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People from the "hotter" regions, how do you deal with the heat?

I am from Eastern Europe and this is the hottest summer on my memory. For at least 3 consecutive years the heat is breaking all records.

This stuff is unbearable, I can't even play video games on my laptop, because it warms up very fast and the keyboard becomes uncomfortable for me to use.

So, could you please share any useful tips on how do you survive the summer?

221 comments
  • North africa here, we are between air conditioning, fans, drink water and pray it ends fastly, in my country our problem is more energetical, more demand less production.

  • Brazilian here, to be fair I've read so many good tricks here that I am not sure what I have to contribute, but yeah, light clothes with bright colours or white, don't dress dark as your clothes you heat up. No shoes if you can, but also not barefeet lol sandals and flip flops havaianas styles. If you live close to the beach obviously go take a swim, otherwise swimming pool or AC at home or car or go to store random stores with AC too lol. Drink cold stuff, keep hydrated. Fans, and cold shower.

  • If AC isnt an option, the way Ive gotten through summers without is opening one window on one side of the building, then another one on the opposite side. Then point a box fan facing outward of one window, and do your best to seal the gaps with some cardboard or whatever you have. This will create negative pressure in the building, drawing in a bunch of air from the opposite window.

  • This stuff is unbearable, I can’t even play video games on my laptop, because it warms up very fast and the keyboard becomes uncomfortable for me to use.

    There's a lot of good advice in here but I haven't seen anyone tell you to just reduce the amount of heat being generated in your home. Almost every plugged in electrical device in your home is generating some amount of heat. Esp. if they're in use.

    So my suggestion to you is to flip off the power-strip or unplug unnecessary devices, and find something else to occupy your time. The consoles, PCs, the tv itself, they're all hungry devices that generate a lot of heat. Those fans people are telling you to use? They generate heat too... so while I'm not saying, "don't use a fan to stay cool", I am saying, "don't fill your home with running fans in rooms you aren't in".

  • When I lived in a top floor apartment in Melbourne, where it regularly hit 40°C without any air-conditioning (still unsure how that was and is legal to rent out), I would use a spray bottle of water and a fan to evaporatively cool myself, cold showers to lower my body heat and trips to an air-conditioned space like the cinema or shopping centre during the worst of it.

    • Evaporative cooling unfortunately doesn't work well when it's also quite humid, which can be the case in some European countries.

  • When the weather hits 40⁰ around here I might head to the cinema. They're usually really well temperature controlled, dark and allows you to get out of the sun when it's at its height. Nights when it doesn't cool down are harder.

  • Always humid heat, days above 35 degrees have increased a lot. Have to use an AC all summer long... Prayers to those who have to work outside.

  • Here's what I do, dampen a towel and put it in the freezer. Once the towel is good and cold wear it like a cape. Looks kinda stupid but you'll stay cool.

  • I'm from eastern europe too, I feel like I almost died from the august 2020 heat, this year I couldn't belive my eyes seeing 37°C on the weather app last week(and continues to rise). The hail mary was fans for me, but air conditioning is something that will get harder to live without as years roll by and the temperature increases. I know I'm not the intended audience, but what worked for me was spending more time in rooms where the sun doesn't hit as much(for me it's the bathroom), standing near walls(I noticed they don't catch a lot of heat and they are not too cold to lean on), every few hours try to splash some water on your face and neck and maybe(I don't know if this works, didn't try it) towels that are wet and were left a bit in the fridge(I'd avise much caution with temperature change to avoid termic shock, for the towel too not be too cold and the body too warm). Hydrate and avoid going outside mid day as much as possible. Summer gets easier when you work in an air conditioned office, but until then, good luck and drink water.

  • Use fans. Air blowing on you will make you feel cooler. If you don't have air conditioning some houses can benefit from one fan blowing inwards from the cool/shady side of the house and one fan blowing outwards on the hot/sunny side of the house.

    Try to do outdoor things early in the morning or late in the evening. If you need to be outdoors during the hottest parts of the day stay in the shade, wear sunscreen, move more slowly, drink plenty of water.

  • If you don’t have air conditioning you can create a shitty version using a bucket of water, a towel and a fan. Just have the towel wick up the water and lay it over the fan.

  • In the Philippines, Filipinos usually go to malls for free air-conditioning since electric bills here in the country is not very friendly in terms of the costs. If you are lucky enough to be in the middle class, running the AC during afternoon for some hours is enough already.

  • Barcelona A/C all the day at 24C (25C or 26C when sleeping). However to me it's been always hot here. So I'm not particularly suffering this summer more than the others.

  • Without HVAC (which I'm assuming is the case) your options are limited. I would look into fans and evaporative coolers.

    There are also freestanding compression-based units that have you run tubes out the window, but avoid single tube models!

  • Midwestern US here, it's been getting hotter and some years our AC just stopped working. I keep my fan turned on almost 24/7 as I can't breathe well without it on and recently I got blackout curtains with angled curtain rods. Keeps my room much cooler than a blanket over the window

  • I'm from central Italy, in my city temperatures regularly reach 40 degrees in August. With the recent heatwave we reached it in mid July, I cope by being indoors and locking myself in with AC on and drinking ice cold water, and when I can (and I fortunately can afford so) going on vacation in colder, still close, places, something like Abruzzo or Molise if you know central Italy.

221 comments