to work efficiently if you’re looking at how to keep room cool in summer without AC and cooler. For this method, all you need to do is position a fan across from a window to allow wind from outside to enter, combining with the fan’s breeze to form a cooling cross-breeze.
You can set up several fans that blows cold air with water around the room to boost the airflow.
7. Save Money and Go Old School
Another cool trick that people used to take advantage of back in the day is refrigerators as iceboxes. This trick came from the icebox era and is a sure way to help keep your room cool in summer without AC and cooler. What’s more, it’s quite beneficial, efficient, and affordable.
Create a DIY air conditioner by placing a shallow bowl full of ice in front of a pan. The breeze will pick up the cold water from the ice’s surface as it melts, which will help create a cooling mist in your room. This process is very simple, and anyone can do it without going through so much hassle.
8. Turn On Your Bathroom Fans and Heat-Proof Your Bed
Turning on your bathroom fan can also help circulate cool air into your house and eliminate too much warmth and heat. You can also turn on the exhaust fan in your kitchen since both pull the hot air that rises after cooking or taking a hot shower.
There’s also the option of heat-proofing your bed by going straight to the source and putting something to cool you properly under the bed while you sleep.
If you want to cool your feet, you can fill a water bottle and put it in the freezer before you place it right at the foot of your bed. Although this sounds strange, slightly dampening your sheets or just popping them in the freezer before bedtime can significantly help you to cool down and eliminate heat in your body.
9. Sleep Low and Allow Air Inside
When the heat rises, it can be unbearable to sleep in your bedroom. Therefore, you can consider the alternative of sleeping low such as on your couch or basement. You can also put your mattress on the floor if you feel like the air is cooler down there.
Besides sleeping low, it would help if you also considered allowing air inside the room to cool down. During the summer months, temperatures tend to drop during the night. Therefore, if this happens to be the case in the area you live, ensure you open the windows to air inside.
You can also create a wind tunnel by setting up fans that cool like air conditioners strategically to get the perfect cross-breeze. However, if you open your windows during the night, ensure you close them before it gets too hot in the morning, as is always the case.
10. Replace Incandescent Light Bulbs and Consider Grilling
One of the best ways to keep a room cool in summer without AC and cooler is by replacing incandescent light bulbs. Consider switching to compact fluorescent lamps as they are considered efficient and reduce heat.
Incandescent can waste up to 90 percent of energy in the heat that they emit. Therefore, when you stop using incandescent bulbs, it will help make a difference in cooling your home and lowering your electricity bill.
Grilling is another great way to cool a room in summer without the need for an AC or cooler. It’s an obvious fact that using your stove or oven in the summer is bound to make your house hotter.
If the temperatures are too high in your home, like 100 degrees, the best thing to do is avoid turning on your oven. Therefore, the best option is to use your grill and cook outdoors while relaxing in the cool breeze with your family or friends.
11. Insulate Your Walls and Attic
Your walls and attic are some of the places where heat accumulates most and may cause the rooms in your house to become too hot. Therefore, insulating them can significantly help you remove the excess heat and keep you cool.
Similarly, insulation also helps to keep you warm during the winter season. Another notable benefit of insulation is that it also helps lower your energy bill, keep the cool air inside your room and eliminate the heat. What’s more, insulation is inexpensive and efficient.
You also need to consider venting your attic. Consider installing gable mount fans as they are easy and designed to attach to the existing vents of your attic. This attic fan will help cool the attic and remove the home’s heat that has accumulated in that area.
12. Boost Your Ducts
The final option that I’ll share in this post involves the installation of a duct booster fan. This method helps to draw cooler air into a room that has too much heat. All you have to do is select the design that fully suits your needs and then place it in the register vent.
Once you’ve placed it in the register vent, plug it in and have an easy way to cool your room. Alternatively, you can also try to set up your fan at the right place, such as on the window of your room, which will also draw in more cool air.
Conclusion
When thinking about keeping the room cool in summer without AC and cooler, you need to consider long-term and reliable solutions. The tips I’ve highlighted in this post are known to be not only reliable but also affordable. Summer months can make it impossible to stay in your house, and you want to crank up your AC to cool you down efficiently.
However, since that can lead to increased electricity bills, it’s important to consider simple and affordable hacks such as those I’ve discussed here. If you have any insights or questions to ask, please post them in the comments section below or reach me through email. I’ll be happy to respond to you.