Going Green: Tips for Staying Cool

This Sum­mer, we have record tem­per­a­tures in most parts of the world, espe­cially Van­cou­ver. Peo­ple like to take advan­tage of this by going to the beach. Oth­ers, such as me most of the time, like to stay indoors.

I do have air con­di­tion­ing in my house — but it is barely used. Air con­di­tion­ing makes the whole house cool, and hav­ing a big house makes it very inef­fi­cient. I have a fan in my room — but I rarely turn it on. I have 2 porch doors, a door to the hall­way, and a win­dow in my study room. I use them to my advantage.

Elec­tron­ics - First of all, make sure your elec­tron­ics are off when not in use. Elec­tron­ics will gen­er­ate heat. Some com­put­ers will heat up quickly if the machine itself is too dusty. If you are using a lap­top, make sure it is sit­ting on a wood-like or glass-like sur­face where it will not accu­mu­late the heat. Do not put your lap­top on your bed as it will keep your com­puter warm — some­thing you do not want it to do.

Lights — Incan­des­cent light bulb may light up right away when you flick them on — but they do cre­ate a lot of heat as you have them on. If pos­si­ble, try to switch to com­pact flu­o­res­cent light bulbs.

Air Cir­cu­la­tion — The only rea­son why fans make you feel cooler is not because it cools down the air. It blows the air at you at a fast pace — cre­at­ing air cir­cu­la­tion. It will work the same if you open up your win­dow or door. If you are doing this, make sure it is cooler out­side before doing so.

Shield­ing from the Sun — You feel warm some­times because you feel the sun shin­ing at you. Close your blinds and cur­tains dur­ing the day to block off the sun. If pos­si­ble, use alu­minum blinds so that the light bounces off your window.

Go Under­ground — If you have a base­ment, go to the base­ment. Base­ments are the coolest place in your base­ment. I can put Coke cans in the base­ment, open it a week later, and I can get a cool Coke.

Water is your friend — Cold water is free in British Colum­bia. Use it as a tem­po­rary mea­sure to cool your­self down.

Hun­gry? — Eat spicy food! Ever won­der why Indi­ans eat spicy food? It is because the spici­ness of the food increases per­spi­ra­tion. Per­spi­ra­tion cools down your body as it evaporates!

Those are some of the meth­ods that I have used to cool myself down. If you are still hot from the weather, take the bus down to your local shop­ping cen­tre and enjoy the air con­di­tion­ing! Regard­less of whether you are there, it is still going to be on 

Related posts:

1. Green Tips: Back to School