14 Best Tips for Cooling a Small Room without AC

by Eugene Dubovoy

Heat is hard on us. It makes it difficult to work, decreases our productivity, and even sleep doesn't bring relief. And if you live or work in a small room that warms up much quicker and where air circulation is significantly worse than in large spaces, the hot season becomes a real challenge to survive. Read also: Hot Weather Safety Tips

So, what are the best ways of fighting the heat and cooling a small room? Let's find out the tried and tested ways to cool down a room without AC.

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Any Alternatives to AC and Fans?

Purchase Evapolar for Better Summers Ahead!

14 Tips to Overcome the Heat in the Room without AC

12 tips to cool down small room without A/C

Close the Curtains During the Day, and Use Dark Ones

You might be wondering why you must close the curtains when trying to cool your home during the summer months. Leaving your curtains open means giving the sun access to your room. Thus, it’s essential to leave the curtains or blinds closed during the day to block the sun. This will help you cool down your room without AC, especially when the air outside is hotter than the air inside.

If your window catches a lot of direct sunlight, dark or blackout curtains will prevent the rays from overheating your room during the hours when the sun is most active. Otherwise, your room might turn into an impromptu greenhouse.

Read Also: The Best Portable Air Cooler in 2024

Open Windows and Interior Doors at Night

When closing the curtains during the day, you should open them at night. At night, the sun is gone, and you can take advantage of the cooler air, but not if the windows are closed. So, you should always open your home's windows and interior doors at night. By opening the windows, you can create a cross breeze that will fill your room with cool air.

There’s a benefit to closing off the doors connecting your kitchen to the rest of the house during the day since the hot air from cooking a meal will carry throughout your home. You should also open the door or window connecting the kitchen to the outside to eliminate the hot air. You can open the doors and windows at night to allow the cooler air to flow freely from room to room, especially if your windows are high, to pull hot air up and out.

Place Ice or Cool Water in Front of a Fan

Another helpful tip is to put cold water or ice in front of the fan while it’s on. This will cause the fan to blow the coolness of the water or ice around, thus making your room cooler. It’s best to close the door and windows when you do this, to keep the air trapped inside.

The idea is that ice generates cold air around it, and the fan will blow this air around. This is an ideal alternative to air conditioning. Maybe don’t sit right in front of the stream so it doesn't irritate your eyes.
Read also: 10 Best Gadgets for Couples with Different Body Temperatures

Adjust Your Ceiling Fan According to the Season

You can also change the settings of your ceiling fan according to the season. Did you know ceiling fans have two modes? Depending on the way the blades turn, they can either create a breeze or force the warm air down (hot air always travels up).

So, you can make it create a breeze during the summer and force warm air down during the winter. It should spin counter-clockwise during the summer and clockwise during winter. Make sure you have the right setting on so you’re cooling a room instead of warming it up.

For your bathroom and especially your kitchen, which releases a lot of heat, you can use an exhaust fan. The fan will pull the steam out of the room while you cook, so it’s a good way to cool down a room.

Sleep Low

Due to the principle of warm air rising, the air at your feet is less hot than at the ceiling. You can disassemble your bed and put the mattress on the floor or try a night without a mattress, if you don’t mind hard surfaces, and see if it makes a difference.

During hotter days, you can also sleep on the floor if your ground is made up of tiles. Often they do not absorb heat. This is an excellent way to beat the heat. Tiles usually feel cool and will make sleeping more comfortable, if you can handle hard surfaces.

Let the Night Air in

There’s nothing more natural and fresh than night air. You can take advantage of the night air and open the windows or a door. If it’s raining, you can open the windows enough to let the cool air in but not to let the rain in. The air also makes your room colder during the rainy season, and you won’t need air conditioning at night.

Open your window as soon as the temperature outside drops. In fact, open all the windows in your home to cool it down during the night and allow for a cross breeze, and close them the next morning when the air heats back up again.

