Bedroom is a sauna.. any tips for keeping it cool?

[mcshroom]

I've never tried this but someone I know ties a freezer pack (the type you put in a coolbox) to the front of the fan, she swears this cools the air significantly.

I've done similar, but didn't have any freezer packs so froze water in plastic tubs and used that instead. I found it dropped the temperature of the air coming from the fan enough to help with sleep

 

[alicat]

Wet a towel, wring it out then spin it round your head just before you go to bed.

 

[ColinJ]

I have opened my loft hatch. It lets the warm air rise. My bedroom is definitely cooler with the hatch open.
I also keep the bedroom blind shut all day so that it stays cooler.

You reminded me that the doorway to my attic bedroom was closed. The Velux window is open an inch, but there wasn't any airflow up through that because of the closed door. I nipped up there to open the door this afternoon and could immediately feel a cooling breeze going up through the house.

The only negative is that it has increased the amount of my neighbour's cigarette smoke that is coming into the house.

 

[Saluki]

You reminded me that the doorway to my attic bedroom was closed. The Velux window is open an inch, but there wasn't any airflow up through that because of the closed door. I nipped up there to open the door this afternoon and could immediately feel a cooling breeze going up through the house.

The only negative is that it has increased the amount of my neighbour's cigarette smoke that is coming into the house.

Next door's cigarette smoke is a bit of a bummer. Happily we are on the 1st floor so it's less of a problem for us. We get the occasional whiff but only when she has friends over and they are all out in the garden.

 

[raleighnut]

[QUOTE 3200225, member: 259"]Lovely with a bit of vinegar to dip them in.[/QUOTE]
From the saucer in the corner of the room, ahaa it all makes sense now.

 

[Globalti]

If you use a fan hang a damp cloth in front of it- evaporating the moisture from the cloth will cool the air...

Hilarious suggestion! Demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the physics of evaporation! 1/10

I've done similar, but didn't have any freezer packs so froze water in plastic tubs and used that instead. I found it dropped the temperature of the air coming from the fan enough to help with sleep

An old principle and might just cool that air by half a degree or so until the ice melts. 5/10

Wet a towel, wring it out then spin it round your head just before you go to bed.

Haaaa haaaa! Actually prancing around naked whirling a wet towel above your head will create a sensation of cooling as the sweat evaporates off your skin but you'll feel hotter when you eventually run out of breath and lie down on the bed! 2/10

There's nothing more efficient for cooling the body than damp skin in a breeze so just lie down with a ceiling or pillar fan blowing gently at you and you'll feel fine.

 

[Archie_tect]

@Globalti, there are hundreds of home made examples of evaporative cooling... if I'm missing something really obvious, please let me know- to be honest it is 39 years since I did latent heat in O-level physics!

Mind, even this one,
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gawOWyhtthU
seems to find that blowing warm air over cooler water [the colder the better] cools the air beyond the fan significantly....

We sourced all sorts of ways of cooling without using non-mechanical means [admittedly the example I was replying to was using a fan which is breaking all the rules of natural ventilation but it was the option presented]- one was to bury clay ventilation pipes 3 feet down where the damp ground would soak the pipes cooling the hot, dry air through heat transfer and evaporating water from the wet pipes to water vapour so that cooler moister air entered the building at low level which then absorbed heat as it rose through the building using the stack effect to be exhausted at high level... I've assumed this was true for over 30 years!

 

[Globalti]

Well let's see.... the latent heat contained in the wet towel has to go somewhere, right? So blowing air at it will cause some of the moisture to evaporate, carrying the heat away as warmed moisture....the same as when wind picks up moisture from the ocean, which turns into clouds. Consequently the towel will feel cooler and in the meantime anybody who happens to be standing in the airstream will also feel cool thanks to their own natural moisture evaporating.

 

[Archie_tect]

I had expected that the wet towel would absorb the latent heat as it dried, warming the towel not cooling it, but cooling the air not warming it as it passes through the wet towel as the water evaporates away as water vapour... I seem to have got this completely the wrong way round but would need to run an experiment to see why... brain hurts!

 

[Globalti]

Don't bother, the brain can overheat in this weather. Just go and lie down behind the fridge.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Leave the curtains closed if the sun is on them, and open all night.
<snip>

this plus the block out the sun blinds which are thermally shielded. Doors and windows plus curtains closed during the day... once it is cooler outside, doors, windows & curtains open.

 

[Archie_tect]

G, don't rub more salt in, stings enough already!

 

[kurt909]

There's nothing more efficient for cooling the body than damp skin in a breeze so just lie down with a ceiling or pillar fan blowing gently at you and you'll feel fine.

This is what I've been doing. But...

If I walk out the room, and then back in, I realise what is actually happening. It just blows warm air around the room.

So I'm sitting there sweating and yes the dampness together with the blown air does work, but its still not comfortable!

 

[Archie_tect]

....still the weather forecasters are saying that snow is on its way to the NE

Feels a bit frosty already.... how can we thaw things a bit?

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Easy.....smash up a few old fridges and keep a herd of cows. that should create a hole in the ozone layer in your neck of the woods.

Doesn't the Coriolis effect mean that he'll just create a hole over Cumbria? Surely he'd need to smash a few fridges in Holland to get a hole over Northumbria?