To ask people to share how to keep their house cool?

[Whatkatyforgottodo]

I’ve just seen the forecast for Monday is now 38C where I live… I’ve been reading up on how to keep the house cool so will be keeping all windows and doors closed and curtains drawn. However my kitchen has south facing doors and windows without any curtains or blinds… any ideas for how I can block them off without spending a fortune? Thank you all!

Do you have enough space to shut the door on the kitchen and not use it for the afternoon? Maybe with a brief trip in to get some cold food from the fridge for lunch? Otherwise you’re looking at trying to mock up blackout blinds with bin bags and blue tack, or large sheets of cardboard.

South facing shouldn’t be too bad after a certain time - what time does the sun disappear from the kitchen? My house faces north-south but I’m currently staying with relatives who have two west-facing bedrooms and that is way worse. I’m glad I’ll be back home by Sunday.

A fan for the room you’re in. Windows and doors open before the sun is up and after it’s down.

Freeze a big bottle of water, put it in front of a fan. Instant cold air.
For windows would newspaper work to cover?

You need to air the house early in the morning (think 6am) and late at night when the air is cool. Open everything at the same time to get a draft of cool air through the house. 10 minutes is enough. Then close all windows, curtains and blinds and keep them closed all day. That will keep the house several degrees cooler. In the kitchen there is not much you can do at this point - shut the door and try not to go in there - maybe prep your meals the day before, you’ll only want to eat something cold anyway.

This is what they do on the continent and it works well. But it’s more efficient to block the sun before it gets in the house (ie with external shutters and blinds) rather than internal ones. We’re in the south of Germany where it’s hot in summer and have fab electric shutters on the outside of the house to keep the heat out (and good insulation compared to in the UK!)

I wonder if foil would keep the heat out of the kitchen? We have the same problem and I think I’ll try that myself

Get some large sheets of black paper/light cardboard and blue tack to the glass of the curtain-less glass.

Can you use drawing pins or something.. to pin towels to the outside windows? Or lean carboard against the windows? it’s better if you can do this to the outside then the glass doesn’t get heated up as much.

I live in Spain so very experienced at keeping cool. ~ even though we have aircon and shutters now we didnt have them the first year.
Can you use bed sheets over the doors ? If not then find a way to fit them to the ceiling so that the light is blocked.
Only have windows open if the air outside is cooler than inside.
Fans, get as many as you can. Place a bottle of frozen water in front for DIY aircon.
Dont cook on that day ~ salads, cold soups ( gazpacho is lovely and quite cheap and easy to make ) , watery fruit like melon ect.
Dont wait until you feel thirsty to drink, we had a week of 40 ~ 47 degrees last year and several acquaintances needed medical assistance due to dehydration, at a certain point your sweat evaporates so quickly you dont feel sweaty but you are losing a lot of fluid.

Strange one but works ~ slightly dampen socks and put in the fridge , cools the body down so sleeping is easier. For dogs that get overheated slightly wet a towel then place between their back legs where the fur is the thinnest.

Just tape up anything that will block the sun from coming in.

You could flatten a few cardboard boxes for example...

It will be cooler if they're taped to the outside rather than the inside but both will help.

Equally you could hang up bedsheets. Ideally light coloured rather than dark coloured.

Reflective window film. We put this on the inside of the window of a room that gets full sun all afternoon. The room was like an oven before now it is just fine. I was amazed how well it worked. Think it cost about £18 to buy online.

My Victorian house stays pretty cool anyway but we shut curtains during the day and open windows in the early morning & at night to flush the house with cold air.

ive been reading these threads and wondering if hanging a damp sheet would work - especially if you kept re wetting it. Or spraying water on your curtains?

You want to block or reduce the sun hitting windows basically, or coming inside.

temporarily. I would get cardboard and stick it to the outside of your kitchen window. Covering the top half rather than all of it so light gets through. You could also set up sun umbrella outside right by window to try and reduce how much heat hits window.
For future. Consider having an awning attached to the outside so you can wind open. A basic manual one is fairly cheap

Ikea do thin see through blinds that are excellent for kitchen. They come in various sizes, and about £20. They let light in, but block out a huge amount of heat also. You can order online.

You can buy stick-up blackout blinds on amazon

Buy one of those fans you fill with water, I have the JML Chillmax Air small one at the side of my bed & I'm saving up for the bigger one which is £199. You can put ice on freezer blocks in the bigger one. I also use Magicool spray to keep me cool.

I've read that putting foil on your windows will be prefect. Soapy water to dampen the window.

Thank you everyone, these are all really helpful ideas! I’m going to see if I can still close the doors and windows with a sheet hanging over them as then I won’t need to worry about how to stick/string things up… any more ideas are very gratefully received!

Not really a house recommendation but I recently bought one of the cooking mats from home bargains and it's brilliant. Gel filled mat that you can pop on fridge the use to lie on and it's heaven

Keep curtains and windows shut whilst the sun is on them, once the sun is past open curtains and windows. Or go out and hang out in the freezer aisle. Thankfully I work in a medieval building, I wear thermals for half the year and moan about being cold but it's bliss on a hot day

Open the loft hatch, if you have one.

google diy swamp cooler

use damp sheets /towels to drape over you at bed time

block the sun coming in but use light colored materials, not dark as they absorb less heat, if you can use reflective stuff even better (like emergency blankets) but be careful you dont send annoying reflections onto your neighbors windows

use fans in the windows to pull cool air in before it heats up for the day and then push the hot air out of your windows once the outside air has cooled down. using an upstairs window for the pushing out bit is more effective (or push it into an attic where the attic floor is the only bit insulated, not the roof bit). Open a low window on the opposite aide of the house when you do this to create a cross breeze

plan on sleeping in any room you have that faces north east, its likely going to be the coolest

go to bed with damp pajamas and wet hair

Right idea but not quite. By far the best short term fix is emergency blankets. Gold side in, silver side out to reflect the heat. Thin enough to properly close the windows around them, they block the heat but still let a lot of light through. Amazon has a gazillion of them for sale, for instance or just raid your car's first aid kit for now.

www.amazon.co.uk/BINHAI-Emergency-Blankets-Survival-Reflective/dp/B07P46SNFH/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=3O4HHCTS5Z1Z6&keywords=rescue%2Bblanket&qid=1657869301&sprefix=rescue%2Bb%2Caps%2C113&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFXU042U1BOMk5LUEgmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAxNDg3MzAxMlI2TVRVTDdHTEQwJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0MDY0NjUzMDdTVVpNOFMxTFEyJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1#immersive-view_1657869368589

Thank you all. I have ordered some emergency blankets and am going to try covering the outside of the doors and windows with them. Fingers crossed!

Foil ! I have covered my windows with foil this morning, shiny side facing outwards and wow a massive difference.
Not needed fans on and even the attic is much cooler