Read also: 6 Best Advice for How to Stay Cool at Night

Upgrade All of Your Incandescent, Fluorescent, and Other Light Bulbs to LED

All electronic equipment emanates heat, including light bulbs. With these lights on, it might be hard to keep a room cool during the day. This contributes to the temperature of your room. LED lights, on the other hand, stay cool. As a bonus, they are more energy-efficient, so you’ll save on your utility bills.

If you can’t change all your light bulbs, for now you can keep your lights off and use the natural daylight around your home. This will go a long way to keep you cool. Then, you can turn the lights on at night. This will also reduce the amount of energy you consume.

Buy a Cooling Mattress, Pillows, and Sheets

Mattress technology has been developed to help you stay cool at night. Whether they have moisture-wicking covers or breathable foam cores, there are many varieties of cooling mattresses to get you through summer sweat-free.

Apart from mattresses, you can also go for cooling sheets and pillows for a more comfortable time. Even if you’re not laying on the bed, you can use the sheets to cover up when on the couch to stay cool. If you can’t afford cooling mattresses, pillows, and sheets, you can use cotton sheets on your bed and make sure you use nothing else. Cotton is more breathable than other materials, so it will make your nights feel cooler.

Use the Egyptian Method

It’s a method where you use a damp sheet as a cover to stay cool — basically a DIY swamp cooler. If you try it, set your fan on low, since cooling down your muscles too much might make you feel uncomfortable.

When creating the wet sheet, don’t add too much water to the sheet or else it will be soaked, and you might catch a cold while trying to stay cool.

Drink More Cool Water

Our bodies are mostly made of water, so staying hydrated is a sure way to stay healthy and comfortable. If you’re dehydrated or drinking warm water, you will feel more affected by the heat.

Chilled water (not iced) can also help cool down your body from the inside, providing relief. To make it work better, you can drink a lot of water before you go to bed to keep you cool and hydrated.

Take a Cool or Contrast Shower

Taking contrast showers — alternating between hot and cold water during one shower — on the regular can help your body become more adaptable to temperature changes. If contrast showers don’t sound appealing, a lukewarm shower to cool down your body can still help you beat the heat.

When taking a cold shower, don’t do so when coming right out of a hot environment or high temperature. If you are, you can spend some time cooling off in front of the fan before you enter the shower.

Cool Off Your Pulse Points

If you’re really hot, you could place an ice pack or a cool, wet towel on your pulse points: your wrists, ankles, the crooks of your elbows, and the backs of your knees. Just be sure to cover your skin with a towel to protect it from getting too cold.

By applying something cold to your pulse points, you can cause your body temperature to reduce very quickly and feel cooler. This is an old-school method, but it’s still very effective.

Most of the tips above are for nighttime because you feel hot the most when you’re sleeping. So, apply some of them before you go to bed. Surely we can all agree that these tricks have both pros and cons. On the one hand, spraying a sheet with water and using it to cool yourself down doesn’t cost much. On the other hand, most of them won’t work for a long period of time.

Manage the Humidity

Managing humidity is crucial for staying cool and comfortable during the hot summer. High humidity levels can make the air feel heavy and sticky, leading to discomfort and excessive sweating. When humidity is not controlled correctly, it becomes harder for our bodies to regulate temperature through evaporation. This can leave us feeling clammy and overheated.

On the other hand, maintaining optimal humidity levels can significantly enhance our comfort. By reducing excess moisture in the air, we can create a more pleasant environment that feels cooler. When humidity is at an appropriate level, sweat evaporates more efficiently from our skin, making us feel refreshed and cooler. This not only improves our overall comfort but also helps to prevent dehydration and heat-related illnesses.

Why Not Just Buy an AC for Cooling a Room?

Why Not Just Buy an AC to Make a Room Colder?

For some people it’s obvious — duh, why would I splurge on air conditioning for a tiny room I don’t even own?

Consider Your Electricity Tariff

It’s true: even the cheapest AC unit is costly and will spike your electric bill. Also, so many of us rent that you might simply run into the issue of your landlord not allowing it. Or it may be your tiny office at work we’re talking about, and then the decision is out of your hands.

Or maybe you live in a country where there’s just a couple of decently warm weeks in a year — if you’re lucky — and AC is not common or easily available. You’re not alone! People in many countries don’t use air conditioning in households or offices.

