Seeking cool threads (for staying cool during the heat dome)

Summer is already gobbling up most of Europe and is about to start on north america with earnest this weekend.  

Let's gather up our favourite threads about staying cool in hot weather.  


And yes, i have ulterior motives of helping the daily-ish team gather up often overlooked threads.

My favourite, cooling the person, not the space
https://permies.com/t/57366/Cool-person-space-methods

And saving money on electricity in the summer
https://permies.com/t/4017/ways-reduce-summer-utility-bills

This was in the dailyish recently, but I'll put it here also - keep the house cooler by using a haybox cooker to cook your dinner. If you've got a dry spot outside but close at hand, it could possibly live outside.

https://permies.com/t/14038/Electricity-free-cool-home
https://permies.com/t/120372/Living-AC#970650
https://permies.com/t/281774/wean-Air-Conditioning-AC
https://permies.com/t/274279/grid-solutions#2864084
https://permies.com/t/116318/permaculture/Air-conditioning-humid-climate-air#946247

These all contain so much good stuff, it is a shame it's all spread across so many threads. I wonder if we could make a "superthread" with 100 ideas for staying cool (or something similar)

I took all these threads, ran them through a tool, and asked it to extract the 100 best ideas. I haven't proofread but maybe this could be the start for a wiki or some sort of thread we could promote.

I have processed the multi-page discussions from those threads and filtered out the general commentary, duplicates, and complex permaculture engineering theories.

Here is a clean, direct, numbered list of 100 practical ideas to handle a severe heat dome, categorized by how they are applied.

### Personal Cooling & Clothing

1. Wear a thoroughly soaked buff or light scarf around your neck.
2. Tie a wet turban or bandana around your head while working.
3. Dip your shirt or nightgown in water, wring it out, and wear it wet.
4. Take multiple quick, cool showers throughout the day without drying your hair.
5. Wipe your skin down frequently using a rag dipped in a bucket of cool water.
6. Sleep with a damp sheet or wet towel laid directly over your bare body.
7. Hold a cold metal spoon or an ice cube against your inner wrists where blood vessels are close to the skin.
8. Soak your feet in a bucket of cold water while sitting at a desk or watching TV.
9. Wear loose-fitting, lightweight clothing made of natural fibers like linen or hemp.
10. Minimize physical exertion and rest during the hottest peak afternoon hours.
11. Drink iced herbal refrigerant teas like hibiscus, lemongrass, peppermint, or lemon balm.
12. Mist your face and bare skin continuously with a spray bottle filled with cold water.
13. Keep your hair wet or go to sleep with soaking wet hair.
14. Put your socks or t-shirt in the freezer for an hour before wearing them.

### Managing Airflow & Windows

15. Shut all windows and doors tight the moment the outdoor temperature matches the indoor temperature in the morning.
16. Open every window and door completely late at night and early in the morning to trap cold air.
17. Hang wet towels or sheets directly over open windows to create a makeshift evaporative cooler.
18. Hang wet cheesecloth over window screens to cool incoming air.
19. Point a box fan out of a window on the hot side of the house to push hot air out.
20. Place a powerful fan outside a door at night to push massive amounts of cool air inward.
21. Set up a fan to blow directly onto your bed while sleeping under a damp cloth.
22. Run a small personal fan directly over your body rather than trying to move air through the entire room.
23. Avoid using fans if the room temperature exceeds 95°F (35°C) and you cannot add moisture, as it can accelerate dehydration.
24. Create a cross-breeze by opening windows on opposite sides of the house during the coolest night hours.
25. Close all interior doors to unused rooms during the day to isolate the cool air in the spaces you actually inhabit.

