06/09/2025
It’s getting to be that time of year again when we worry about high temperatures. Here’s our usually post. Please feel free to forward or repost this.
I (Dan) just wanted to share with you what I do to help combat heat waves at my house.
1) Keep all of the windows open all night long to release hot air from the house and allow cool air in. I would run box fans and the bathroom vents to speed up the air exchange rate.
2) Each morning, around 6:30-7:00, I would turn off the bathroom vents and close all of the windows to trap the cool air inside and close the blinds on all of the windows that had them. I covered any windows without blinds (like skylights) with butcher paper. Newspaper or construction paper could work as well.
3) I filled both of my bath tubs with cold water and elevated a box fan to blow across each tub at full power. This accomplished two things: A) it kept the water in the tubs circulating so that new cool water was always interacting with the air and B) it moved the cooler air out of the bathroom. Circulating the water in the tub is important so that you avoid a layering effect with the surface warming up and then preventing the deeper water from absorbing heat from the air.
4) I used a third box fan and two smaller fans to move air throughout my house.
While this wasn’t a perfect cooling system, it can keep my house 10-20 degrees cooler that the outside (20 degrees in the bathrooms and 10 degrees in the living room and kitchen). Yes, parts of my house still get very hot, but that’s not as bad as outside. The cooler internal temperature also made it easier to cool the house further each night.
I had done something similar to this over 20 years ago with a single bed room and moved air across a sweater box filled with ice. It’s essentially a swamp cooler, but a lot less expensive.
After what I feel to be repeated success, I am confident enough to pass this information on for any and all of you to use. The heat we have seen in the past will probably be back and I want everyone to be able to handle it. Good luck.
