Whether you don't have an AC in your apartment or you want to limit your energy usage, these passive cooling techniques will help make you and your home more comfortable during the hot summer months.
Shade
Keeping solar radiation out and away from your apartment is a must when trying to stay cool.
- Block direct sunlight by using blackout shades with a white backing.
- If you have access to an outdoor space on the south or west sides of your apartment, line your exterior walls with tall freestanding plants to provide shade and reduce your apartment's heat gain.
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Evaporative Cooling
When water evaporates it draws heat out of the air, reducing the surrounding temperature. This is how your body cools itself when you sweat, and the same idea can be used to cool your home. This works best in dry climates when the humidity is less than 60%.
- Set up a box fan with a rimmed baking sheet filled with ice water in front of it. As the water evaporates it will cool the air around it, and the fan will disperse the cool air throughout the room.
- Do a load of laundry in the morning and then hang your clothes to dry on a portable drying rack during the day. The water evaporating from your clothes will cool the air around it. Use a fan to blow the cool air throughout the room.
- Plants release moisture through their leaves which is then evaporated into the air through a process called transpiration. For some seriously passive evaporative cooling fill your apartment with plants and let them do the work for you.
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Air Movement
Getting air moving throughout your apartment will make you feel cooler by evaporating sweat on your body, and make your home feel cooler by drawing cool air in and pushing hot air out. Try to maximize airflow during the coolest parts of the day.
- If the wind picks up in the evening where you live open up your windows to create a cross breeze.
- If the weather cools down at night but doesn't get breezy, place box fans in windows on opposite ends of your apartment. Have one blow inward so it pulls the cool air in, and one blow outward to push the hot air out.
- Turn on your bathroom fan or stove exhaust. These will pull the warm air up and out of your apartment.
- If you have a ceiling fan run it on a high speed in a counter-clockwise direction to push cool air down.
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