With global temperatures rising and record-breaking heat waves occurring more and more frequently, many more people are trying to stay cool than ever before.
This means a lot of people are turning on their air conditioners to reduce the heat in their homes.
Power outages are happening left, right and center because these air conditioners draw a whole lot of power to function.
The result is that the grid can’t cope and an outage happens. Without ACs, people are finding it hard to keep cool.
So how do you keep your home cool when the power goes out? Well, below are a few effective ways to cool your home.
Close Your Windows And Seal Off The Hottest Rooms
These days our homes can feel like greenhouses! How do we cool down our place when the power is off? Your first move is to close your windows and blinds.
Did you know that a third of the hot air circulating through your house right now entered your home through the windows?
That’s right. During the day, the sunlight shining on your windows gives off a greenhouse effect raising the overall temperature of your home, so be sure to close and block your windows.
Secondly, seal off all the hottest rooms in your house, by shutting the doors and placing a wet towel under the doors.
Placing a wet towel under your doors will ensure that no hot air will seep out into the rest of your house.
Once you have shut the doors to those rooms, try not to open them, as you’ll be risking the heat moving into the rest of your house.
Do Not Cook Indoors
You might have noticed that the kitchen is one of the hottest rooms in the house.
That’s because of all the heat generated by the stove, oven and different kitchen appliances.
Heat has a tendency to linger indoors for long periods.
Therefore to prevent heating up your kitchen, opt to cook foods that don’t require much cooking or don’t cook at all and just stick with no-cook foods.
Related: No-Electricity Cooking Techniques To Use During A Power Outage
This will significantly reduce the heat in your home, but if you want to cook, try to cook outside if you can. Get your barbecue on.
You can even cook with pots and pans on the grill as long as they are not too thin. It’s not recommended to use non-stick pans as the covering may get damaged by using it on a grill.
Dampen Your Curtains And Towels At Night
During the night, dampening your curtains and opening your windows is one of the best methods to tremendously cool the air entering your home.
You can also use dampened towels or any thick fabric, including sheets and hang them up directly in front of open windows, doors. You can even hang them on drying racks in rooms to cool that room down.
The damp fabric acts as a filter trapping the hot air that is then evaporated instantly, cooling the air giving you a nice atmosphere for a good night’s sleep. This cool air will also be retained and remain inside until the next day.
Open Windows And Doors When Temperatures Drop
Temperatures normally drop at night time and early in the morning.
These are the best times to open your windows and doors to get that fresh cool breeze in and to retain as much cool air as possible.
No need to open your fridge for cool air.
⇒ 5 Ingenious Ways To Refrigerate Your Food Without Electricity
I know it’s tempting to crack the refrigerator door open but you don’t know how long the electricity will be gone and you’ll need all that cool air that’s left in there to preserve your food.
Make Use Of Your Sheets
On seriously hot days without air conditioning, it can get very frustrating and you’d be surprised that even the small things like your bedding and furniture can impact the temperature in your home.
Pull out your extra sheets. They are certainly going to come in handy for this tip. As you may know, black and darker shades absorb light while lighter shades such as white and even bright colors reflect the light.
Placing light shades of cotton or linen sheets over your dark furniture will help to decrease the heat. If your bedding is of a darker shade, it’s best to go for a brighter color. This will help bring down the temperature a bit.
Remove Rugs
Rugs and carpets are known for giving off heat by insulating the floor and increasing the temperature of the room.
This is useful in the winter, but when it’s hot out, it’s time to roll them up and put them away. This is another effective way to help to bring down the temperature inside your home.
Planting Trees
This one is a long-term solution that you may want to consider. Trees are an excellent source of shade and fresh air. The cool breeze from the trees will reduce inside temperatures significantly.
Related: 10 Killer Trees You Should Never Have In Your Backyard
Strategically positioned trees will act as a covert for your home, providing you with shade and cover from ambient temperatures.
The leaves on trees are known for absorbing, blocking and reflecting sunlight. The roots of trees hold moisture and when that moisture evaporates from the ground it cools the air.
Even the leaves on trees release moisture. Placing plants outside by your windows and growing vines around your house will also aid in blocking the sunlight from entering your home.
Planting trees around your abode is probably the best way to keep yourself and your humble home nice and cool.