### Controlling Exterior Heat & Shade

26. Hang heavy towels or old blankets on the outside of western and southern windows to block the sun before it hits the glass.
27. Clamp cheap polyester lace fabric or thrifted tablecloths to gutters to act as external solar screens over windows.
28. Drop external roll-down blinds or bamboo shades over porches and windows before sunrise.
29. Prop an old door or a piece of plywood externally against a west-facing window during the afternoon.
30. Paint your roof white or apply a highly reflective elastomeric roof coating to reflect solar radiation.
31. Set up a temporary tarp or shade sail over the southern and western sides of the house structure.
32. Grow fast-climbing annual vines like Scarlet Runner beans or hops on string trellises on the west side of the house.
33. Plant a thick hedge near the house to block ground reflection and provide evaporative cooling from the leaves.
34. Grow deciduous trees specifically on the south and west sides of the property for summer shade.
35. Construct a trellis-covered shade house along the sun-exposed walls to cool the air before it reaches the windows.

### Food, Cooking, & Appliances

36. Cook all meals outdoors using a barbecue grill, camp stove, or a propane burner.
37. Use a countertop crockpot or instant pot outside on a porch or garage instead of using the indoor stove.
38. Eat cold meals entirely, focusing on salads, raw fruits, and sandwiches that require zero heat to prepare.
39. Shift your heavy cooking or baking to late-night or early-morning hours.
40. Turn off the stove or oven completely during a heat dome and do not use them under any circumstance.
41. Do not run the dishwasher during the day, as the drying cycle releases massive amounts of heat and humidity.
42. Do not use the indoor clothes dryer; hang all laundry outside on a clothesline.
43. Unplug all electronics, computers, chargers, and television sets when not actively in use.
44. Turn off all incandescent light bulbs and switch entirely to LEDs, which emit negligible heat.
45. Form a regional dinner club with neighbors to consolidate cooking heat into just one house a few times a week.
46. Keep your refrigerator and freezer completely full by filling empty spaces with jugs of water to maintain thermal mass.
47. Clean the dust off your refrigerator’s external coils so it runs efficiently and releases less heat into the kitchen.
48. Put bottled water in the fridge and freezer ahead of time to build up a large storage of cold mass.

### Water & Evaporative Strategies

49. Pour water directly onto interior concrete or tile floors to create an indoor evaporative cooling effect.
50. Spray down the exterior roof with a garden hose during the hottest part of the afternoon to lower the roof deck temperature.
51. Spray down exterior brick walls, concrete patios, and walkways near the house doors with water.
52. Build a stack of concrete blocks on the sunny side of an open window and keep them thoroughly soaked with a hose.
53. Set up outdoor misters under a porch or shade tarp where people congregate.
54. Set up an inexpensive, temporary above-ground wading pool in the shade to dip into throughout the day.
55. Run a water pump from a cool well or rainwater collector through pex tubing on the roof, returning unevaporated water to the gutter.

### Structural & Spatial Shifts

56. Move your sleeping setup into the basement or lowest level of the house where the air is naturally cooler.
57. Set up an outdoor sleeping area using a mattress or cot enclosed in army surplus mosquito netting.
58. Sleep directly on a woven bamboo mat or a hard floor instead of a thick, heat-trapping fabric mattress.
59. Increase interior thermal mass by keeping heavy furniture, brick walls, or water barrels inside to absorb daytime heat.
60. Ensure your attic space is highly vented using ridge vents, soffit vents, or a roof-turbine vent to prevent heat trapping.
61. Install a whole-house attic fan to forcefully draw cool night air up through the living spaces and push hot attic air out.
62. Isolate a single, small room as your designated "cool room" rather than trying to cool a large, open-concept house.
63. Spend the hottest afternoon hours away from home in air-conditioned public spaces like libraries, malls, or bookstores.
64. Sleep on a screened-in porch to capture overnight ambient breezes safely.

