Summer time – Easy hacks to let off steam naturally

Summers during my childhood were the season of five rupee ice creams and lying under the ceiling fan on the cool floor after a long day of outside play. But nowadays, it is truly an inconvenience trying to keep cool. The heat and humidity can make you feel drowsy, like a lizard in the sun and it seriously cuts back my productive time. This discomfort from the heat is the worst during the night time, and it interferes with my sleep cycle.

But like many people nowadays, I hesitate to turn on the AC, which often makes use of fuels like Hydro Fluro carbons that can be a thousand times more damaging to the environment than CO2. Besides, AC is not conducive to health too.

And that got me thinking: why not try and repurpose some of my childhood techniques to stay cool as an adult? Here are some cheap and environment-friendly ways to reduce AC usage and keep your electric bill costs down.

Learn how to use your windows:

Heat coming in through windows makes up about half of the heat gain in your house. Doing these things can lower your indoor temperature by 20 degrees and cut down cooling costs by 30%.

• Close the curtains on your south and west-facing windows, which get the most amount of direct sunlight. It stops your house from essentially becoming a greenhouse.
• The night air is the coolest and often the freshest. So make the most of it in these summer months. Try to figure out in which direction the wind is blowing that night, and then open those windows to let in the cross breeze.
• Plant trees, hanging vines, and shrubs near your windows. You can also put your house plants on window sills so they fully absorb incoming sunlight. Using flowering, fragrant plants will provide both a wonderful view and good fodder for bees and butterflies.

• Hang up a damp sheet in front of open windows to bring down the temperature of the entire room.

Maximize the efficiency of devices that you do have:

Just because we are trying to reduce AC usage doesn’t mean that all of your other cooling devices should go to waste. Use them smartly to stay cool and keep electric bill costs low.

• Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it is much better to place standing table fans so that they blow outwards, rather than in- the air is often hotter inside the home than outside. Before you go to sleep, place the fan so that it faces away from you and towards the door to your room (away from any windows), and then open your windows to fully maximize the effects of the cool cross breeze.
• Place some ice in a shallow tray and put it in front of your tabletop fan. The fan will pick up this cool air and circulate it around the room.
• If it is possible to adjust your ceiling fan settings, set them up so that they run counter-clockwise. This will suck up the hot air towards the top, rather than just circulating it around the room. This is an ingenious way to prioritize fan usage both during the summer and winter months.
• Replace your incandescent bulbs, which emit 90% of their energy in heat, with more efficient CFL bulbs.
• Make full use of the exhausts in your kitchen and bathroom to stop hot air from cooking or showering from circulating around the house.

Cooldown the body:

Rather than trying to cool down the entire room, why not focus your resources on cooling your own body down?

• Understand your body’s cool spots- for most people, placing cold cloths on the wrists and the back of the neck can bring down the whole body temperature. Other spots include the forehead and ankles.
• Try to cook as little as possible! Eat light meals to cut down on metabolism energy that heats up the body. Summer is a great time to try out new recipes for salads and smoothies, with the added bonus that they keep you cool. If you have a freezer, why not try making some sugar free popsicles?
• Make sure your water bottles are topped off with chilled water at all times and keep yourself hydrated. You could also make homemade fruit juices and leave them in the fridge to drink throughout the day.
• Wear loose clothing and natural fabrics like cotton that allow air to circulate around the body. Fabrics like polyester and nylon trap heat into the body.
• Take cool showers, and use natural scrubs or soaps that contain peppermint oil. Peppermint is known to have a cooling effect on the body.
• If you have a hot water bottle that you use in the winter repurpose it anyway, for the summer. Fill it up with water and place it in the freezer to use as a good ice pack.

Optimize your bedroom and sleep:

The heat can interrupt your REM cycle, which can, in turn, cause a multitude of other health issues. Try out some of the things below to give your body the rest and healing time that it needs.

• Just like with your clothing, make sure all of your blanket covers, bedsheets, and pillow covers are made up of 100% natural cotton and other such breathable fabrics. This stops you from waking up in a pool of sweat in the morning.
• Drink some water before sleeping, and keep a bottle next to you. Sweating throughout the night can seriously dehydrate you.
• Place a cooling pad or a cold cloth on your pillow before putting your head down to sleep. This can cool down the whole body. You could also try sleeping like how the Ancient Egyptians did in the heat but using a damp, cool sheet as a blanket.
• And finally, get low! Hot air rises, so try and lower the height of your bed before you sleep. Or better yet, try sleeping on the floor (which has numerous benefits for the back). If you have granite or marble floors, try sleeping on only a thin mat or carpet to take full advantage of its chill.

I hope that you will experiment with these techniques and sail through summer.

(About the author: I am Keerthana Umesh, a teenager finding my way through life, a science enthusiast and a lover of animals and the environment)