Tree Hugging Family - Living Green

Ten easy ways to beat the heat

by Jennifer on July 20th, 2008

I’m one to talk; here in Washington it’s seriously sweater weather. Kind of chilly. For the rest of you, here are some beat the heat ideas that can help your house and you stay cool without blasting the AC. And no, none of them involve you surprising me with a visit here in WA. I’m not up for cleaning the bathroom for company.

1. Turn on the bathroom vent fan. This allows that warm shower air to escape. If all you’ve got is a bathroom window, take an early morning shower, or late evening shower, and open the window.  You could also take cooler showers.
2. Eat hot peppers - or some other spicy hot seasoning. Research shows that eating hot stuff can cool you internally. Odd but true.
3. Drink all day long. As you lose liquid through perspiration, your body heats up. Drink all day to stay cooler. That’s water folks, not something kooky like beer or coffee all day (just checking).
4. Turn off the lights. No brainer.
5. Shut the shades. Another no brainer. Actually, you should open your windows and blinds during the cool parts of the day (early morn and evening) to let cool air in. Once the sun pops up, shut the house down.
6. Live on in a single level. If you can, living in a single level is a better choice than say, living in a third, or even second floor apartment.
7. Quit with the oven already. Don’t turn it on. Live on cold sandwiches, grill outside, or microwave your food. Your oven heats up your kitchen considerably.
8. Hang up your clothes to dry. If you must dry use cool settings. This conserves energy and you won’t be releasing heat into your home.
9. In New Mexico, and actually other desert areas, people hang damp sheets on their open windows. This is not the best trick for high humidity areas, but if it’s dryer and deadly hot outside, this trick can cool down the hot air that pushes through the window.
10. Get naked. Ok, don’t get all naked; especially if you’ve got friends coming over (unless they like naked you). Still, hats on your head, and shoes on your feet conserve warmth, so… take some stuff off.

[image via stock.xchng]

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