What About Environment Impact?

You might also be avoiding using an AC because of its impact on the environment. Air conditioners do impact the environment, like any other machine burning fossil fuels, which is why you might be trying to cool your house down the old-school way. Of course, you can purchase an eco-friendly AC, but that sounds quite expensive for a tiny room, doesn’t it?

Your Personal Health Care

If you dive deeper into what AC units entail, you’ll find plenty of drawbacks. For instance, did you know that having a runny nose all throughout the summer is often caused by air conditioning and the stark difference of temperatures it creates compared to the outdoors? It also dries out the air, which is not good for your health. And if you don’t have the AC filters cleaned regularly, it can aggravate other respiratory problems, such as allergies.

Air conditioners also contribute to noise pollution, as do other electrical appliances. It’s not the loud sounds that cause tinnitus, yet the constant buzzing can affect your mental health.

Any Alternatives?

Any Alternatives to Cool a Room without AC and Fans?

So, if installing an AC is out of the question because it’s expensive or you rent your apartment or you’re on the fence while considering the drawbacks, are there any other effective ways to cool down a small space? Ones that won't make you put a bucket of ice near your office chair or sleep under a wet towel?

And what if mosquitoes come in while you open the windows at night or don’t have enough windows to create a cross breeze? After all, you can’t keep on struggling to keep bedroom cool through old-fashioned methods.

The good news is that air conditioning is not the only alternative to using electric fans or DIY-ing other tricks. There is one room cooling solution you can try that won’t affect your health, energy bills, or the environment at the same time.

Even with this, it will still cool yourself or your personal space more cost-effectively than an air conditioner would.

Evapolar is a personal evaporative cooler that is:

  • Effective. It can decrease the temperature of your personal space up to 7-10 degrees C (50 F), unlike a fan that simply aids air circulation.

    Because of this, even if you turn it off, the room still remains cold for a while because the temperature has been increased, but if you use a fan for sleep, the room goes back to being hot.
  • 3-in-1. Evapolar not only cools but also purifies and humidifies the air. It's not a full replacement for purifiers and humidifiers, but it gives more than just cool air, unlike an AC that dries out the air.

    So, you don’t have to worry about having a runny nose or dry skin because of an air conditioner, because Evapolar leaves you with clear and humidified air.
  • Eco-friendly. It doesn’t use Freon as AC units do, which is only relatively safe for you and the environment. Instead, it uses non-organic fibers on the filters that don’t allow mold and bacteria to spread.

    Even with ACs, if there’s a leak, you can’t smell the chemical, but you will inhale it, which is harmful to your health. If you want to reduce your global footprint and protect your health, and that’s why you’re avoiding using an AC, you can use Evapolar instead.
  • Energy-efficient. Unlike an AC, it will not increase your electric bills, because it consumes only 7.5W — approximately 100 times less power than standard split systems. Together with an affordable price, it makes it a great alternative to air conditioners.

    From the purchase price to maintenance like cleaning filters, you spend a lot of money on AC apart from electric bills. Evapolar is affordable to purchase, run, and maintain, and you don’t have to be worried whenever you get the bill.

Also, many people consider Evapolar the best solution for the problem of cooling a room without AC, as it cools a person in a natural way and prevents exhaustion and dehydration.

It solves the problems of affordability, physical and mental health, environmental friendliness, and even dealing with your landlord.

Using an evaporative air cooler is natural and effective in cooling you and your personal space, and it’s ideal for you because of your small space.

Get an Evapolar for Better Summers Ahead!

There are lots of ways to keep a room cool in summer without ac, from taking advantage of pressure points to opening and closing your windows and doors strategically. Even with this, some methods just don’t work as well as having an AC, especially when the summer heat strikes. It all depends on personal preferences and, of course, one’s budget.

Since you’d prefer living without an AC, we have the ideal solution that works for you. The best solution is to cool down your own self and stay hydrated. Evapolar is a great fit for the job, as it evaporates cool air while humidifying the space. You can protect yourself, your money, and the environment at the same time with Evapolar.