Cooling Down a Hot Room

If you don't have air conditioning in your home, then being inside during the summer months can easily, and quickly, become an intolerable situation. Even if you do have air conditioning, the rising cost of your energy bills can just as easily become unbearable. So, how do you go about cooling down a hot room if you aren't blessed with either unlimited resources, or air conditioning? The answer is both physical and psychological. Through a few small changes to both your physical dwelling, and your psychological outlook, you are going to have no problem in cooling down a hot room.

• Paint. How a room is painted is going to affect the temperature of that room. Try to paint in the colder end of the color spectrum which includes the various shades of blue, green, black, white or grey. Doing this can actually effect the physical temperature to a small degree, but the larger impact is going to be on the mental temperature, and the room is going to "feel" cooler.
• Shades/Curtains. Installing dark colored shades or curtains, and keeping them closed during the hottest portions of the day is going to cool off the room significantly.
• Breeze. If you have to be around the house throughout the day, then try using a fan. A few well placed fans throughout the house, usually near the doorways and windows, is going to help create a breeze throughout the entire house. This helps to reduce the temperature in that oven of a room, since heat likes to radiate, cooling off other rooms is going to help create an area for the heat to escape to.
• Dress. The way that you dress is going to impact your personal heat. It might not affect the room directly, but it is going to effect how you feel in the room. The lighter the material your clothing, then the cooler you are going to be. Another option is that the less you wear (meaning shorts or swimsuits) the cooler you are going to be as well.
• Think cool thoughts. It may sound nuts or hokey, but it has been proven that if you think of colder locations or times, then your body is going to react as if it is colder than it really is. In effect, the old saying of mind over matter is true, and can come in handy in situations like this.