### General Lifestyle & Adjustments

65. Drink plain water consistently before you actually feel thirsty.
66. Eat your heaviest meal of the day after dark when the ambient temperature drops.
67. Keep your body still and intentionally lower your personal activity levels to reduce metabolic heat generation.
68. Spend your daytime hours sitting directly on the floor where the coolest air settles.
69. Avoid heavy alcohol and high-protein meals, which can increase metabolic body heat and dehydration.
70. Wet your hat or cap thoroughly before stepping outside into the sun.
71. Keep emergency ice packs or frozen water bottles wrapped in a towel to place under your armpits if overheating occurs.
72. Use a handheld manual folding fan to create personal airflow without relying on electrical infrastructure.
73. Pull window curtains shut tightly inside the house, even if they are not blackout curtains, to reduce interior solar gain.
74. Tape aluminum foil or reflective space blankets directly to cardboard inserts and place them inside sun-facing windows.
75. Avoid hot beverages entirely during peak heat hours.
76. Take a dip in a nearby natural body of water like a river, creek, or spring multiple times a day if accessible.
77. Wear a wide-brimmed straw hat that allows air to circulate over your scalp while blocking direct sunlight.
78. Keep your skin shaded completely when outdoors; sunburns reduce your body’s ability to dissipate heat.
79. Wrap a frozen gel pack in a pillowcase and place it under your pillow before going to bed.
80. If using a small window AC unit, run it only in the smallest bedroom to chill it right before sleep, then switch to a fan.
81. Use a 12-volt marine or automotive fan powered by a simple battery setup to keep air moving if the grid fails.
82. Keep a dedicated bucket of water next to your favorite chair specifically for re-wetting cooling cloths.
83. Place a bowl or pan of ice directly in front of a desk fan to blow chilled air onto your face.
84. Keep a spray bottle of water in the refrigerator for an extra-cold mist when needed.
85. Wear sandals or go barefoot indoors to let heat escape through your feet.
86. Avoid using a microwave or toaster oven inside if the room is already holding heat.
87. Keep window screens immaculately clean to ensure maximum airflow when windows are opened at night.
88. Tie back heavy interior curtains during night cooling hours so they do not block incoming breezes.
89. Use a simple shade umbrella when walking outdoors between shaded zones.
90. Sleep under a cotton mosquito net with no blankets or sheets to maximize total body airflow.
91. Mist your bed sheets lightly with water from a spray bottle right before climbing into bed.
92. Keep your pets cool by wiping them down with wet towels or allowing them to sleep on damp bathroom tiles.
93. Avoid taking hot baths or long steam showers that add ambient humidity to the structure of the house.
94. Check your home’s insulation levels; good attic insulation keeps extreme attic heat from radiating down into the ceiling.
95. Use a solar chimney design to allow solar heat on a roof pipe to naturally draw hot air up and out of the living space.
96. Sleep alone in a bed during a heat wave to eliminate shared body heat.
97. Set your ceiling fan to rotate counterclockwise to push a cooling breeze straight down.
98. Avoid using heavy vacuum cleaners or carpet sweepers that generate motor heat indoors during peak hours.
99. Dampen your window curtains directly with a spray bottle if you cannot hang wet sheets.
100. Rest on a lawn chair in the deep shade of a tree outside if the interior house temperature becomes completely stagnant.

That looks useful Teresa. There is this wiki already that could be adapted: https://permies.com/wiki/248994/Ways-cool-house-electricity

Today I am being pulled in a few directions and won't be able to put anything together, maybe tomorrow?? (maybe?)
But if someone wants to go ahead and use that list, be my guest.

An addition to Tereza Okava's list - Item #9 clothing :- big tick for natural fibres, added to which woven fabrics are much cooler than knitted, especially when thinking of things like T-shirts, and loose fitting rather than skin tight. Go for maximum coverage, even if it sounds counter intuitive - think of the costumes of desert dwellers.
I often water the garden during hot weather with clothing and hat soaked!

I was hoping to dedicate some time to this today but it's about to rain all weekend and finally the moon is right for planting root vegetables, if we want daikon this winter I need to spend the day in the field, not here on the computer.
I'm not going to be online much til next Monday so just to reiterate, if someone else wants to run with it, that's not my list, it belongs with this thread.
Stay cool peeps, unless you're freezing down in the Southern Hem like me.
(literally signing off in my garden hat)

Everything I read about cotton says it is *not* cool in summer because it doesn't release moisture fast enough. Linen does. Lightweight wool is also a great summer fabric.

We need to re-think the efficiency of evaporative cooling; I had a friend swear he would never use AC then go on to tell me how he sprayed down the roof of his house. If we're concerned about resources, heat pumps are absolutely primo for both heating and cooling. Evaporative cooling is not.

