I put foil insulation on some of my bigger windows in the summer. Especially southern facing windows (in northern hemisphere). That mixed with tons of fans and the occasional cold towel when needed helps tremendously.
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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Get a box fan and a coil of copper pipe, run the coil all around the front of the box fan like a snake going back and forth, on the top end of the pipe attach a box for icewater, and a bucket to catch the outflow.
Put an adjustable valve at the end going into the drain bucket and let it dribble a bit. You'll have to adjust it to get the longest cold air time/least having to get up to empty the valve
It's not super efficient but it's cheap and can be made with parts in the garage
You'll need a lot of ice tho
As a northern Canadian, I kinda chuckle at the need for an air conditioner. Of course, my punishment in winter.
They're becoming more common in the populated areas of Canada, although it's still a minority that has it where I live as well.
Climate change is really obvious at this point, and the smoke is awful...
move to Alaska?
Didn't say if you own the home or not, but if so:
Mind it's only hot for 2-4 months out of the year for me, so I have a winterized attic fan. Just means I'm not losing heat in the winter and paid a little more to buy it. You can just get a regular attic fan if it's never or rarely cold where you live.
You leave windows open, but now there's negative pressure from pushing air out the attic where a lot of the heat is trapped and sucking in air from outside even if there's no breeze. I leave the attic access hole open when it's running. The rare day I still use a Window A/C to sleep.
Curtains are a god send. Make sure you have them to isolate things coming into and out of your house. So have a curtain to isolate your entry way. That way the heat stays there. Same things at the stairs so you can keep the cool in the baseline while you stay there
Also to note that depending on your house and the outside temp its not worthwhile to open the windows at night. But generally it is better. Make sure you have a fan in the window blowing the hot air out as well. Its best if its upstairs to draw the cool air in.
Hot showers at night or when you’re feeling extremely overheated. Trust me, that’s way better than cold showers. First shower warm, then get soapy, and then shower as hot as you feel comfortable. I do this for over 10 years now and it’s amazing. My theory is that it heats up the body and due to the outside being cooler, it actually cools your body down - albeit 35°C. By the way I shower with ~42°C regular lol
Biologically: being hot all over makes your capillaries close to the surface of the skin expand so you can dump heat into the air quicker
A hot shower raises this above ambient, giving you even better capillary cooling for a while, plus hot water tends to evaporate quicker, taking more heat load with it.
You know what's funny? I have experienced the inverse of this. I run pretty cool so always take warm or hot showers, but one time there was a cold snap and my water heater broke. We had well water so it was very cold, and down here we do not really have heaters designed to handle actual cold so the house was freezing too. So I had what was probably the most uncomfortable shower of my entire life, shivering and teeth chattering so fucking cold, thought I would die, but when I got out? The air felt almost warm, it was so pleasant not just because it was over, but because it somehow blunted the feeling of cold. I don't understand how chilling my core somehow warmed me (it usually works the other way) but it sure did.
At night here I do shower hot, I think the theory is that then when you lay down, your body temperature is dropping and that makes it easier to fall asleep.
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If you own the place or can get permission, a mini-split air conditioner is very easy to install with minimal tools, and they're pretty affordable online.
For under 500 buck including drill and bits you could have AC in a few days. It's not free, but it's a huge quality of life improvement.
I've been getting by just fine with a couple standing fans. I've had to turn the ACS on a couple times for my kids when I was around 110F
Before going full blast AC in all the rooms I'll turn on the big Window unit in the living room and set up fans so it blows the cold air through the whole house (our house isn't big) and I find its a good middle ground. It cools down the rooms pretty well.
Not really a thing you can just do, but thick walls. I live in an old house with double layered exterior brick walls. It has such a massive impact that sometimes I wear a vest inside, while it's heatstroke temperatures outside.
Sleep outside, if you have a space. Get a deck umbrella, a mosquito net and a cot and a sleeping bag (actually on super hot days I used to just sleep on a towel). It's so much cooler than trying to get by indoors with no AC, even with fans. And it's rather pleasant.