#heat tips

For those suffering and smothering in the heat right now, I did some research last year on best cooling blankets and got one I really like. I need to cover up with something when I sleep but I have horrible heat tolerance. But there are blankets that are supposed to maximize moisture wicking and have a cool surface; if I remember correctly, you may even be able to spritz them down with some water, point a fan at the bed, and kinda make your own spreadable swamp cooler. Here’s what I got:

You can of course search for it at your online retailer of choice. They require cool wash, hang to dry.

Another thing I do is get the big ice packs for coolers, freeze them and wrap them in a cloth, and put those in bed like an hour before I go to bed. Same concept as hot water bottles except you’re trying to freeze yourself and you can sleep in the middle of a freeze pack circle gently emanating cold.

I got small dehumidifiers for each large space in my apartment (you can find open-box deals on them for not too expensive) since moisture tends to get in here and I think they’re helping with the coolness as well. Even if they’re not, I want as little humidity as possible in my heat so that I don’t go drown myself in the coldest mountain stream I can find. (I mean. I want to go be a naiad on the daily so like the only thing holding me back anyway is my local geography. Let me go sit in a creek I am begging you.)

I just got linen sheets that I have heard are good for staying cool and dry in summer so I’m eager to try that out as well, since my night sweats are getting bad no matter how cool I stay. So we’ll see how that goes.

I’ve been living in the South in the US for my whole life and for a good portion of the year my life revolves around availability of air conditioning. Everything you can do to keep yourself cool helps. Keep away from all asphalt and pavement as hell is using parking lots for portals. Look up heat island mitigations and try to be in any kind of place recommended.

Also, you'd might be tempted to sleep naked or just in your underwear, but honestly a tank top and pajama shorts are better imo because if you wake up in the middle of the night and you're drenched in sweat, changing clothes is easier than changing the entire bedding :p

These are probably going to sound stupid. But sometimes the stupid solutions are the ones that get overlooked. Or maybe it's simply too hot to think of stupid solutions. Just in case, then:

Wet your wrists. Just putting your hands and wrists under the water tap is helpful. If possible, take an ice cube and run it across your wrists and palms. My dad used to ask for ice at restaurants or similar for that purpose, to my mom's embarrassment. Run the ice cube under your ears too.

When possible, sink your feet in water. You probably won't be able to do it in the office but as soon as you're at home or something get a large bowl or something and put some water in it and sink your feet. I do it in the warehouse sometimes, while wearing plastic slippers. Wet wipes can be a good alternative. Cool down your feet and your entire body will benefit from it!

In general, water is your friend. Get a little sprayer and sprinkle water on your face, neck, arms whenever you can. I recommend the water toners by Lush. They're a bit expensive but so refreshing, my brother and I love them. I guess you can look up cheaper brands, or use rose water or something.

DO NOT WEAR BLACK or dark clothes. Especially not black shirts. Black traps heat and you will cook in there. I speak from experience.

If you wear dresses/skirts, don't be tempted to keep most of your legs bare. "But if I expose my skin to the air--" no. The sun is there. Cover your legs in long skirts/dresses (made of cotton or linen!). Again, white or light/pastel colors. I wore long cotton dresses during my last womenswear summer. People were surprised I was so comfortable in the heat - but there's a reason people in hot places traditionally wear long, unrevealing clothing.

If you wear menswear, long, airy linen pants are your friends. Same thing about the colors. I bought a cheap pair for a quick touristy trip in Doha, Qatar when I had a layover (in August). I also wore a long-sleeved white linen shirt. I survived, so.

People will tell you to drink, but drink what? If you are like me and hate the taste of the drinks that are supposed to rehydrate you with mineral salts and stuff, go for fresh juices, coconut water, chocolate milk (cow or vegetable milk are both fine), yoghurt/kefir drinks. I am weird so I like to make a sort of easy salt lassi - one part water, one part kefir, salt, mix well. Matcha powder in room temperature water is great too. A splash of lemon in water is also your best friend. I just buy the lemon juice bottles from the supermarket, they're fine and much more practical than squeezing a lemon.

Avoid super cold drinks. Yeah, I know, they're tempting. Get yourself used to room temperature/cool-ish drinks.

Buy tomato sauce at the supermarket. Refrigerate it if you want. Add some olive oil and season to your taste. Instant tomato soup. You're welcome.

EAT. The last thing you want is to leave your body without important nutrients. Raw vegetables, cold silky tofu, raw meat, raw (or smoked) fish are your friends. You can boil pasta in the morning, cool it down under the tap, put some oil on it to avoid sticking, and make a pasta salad later in the day. Anything you can think of as a topping for cold rice (like poke) can be added to cold pasta. My favorite pasta salad: smoked salmon, shrimp, chopped tomato, avocado, plus olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Be kind to yourself. Don't strain yourself or beat you up for being sluggish or unproductive. There's a reason traditionally Italy basically stops in August. Unfortunately, nowadays extreme heat lasts for much longer and we can't stop for like five months, but the idea is that you can't expect people to be productive in a million degrees.

ok so i live on a flat that has 5 out of seven windows facing southeast. which means in summer, the sun is shining (burning) inside of my flat from 7am to about 3pm. I only have blinds on the inside of my window, so the heat is still stored between the window and the blinds inside of my flat. So here's what to do if you have the same problem:

Tape rescue blankets to the outside of your windows.

thinks you need:

-Rescue blankets (number depending on how much space you want to cover) -double sided tape -(scissors, measuring tape, a pen)

How to:

Measure the sizes of your windows, cut pices from the rescue blankets that cover the whole window. Put double sided tape on the golden side of the rescue blanket. Stick it to the outside of the window with the silver side pointing outwards.