Clay (as in clay paint, clay walls, clay floors, etc) naturally regulates humidity and makes a house feel cooler/drier in summer and warmer/moister in winter by ~10c in my experience.

Starting new threads on questions or expierences keeping cool is also great.  If you do, please drop a link here.  

I suspect this will be a useful resource for the future

This is not what to do but what to watch out for.

I have a Neem tree in front and a verandah at the back.
Since I'm retired, leaving the front and kitchen door open
daily is normal.

Other tried and trusted hacks tricks here.

Missing some thoughts.  

1.  Don't waste water where you have other sources.  Yes you can soak sheets etc.  But what if you use wash instead that is already wet.  It is still evaporating and if stacked in staggered layers properly can still block light/heat.  Power cooling is adding a fan to laundry

2.  Lots of earth tube, water cooling line options from soil possible without heat pumps

3.  Black out curtains that are dark are a poor choice on sunny side windows.  What faces the sun should be white or reflective.  Best place for the shade is actually outside with air gap from building.

4.  Choice the right paint colors .

Hello and thank you all for the suggestions and advice.

I use a lot of water and part of the house I occupy has very thick stone walls and a RMH which is a lovely cooling system as I leave dragon open.
It removes a few degrees of heat which is appreciable.

My dad was in the merchant navy. He used to tease me about their maritime habits, including their uniforms.
In the tropics, he told me that he wore woollen socks and vests.
No I protested. You re having me on.
Well no, they did have woollen clothing.. soaking up sweat then cooling the body as the clothing dried on the skin.
This form of clothing also avoided skin issues, apparently.

I wore mainly silk when I lived in the tropics not having access to wool.
Also learnt to drink hot tea, frequently.

The thing that I have found most bothersome is the violent changes in temperature that we have experienced.
Our bodies didn t have the time to acclimatize to the high temperatures and dryness.
The vegetation is equally perturbed at the sudden changes.
Today it s drought conditions and not so long ago we were having very heavy rain.
The earth here is like concrete. I digress sorry.

Thank you once again, reminders much appreciated and many so simple to put into place.
Cool blessings
MH

Less see, it's not a thread but an idea. Think like Adam and Eve, before they ate from the tree of Good and Knowledge. Since Memorial Day time period last year(last year Memorial Day thru Columbus Day) and not going back into mid April this year when it has been nice and warm out and inside as well, while in the house I'm butt-naked. Let's see last Thursday it was 84 degrees with 80-90% humidity in the house, at least on the one gauge it was showing that high of humidity the other one was still showing around 70%. The only way to stay halfways cool, is to remove all the clothing and just go butt-naked. Heck I've ridden, late at night, around my neck of woods on my bicycle butt-naked on the open highway. Sure at 1AM everyone is in bed so I don't have too much to worry about. Most of the time anymore, during the summer months, I would much rather off go around butt-naked, it's far more comfortable. Most importantly, it cost absolutely nothing to do. No buying salt, or ammonia, or electricity, or oil or...clothing. Completely free.

This has ended up being the best cooling solution. I keep it full with rain I captured in a 3k gallon tank on 1200sf pole barn roof and the pump runs on solar. I don't know how people around here live without a pool!

Jeff Forsha wrote:This has ended up being the best cooling solution.

Do you collapse the sun shades any time there's rain, or do they stretch down until they rest on the top of the water?

Jay Angler wrote:

Jeff Forsha wrote:This has ended up being the best cooling solution.

Do you collapse the sun shades any time there's rain, or do they stretch down until they rest on the top of the water?

What you see is what you get. It's raining right now. We've had about two and a half inches since yesterday. There's the weather station over the pool below.

There's turnbuckles keeping them tensioned at all four corners of each shade cloth and there's metal structure around the top perimeter as well as across the middle, which carries the waterfall feature across the pool.

The vertical shade/privacy cloth is stretched around all but the side with the ladder and has wire stretched around the top with a turnbuckle as well with UV stabilized zip ties every 12" to keep it from sagging. The privacy shade keeps a lot of sun off of the pool to give it longevity. The sun in CenTex is brutal on everything, otherwise.