Water Cooler: Staying cool without air conditioning

For those stuck inside without air conditioning, quarantine isn’t getting any easier. But don’t lose all hope – there are plenty of ways to stay at least somewhat cool without it. Here are a few hacks you can try out.

Perhaps of the most importance, make sure you are well hydrated. Overheating happens when your body can’t regulate its temperature, so supplying your body with plenty of water helps facilitate your body’s natural cooling mechanisms like sweating and increased blood flow. Hydrate before you feel thirsty.

Drinking water is the simplest method, but you can supplement that with eating foods with a high liquid content like fruits, vegetables or broth-based soups.

That said, proper hydration also requires replenishing electrolytes. Think of hydration as the center point of balance between your body’s ideal amount of water and electrolytes.

Sodium, calcium, chloride, phosphate, magnesium and potassium are all electrolytes. Electrolytes maintain the proper balance of water inside and outside the cells through the process of osmosis.

Avoid drinks with a lot of sugar, like sports drinks. They are OK in a pinch but foods like bananas, citrus, leafy greens, meats, nuts and legumes all contain electrolytes. Low-sugar electrolyte supplements are great when you need to quickly replenish after a lot of sweating (or maybe too many adult beverages on the patio). One of the easiest to find are pediatric electrolyte solutions.

The point is hydrate, but don’t forget it is a two-part equation of water and electrolytes.

Directly and efficiently cool your body by using its natural mechanisms for doing so: evaporation, convection, radiation and conduction.

Evaporation happens through sweating and respiration, but you can mimic this by wiping yourself down with a wet cloth. The water absorbs heat from the skin and as it evaporates, the heat goes with it.

Convection is when your body loses heat by the movement of air or water molecules across the skin. This is what explains wind chill. So in plain English – sit in front of a fan.

Conduction is the process of losing heat through physical contact with another object, for example lying on a cold floor. You can also take the wet cloth you used for evaporation and leave it resting on your body’s pulse points to add some conduction to the mix.

Your neck, wrists, temples and the insides of your elbows and knees are areas where your blood vessels are close to the surface of the skin, so wrapping wet bandanas or cloths around these areas is most efficient. That said, stepping into a cold shower or sprinkler with your clothes will be an even more effective (and likely most uncomfortable) way to go about it. If you can stand it, you can achieve the same effect by sleeping under a damp sheet or towel.

Conduction works best over a sustained period of time, so you won’t get quite the same effect if you only hop into a cold shower for a few moments.

The body responds to exterior cold with decreasing blood flow to the skin and conserving heat in the core, which will make you feel cool but only for a moment. A warm shower will increase blood flow to the skin, moving heat away from the core and allowing it to radiate into the environment.

To tackle environmental cooling without AC, fans are your friend.

Place a fan in a cooler area of the house, like a basement, shaded area or north-facing window, to pull cool air in. Place another fan in the upstairs or a room that gets a lot of sun to push hot air out. This is most effective in the cool early morning and evening when your house is warmer than the exterior temperature, creating an efficient way to fill the house with cool air.

Once the temperature rises , close the windows to trap the air in and close your blinds to keep sunlight from heating your home. T

You can also create a DIY swamp cooler, technically an evaporative cooler. Place a tray of shallow water with ice cubes or reusable ice packs in front of a fan. This evaporation of water is especially cooling in dry environments like ours. Cool-mist humidifiers filled with chilled water can achieve a similar effect. There are even myriad tutorials online for making swamp coolers out of buckets and styrofoam coolers.

So take care and stay cool.