So many heat waves are occurring around the world with new record high temperatures constantly being set. Heat waves are also becoming more frequent, lasting longer, starting earlier in the season and going on later in the season.
These extreme temperatures are also causing many power outages as more and more people turn on their ACs to cool their homes.
It’s clear that relying on air conditioners is not always the best solution. Knowing how to keep your house as cool as possible without electricity is a good skill to have.
This article has given a few tips that will help you keep your home cool by showing you how to cool the air entering your house and how to retain it.
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Nice timely article. We already do most of our summer time cooking out of doors, I try to ventilate the house early morning, we have three trees on the west side. The next thing for me to try is planting some vines on the south side. I will train them to a trellis about three feet away from the house. Another item to check is attic ventilation, a lot of heat can migrate into the house from a hot attic.
I bought solar fans for the attic which helps cool that part of the house. I searched for the cheapest solar fan 10 yrs ago. Most of the businesses I got the parts for went out of business since COVID. Thank you Dr. “F”!! Govt Lock-down Baloney!
Yeah we do the same thing in the Summer, open all windows get a cool air flow in. Before the sun heats up the ambient outside air.
If you do not have elec. you will not have water! Some houses that are really old like mine is 129 yrs. old and all but 4 windows are sealed because I live in a northern state and have sometimes colder temps. than Alaska!! And old houses leak everywhere!!! But not saying that newer home do not leak as they are built cheaply! You know saving cost!! Also use blackout curtains sure help. I get up early and open doors till it starts to get warm and humid then close them and it stays cooler most of the day. Then in the winter it is the opposite heat is the issue! Right now I do not have any conditioner working! It needs I guess coolant and it would cost me $100.00s for them to drive 1 mile to my home and then the cost of them putting the coolant in and for the coolant even more $$$!! It was 86 in my home just last nigh and with the humidity it was even worst!!!!!
Bless you! 86 is far too hot for me, I don’t do well in humid heat. You might check into portable air conditioners on QVC, they have the easy-pay where you pay over 5-6 months. Or, buy a small window unit from any local store, & cool at least one room, then stay in that room as much as possible!
If your windows are sealed from paint, you can use a multi-tool (or ask someone who has one to do it) & go around & break the seal. It chipped some of my paint off the windows, but I didn’t care, I wanted them to open. Not that I open them, as in NW GA it’s too hot, & allergies…but I wanted them to be open if I needed them to.
DIY Solar fan project.
Easy setup for warmer days is go to a surplus type store for parts. Unfortunately Fry’s Electronics stores are gone, wish they could be back.
Draw out your solar fan project on paper. Do some measuring tape. To have an idea, also to show the store clerks what parts you need.
A standard size window may get 4 fans in place, it depends on the fan size dimensions used.
Next get some old 12v computer fans. Buy a small 12v, 10W solar panel.
Hook the fans in series circuit, get some 14-16 gauge wire or what ever is available at the local hardware store. Ask for help in the common wire size used.
Get a piece of plywood the covers the window opening size that lets cool air in.
Cut circles to fit the 12v computer fans. Mount the fans on the wood.
Make sure the fans are pushing or directing the inside hot air to outside.
If your not sure what to do, get one of your mechanical neighbors to hook it up for you. Been using this set up for 10+yrs. With electric fans an one small portal A/C unit for the hotter days.
It’s a simple project but get help if your not sure what to do.
Why series connection and not parallel???
As said before in the post ask someone that can put your project together for you. I did and it works fine.
