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10 ways to keep cool without air conditioning

If there’s one thing I have learned living in a semi-arid climate for 12 years without air conditioning, it’s a few tricks to keeping cool in the hot sun.

Granted, our 30+ degree weather in Southern Alberta is a pittance compared to true desert temperatures like Nevada and Arizona (or the Sahara for that matter). That being said, these tricks should still work in places like that, too.

Now, all the following assumes you don’t have an adobe house, which of course would be perfect for helping you keep cool.

  1. Keep the windows and doors closed during the day. This keeps all cool air in and the hot air out.
  2. Keep your blinds closed during the day.
  3. Dress in as little as possible.
  4. Keep air moving with fans. Circulating air will ensure you cool off when you sweat, which is the entire purpose of your sweating.
  5. Do not use the oven. Use a BBQ, George Foreman Grill, or something other than your oven.
  6. Eat cool foods (like pasta salads, garden salads, etc).
  7. Eat foods with high water content: watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.
  8. Eat frozen food (frozen fruit works great)
  9. Eat homemade popsicles.
  10. At night, keep your windows open. Even better, have one fan blowing air outside and one fan pulling air inside.

I have used all these techniques; they are tried, tested and true.

If you have other ideas, post them in the comments.

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By Kim Siever

I live in Lethbridge with my spouse and 5 of our 6 children. I’m a writer, focusing on social issues and the occasional poem. My politics are radically left. I recently finished writing a book debunking several capitalism myths. My newest book writing project is on the labour history of Lethbridge.

I’m also dichotomally Mormon. And I’m a functional vegetarian: I have a blog post about that somewhere around here. My pronouns are he/him.

2 replies on “10 ways to keep cool without air conditioning”

hear, hear. These have all worked for me too, esp the airflow management.

also, there’s nothing wrong with sleeping in the basement on really hot nights, and though I normally don’t mind the lawn browning off a bit in August, I’ll still sometimes use the sprinkler in the evening and sit on the porch catching the mist.

I haven’t watered my lawn at all this year and it is still green. Granted, sometimes the children play with the garden hose, so it may be cheating a bit.

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