Staying cool in this hot weather 19 August 2012 at 3:34PM edited 13 July 2022 at 3:15PM in Health & beauty MoneySaving 53 replies 7.5K views

sophlowe45

How to stay cool in this hot weather?

I don't understand how people are able to go out and about when its so hot and use the tube etc. without passing out.

From my notes on reading lots of threads here over the past week i have one for staying cool, make up a cold water bottle using a hot water bottle, dont have a hot water bottle and havent seen any in the shops ive looked in, maybe they dont stock them in summer.

Apart from that, i have the fan on non stop which must be costing me a lot of money! I can manage the winter without heating as i wear super warm clothes, but summer i never know what to do.

Is it better to drink cold drinks? Is it better to have a dehumidifier than a fan?

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/heathealth/

Current watch level: Level 3 - Heatwave Action in one or more regions of England and Wales

System

A fan just blows the air in room about. A dehumidifyer will take out the moisture out of the air. If your going to buy an appliance you need an air conditioning unit. You can buy portable ones. I have two, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Our upstairs one was on all night. What we dont spend on heating the house goes on cooling it down in hot weather.:mad:

Amaretti_2

I hate this heat. :mad:

Not moving too much and eating cold jelly is keeping me cool. Well, sort of.

I'm packing up and moving to the North Pole next summer.

sophlowe45

Hate this heat too, but always feel like im the minority and almost everyone loves it! Every summer i think about going off to a cold country but everyone tells me only i would think such things.

I tried turning the fan off but couldnt manage it!

Thanks Judi, exactly what i was thinking, what i dont spend on heating im spending on staying cool.

mrsrwallace

At work the only thing I can really do is nip to the loo when I seriously think I will melt and fill the sink with cold water and plunge my hands in to make sure my wrists are soaked. I stand like that for a minute or two and dry off with paper towels and it stops me feeling so sweaty. Our place of work seems to be confused though as the summer sees us all sweating with the ridiculous heat turned ON and the winter we are all wrapped up because the heating is only on for set times?!? Apparently it is operated from elsewhere so we can't adjust it.

mandi

Amaretti wrote: »

I hate this heat. :mad:

Get yourself up here to Cumbria .. It's absolutely chucking it down !!!:mad:

alec_eiffel

We make cold water bottles up for our rabbits, just any plastic bottle filled with water and frozen. They keep them nice and cool so a cold water bottle could work. I lined our curtains with thermal linings and they do a great job at keeping the worst of the heat out.

Fruball

One trick when using a fan is to put a dish of water in front of it so the air blows accross the water - it is similar to the effect of a breeze over a lake so it cools the air more effectively. You could put ice in the water too. This is how expensive Air Coolers work (cheaper than Air Conditioners but still expensive)

A plant mister is good for spraying onto the skin - evaporative cooling

lostinrates

A non os hand bag solution is magicool. I find it brilliant. Otherwise keeping wrists, neck and face damp with water and the fan in the room help. My dh puts a pul of ice infront of a fan. Keep curtains drawn when the sun is shining on those windows to nlock out heat.

Eat sensibly, and smaller meals, stay very well hydrated.

Caterina

Don't drink ice cold drinks if you can avoid it. I come from a hot country (Italy) and my sister lives in an even hotter one (Spain. Seville at the moment has had a max of 49 Degrees C in the sun). The best thing to do to stay hydrated is to drink lots of water, or weak tea (lemon and mint are a favourite of ours!) at room temperature, this means almost lukewarm, but it means you avoid potential cramps in the stomach from ingesting cold drinks and giving the system a shock. This is received wisdom from past years in my country, I do not have any scientific basis but empirically it seems to work for me as well as most of the people I know.

Same principle with showers, don't have a freezing cold one as you will feel the heat more when you come out, have a barely lukewarm one and you will feel very refreshed (for a while).

HTH

Edited to say: I worked in an office (in the UK) a few years ago during a heatwave and we were told by the techies that using a fan actually WARMS UP the air, it moves it around giving the impression of coolness but the actual air gets hotter by the workings of the machine.

PipneyJane

Consider the fabrics you are wearing. Woven cotton lawn is cooler than tee-shirt material but both are cooler (and more comfortable) than anything with nylon or polyester. You need fabrics that encourage your sweat to evaporate.