NOT always about fans, electricity and utilities
The Ground is a constant at any place in the world , varies by zone and area
some depths are at 4′ for natural 60* temp
so when you think cool , think
Covering
depth in earth to be at for cool temperatures
and natural air flow
common , natural laws of nature are heat rises , cold falls
Frost level in artic is at 12′
where frost level in central states is at 2-4′
so when you think of this
Think cover and create a natural flow
like an insulator or multiple layers of insulation
like a thermos or cold storage device
if for instance you dig a hole , cover over with say 4′ of top soil and then put a vent on both ends of the hole say 12′ apart , and the lower hole is vented so it drops below the temp in the soil then you create a natural flow
look up , thermal dynamics , heat flow , cold storage , and principle s of air conditioning
this should give lots of info to go with
Yeah that sounds great will you come and figured out how to do all that at my house in the rock and in the Clay May be very interesting to see
Me too! You can’t dig a root cellar here w/o heavy equipment. I don’t have dirt with rocks in it, i have rocks with dirt around them. Had an excavating co. come and dig my basement cut out deeper so i can dig footings, pour concrete, etc. Basement was already 3/4 of the way dug out, but my buddys Bobcat wheel loader, his model was the second largest that Bobcat made, couldn’t dir any deeper as the rock was just too extensive. When the excavating guy came with a big Sany hoe, he told me he wore out a set of teeth on my job! And i know that he worked for it too. Halfway through he calls me and says we may hafta rent a hammer to get the job done. He got er done though just fine w/o having to rent the hammer. Once house is finished, the basement area will likely stay pretty cool the year around. W/O electricity to at least fun some fans, houses become heat deathtraps. If you have an attic fan AND several area fans AND learn when to turn the attic fan on and off, you can kinda get along ok until the temp passes about 90.From then on up, temp wise, a fan feels like sitting in front of a heat duct in the winter. It’s really warm air blowing on ya. You lay down to sleep, ceiling fan right above your bed, with all the covers thrown off, sweating. And not sleeping until you are just exhausted from rolling around TRYING to sleep. Bed is damp from sweat when you wake up, yer mouth is dry cause yer almost dehydrated from sweating all night, etc. Been there and done that. CAN you survive that way? Yes, but it’s not easy or pleasant. W/O electric it gets even worse and it gets to be a battle to stay hydrated. I’ve known people of limited means that did this trick, if you want to call it that, in really hot weather to be able to get cool and sleep at night. Their entire home is not air conditioned EXCEPT for their bedroom, which is kept closed off at all times. They have a small 110V window a/c unit that runs all the time just to keep that one room cool for the hottest 3 months of the year. A number of people, mostly older, die every year from heat exhaustion. Sometimes in their own home. Before a/c there were only fans to cool people off unless you had a spring-fed stream running through the backyard. Few did. Hand fans were extremely common back then. They’re a curio now.
Try that in Florida and the entire project will end up under water.
Don’t forget about using the Venturi effect even in the days when the pyramids were being built the Egyptians had ice.
What’s the “venturi effect”? shouldn’t use terms that aren’t common knowledge…..
The Venturi effect SHOULD be common knowledge to anyone who paid attention in science class. If you don’t know, look it up. Quit being lazy.
I think he’s referring to the cooling effect of constricting airflow. Open your mouth, hold it open and huff on your hand. Warm breath. Purse your lips and blow on your hand. Cool breath. Placing latticework in the airflow cools it. Or you can construct a “constricting wall” (for lack of a better term) with empty plastic soda bottles. Remove the caps, slice off the bottoms and stack them up ( maybe in the opens of that lattice) point the bottoms into the breeze.
The idea about planting trees is a good one.
The State of California. Dept of energy had a booth at the county fair. I picked up a pamphlet that said to plant deciduous trees around the house. They would shade the house in the summer to keep it cool without using energy. In the winter they would lose their leaves. The sun would get through to warm the house without using energy.
I thought that was a good idea. I bought a couple of maple trees, and propagated a bunch more.
The trees were just getting large enough to do their work when one afternoon I came home from work and found a tag on my doorknob: The State of California, dept. of forestry said that I had to cut down all the vegetation within 100 ft. of my house.
Figures!
Funny if irritating!
In California or other Blue States, if your a Demoncrat you can get away with anything. It works for Hunter the resident coker, at the West Wing. Hey that’s my bag, nice going when your the president’s son. Ha, Ha!
California is an enigma in itself. That State has too many brownouts for a stable electrical grid power.
The idea of using damp/wet fabric to cool incoming air flow only works in dry climate areas. Pretty much useless in high humidity conditions. Additional humidity only makes apparent heat feel worse.See Swamp Coolers, they work fairly well in dry desert regions, not so much where humidity is high.
That was what I was coming here to say. Adding more humidity in the deep south (or heck, even the mid-Atlantic region… a big no-no. Keep the windows CLOSED, the draps/blinds drawn.
