We’re not setup for hot weather, so we resort to all kinds of things to keep us and our homes cool.
Apart from ordering fans from Amazon, what else have you been doing to keep cool?
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My mum always said to drink hot drinks in hot weather to regulate temperature. This was not her wisest advice.
Did she also advise to wear a coat so you feel the benefit?
Yeah, a cup of tea will make you feel cooler… trust me…
I guess that’s like taking brandy to the hyperthermic people being rescued from avalanches…
Some cultures think that you should drink the opposite temperature. But if you look at what happens when you drink hot stuff, it doesn’t sound that crazy. Hot stuff makes you sweat. Sweat, when hot by dry air molecules, releases energy. That process cools you down.
You missed 1 critical part in the process. Hot stuff heats you up, that increased heat makes you sweat harder, the sweat evaporates, which cools you back down to where you were before you drank the hot drink, you briefly feel like you cooled down, which you did, just only from the increase caused by the hot drink. Kind of a win?
Ah. I see what you’re saying. You’re saying the heat from the hot water compensates for the increase in sweating.
I suppose it’s worthwhile investigating the relationship between the energy in the water and the energy lost through sweating. And indeed some people have studied that:
“Yes, the hot drink is hotter than your body temperature, so you are adding heat to the body, but the amount that you increase your sweating by—if that can all evaporate—more than compensates for the the added heat to the body from the fluid.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-hot-drink-on-a-hot-day-can-cool-you-down-1338875/
Interesting 👍 thanks for the link. So it does work, just only in very specific situations.
It’s fine advice if you’re not doing a bunch of labor on a hot day, it’s good for chilling in shade with a breeze where you’re not sweating as hard
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Block sunlight coming in windows. Ideally with exterior blinds or reflective material on the glass. Interior blinds block light but not heat.
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AC circulation. If your AC isn’t hooked to your forced air than you’ll want to circulate the air in your house to bring down the average.
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Vent thorugh windows at night. Wait until it’s below 20C and open at least 2 windows. Use a fan to force more airflow.
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Hang out in the basement.
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Upgrade your roof/windows. If you’re from a warm climate your house probably isn’t well insulated to keep heat in during winter; which also means that it doesn’t keep heat out. Newer windows block UV light and have a higher R value which prevents heat from the air against the glass.
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Plant climbing/creeping plants. They will absorb sunlight that would hit your house/etc and can create a micro climate several degrees cooler than the ambient temp.
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Avoid wearing cotton and dark colours.
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Wear a 360 large brim hat and sunscreen. Some of the “hot” sensation is actually UV damage.
If your AC
Lol, what AC?
Hang out in the basement
Lol, what basement?
Upgrade your roof / windows
Lol, with what money?
I say this in jest really, I appreciate the list. Your point about insulation has already made national news due to the protest group Insulate Britain attempting to push the government into insulating all social housing. Instead the government clamped down on the right to protest.
Do you know what they’re really worried about with global warming? Social unrest as people inevitably start starving and dying.
They don’t give a fuck that you’re dying, just that you might cause “issues” as more people do.
Hey maybe buy an AC. Ever thought of that? /s
Refer to my previous answer:
Lol, with what money?
You’re sending me words so you either have hands or a mouth that’s ready to work. Go earn it. /s
Ah, so that’s why I have you tagged in red as “Twat”.
I couldn’t remember why and chose to ignore it, I see now that was a silly thing to do.
You got a mouth that doesn’t stop so I don’t get why you don’t have money dude.
Yeah, someone’s putting cardboard and tinfoil up on the outside of their windows, propped up by brooms,etc…
I’m just waiting for a gust of wind…
Desperate times eh?
I taped a couple of those reflective insulated car dashboard sun covers to the bottom of my sliding deck doors to keep the sun from cooking the floor inside. Has the dual benefit of reducing heat loss during the winter.
You aren’t from the uk, are you?
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If we weren’t complete individualistic morons we would have district heating and even district cooling. You can produce chilled water with high grade waste heat with a absorber chillers. They use 1-3% as much electricity as the same capacity compressive cooler.
Paired with a soapstone sand battery you can sink over productive renewables (instead of shorting solar panels or stopping wind turbines) into high grade heat you can use later for winter heating or summer cooling.
Just looked up the soapstone thing… looks like Finland did a good job with one recently
Yeah it’s pretty smart… And incredibly simple… Way too low profit for my country’s blood (Canada) not to mention which duolopoly would own it in Canada? It can’t exist as a competing business strategy. It either needs to be blocked with regulations (regs captured by industry and capital…) or it needs to be a pet project of one of our oligarchs that never grows beyond a pilot plant battery that maybe gets used to make chemicals or something via industrial heat.
Ice packs, the ones you put in picnic bags to keep the food cold.
I sit on one or put it in my lap during the day, and put another in bed with me at night. Great between the thighs for maximum cooling. Wrap it in a pillow case or towel or something so you don’t have it directly against your skin when it’s fully frozen.
Hmm, good idea. I think my icepacks are in the shed… I’ll get them out before it’s 40DegC in there again
I’ve been using ice packs too. They work great. It doesn’t stop me feeling hot but totally works for control sweating as much.
I have a hot bath every night, about 42-43 degrees c whatever the weather.
It sounds counterintuitive but a hot bath at the right time triggers your thermoregulatory system and you’ll cool rapidly when you get out. It doesn’t last long but I’ve noticed it.
Apart from that, a 2l frozen water bottle in front of a large fan at bedtime and blackout material on all the bedroom windows throughout the day.
That just sounds like evaporative cooling from your skin drying.
That’s the second part of it, but if it was just that putting room temperature water on you would cool you down. Your blood vessels near the skin widen in hot water (vasodilation), and hotter water results in better evaporative cooling once you get out.
That makes sense and I’m too uneducated to know if you’re wrong, so I’m gonna accept that.
Have you tried submerging your entire living space in mineral oil?
No, I can’t say I’ve heard of that one…
Is that something you’ve tried? I can imagine additional Health & Safety issues would arise …?
It’s good enough to cool a computer, and those tend to get pretty hot.
Diddy-style life hack 💀️
The exercise was “fried Mars bar for the entire family” not “turn the entire family into fried Mars bar”. I’m afraid you’ll fail the marketing class exam buddy 😞
Blowing on it really hard