In FL, you don’t open windows ANYTIME in the Summer, and especially this Summer. It’s called HUMIDITY- and as soon as you hang a wet Sheet up, or a wet towel placed under a door – YOU HAVE HUMIDITY, and Humid Air ALWAYS FEELS HOTTER than DRY AIR. TOTALLY DISREGARD the advice to hang wet sheets and towels if you live in FL. And BTW, Laying a WET towel on the floor to close the gap against the bottom of the door will ONLY allow the door to absorb the moisture and swell the wood door, and if you have a hollow core Luan door, that is going to delaminate it !! GREAT ADVICE !!!!!
1. reflective solar film (on the outside of the window if possible – prevent as much heat before it ever gets to the glass)
2. evaporative coolers in dryer climates – energy cost about 1/4 of A/C. Houses can be converted to switch from A/C to Evaporative using the same ductwork. Or you can add a double intake duct to accommodate A/C in humid seasons and Evaporative during dry seasons.
3. awnings over windows that get direct sun
4. plants on walls that get lots of sun (but these will prevent warmth from winter sun). Fast growing ivy, Cat’s Claw, Yellow Bell …. Oleander if you have the space (Oleander can get pretty thick)
5. heat-reflective ceramic powder coating – especially on mobile homes, manufactured homes, RV’s, flat roof homes. Ceramic mix coating applied with coat of exterior gloss paint reflects heat like a mirror reflects light. One such ceramic mix – Insuladd, insuladdmfg.com, Made in USA
Good suggestions!
Besides the solar fans in the attic, we stapled the solar film under the rafters. Leaving 6″ to 8″ on both ends open to let the air circulate. The first Summer we checked had a 20 degree difference noticed, that’s been 20 yrs. ago. You can find info on how to do it on online.
We live in a 1950’s home, back then A/C and ducting was a luxury item to the Blue collar worker.
If we decide on upgrading to full A/C, it would be the newer ductless A/C system.
You are not correct about bedding sheets. You said that black and darker absorbs light. Light is not heat. The fact is that black and darker radiate heat, meaning – get rid of heat. White and lighter absorb heat. That us why high performance engines are painted black – to get rid of heat. If you touch a black surface, it feels hot. This is not because it us absorbing heat, but it is radiating heat, getting rid of heat.
What was that comment about leaving a refrigerator door open? Refrigerators GIVE OFF HEAT. They remove heat from inside the compartment and expel it into the room, along with ADDED heat from the compressor that does the work. Opening the refrig. door will only add to the heat in the house.
Back in 71, we used to open the fridge and sleep on the floor. Those old WWII Barack’s used to be brutal.
Is it true black surfaces absorb heat, like black painted car do. White surfaces reflect heat, like white painted cars do.
Heat and light are part of energy transfers of thermodynamics?
Asking those eggheads that understand the science behind our questions. Please give us a layman’s answer, thank you.
1- What is the difference between heat and light?
2- Why do dark colors absorb light more than light colors?
So much propaganda in this article. It’s not true that we’re having record temperatures. It’s bull c**p and I’m tired of it. Just because the msm spews it 24/7 and even the weather channels lie about the temperature doesn’t make it true.
I know, right? I saw my own FB post from 4 eyars ago… heat was worse then.
It is all propaganda… they are referencing just a few days in the month. It’s July. It is HOT. Just like every year.
The liars networks only tell the propaganda to sell thier agenda , global control , lies from the left to control the left
Truth is , there is nothing new under the sun , not today , yesterday or tommorrow
we are as the grain of sand in time created by God , For God, and To worship God only
The liars networks just want your worship and following , so you do what they want yu to do
Really look up history , un edited and from many other sources so as not changed by the left
really seek out truth and you will really be shocked
you cannot change anything related to climate and as a Eng. I can Tell you , energy is exchanged not used up , becomes another form in the consumption process
anyone who has ever studied physics, and enthripy will tell you the same thing
changed
God Made us and all that is
So many example s of great design in climates like arizona where the norm is hot , very hot , and extreme hot
time to live deep under the rock , use the water as a natural coller , rock , soil , cover to conciel so as to stay cool
look at the eviornment of deserts and see how deep the water table is , how deep the creatures live in the heat of the day and come out at night
example s
A damp sheet over a open window will work like a swamp cooler.
Wet sheet over a open window work as a evap cooler