(the orange things in the picture is the double sided tape)

Tip: make sure its really close to the window, maybe use more tape if necessary on bedroom windows, bc if the wind is strong it might be noisy otherwise

Why this works:

a rescue blanket is designed to reflect heat to keep you warm in an emergeny situation. We're turning this concept around by keeping the heat away from your flat. Because rescue blankets are farily thin, while you won't be bothered by the sun burning into your flat and warming surfaces and air, its thin enough for light to still come through so you're not sitting in the dark.

Tip: do this before it gets really hot and the sun burns through your windows every day. I'm trying to put them up about a week before the weather forecast says its gonna get really hot. takes not even an hour.

Advantages: -cheap (a rescue blanket costs like, 3 bucks the most, less if you order like 10 of them) and you need probably two - three, depending on the amount and size of your windowns -easy to do -its not gonna be completely dark inside like if you used cardboard -its durable against rain and wind -you can still open the windows without issue as long as you stick the tape directly onto the glass and not the outer frames.

Pic: this is what it looks like from the inside, as you can see there's still enough light coming through but the sun is kept out. also you can even see partly though it.

Disadvantages: -it looks weird on the outside, also maybe property management might not like it - the double sided tape is hard to get rid of when taking this down again in autumn, maybe use cleaning alcohol to get rid of them -most of the time you can not take it down without ripping the rescue blankets, so you might need new ones every year -if it isnt very sunny outside, it might be dark in the flat and you'd need to turn on the lights, which again generates heat

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Remember; this is just an additional way to keep the sun out of your flat, you still need to do all the other things to keep your living space cool!

1) active cooling, like an AC, does require you to remove heat and vent it somewhere else.

Nothing that does not vent hot air outside is going to provide active cooling, like magically making your whole room immediately colder

Never believe an ad that tells you you can instantly cool your space without a visible heat vent to outside they are lying

2) passive cooling absolutely does not. It’s slower, has a smaller radius, and is in general less effective, but also requires less energy

Things like filling all your sinks/bath tubs with cold water (or ice water for preference) will provide passive cooling

(You may have heard the term “heat sink” if you’re a computer nerd. Basically, same thing - you put the heat in your cold thing, your cold thing heats up, everything else cools down)

Depending on your humidity, you can do a lot of passive cooling with water - there’s a reason it’s our natural default, but it does require humidity less than 80-90%

(Because you need the water to be able to evaporate and leave)

Ice is, of course, king; if you have a freezer, make as much as you can ahead of the heat wave and keep it in water-tight containers for refreezing

If you don’t have a freezer, hotels have ice machines usually right by the elevators. Clearly you have a very good friend you need to drop off a charger for in the nearest inattentive hotel. Bring big pockets. For the charger.

Also, freeze dish cloths or small towels if you can, by lightly dampening and applying ice. This kicks ass for heatstroke on the back of the neck, so do at least 2 to have one refreezing while you use the other

3) if you sweatin’, you need electrolytes. This is why we’re told they’re specifically for work outs, but the truth is they are for sweat, because you lose salt and shit when you sweat

Get that hydralyte, whatever, and if you can’t immediately get your hands on proper official electrolytes, toss a salt packet like they have at fast food restaurants in your water

Normal water ain’t gonna cut it when you’re a sweaty spaghetti you must be seasoned

If you touch your tongue to the salt and it is wicked delicious, you are probably dehydrated. Add an extra salt packet or two

4) defy purity culture and spread your legs

For real

You lose a lot of heat through your grundle, and keeping your legs closed will trap that heat in your body. Open up and feel the cooling

Also applicable for arms etc be a starfish

5) do not fucking use your oven. Don’t.

Big hot appliance makes big hot home. If you can only possibly cook via oven, do it at night when it’s coldest and you can maybe get some cooler air by opening windows

Use the bbq outside, the microwave, the stove top, the air fryer, anything but your goddamn oven, but honestly? Maybe eat cold food. You will be cooled down

Charcuterie boards comeback round 2?

6) basements are OP, and anywhere you can lie on cold cement kicks ass until all your joints get fucked on by the hard cement

Pretty good for keeping water cold though. Stick it on basement floor

7) hydrate or die-drate

Seriously, we talked about electrolytes and shit, but I mean it. Drink more than you usually would, even if that means smuggling extra water bottles to your local drinking fountains and fill em

If your pee is orange you are dehydrated as hell

You can also eat wet bitches like watermelons to rehydrate yourself, slorp up the juice and if anyone complains tell them it is vital for your health

8) shade! Bring your umbrella, bring Big Hat, fuck the sun it is the enemy you wanna have something between yourself and it while you rest

Sunscreen also good but you do not want your head in the sun for long periods because sunstroke is a bitch and will sneak up on your ass

9) furries I am sorry this one is for you you NEED a fan in the fursuit and you NEED to take it off if you get tired or wanna nap

NEVER fall asleep in your fursuit in the summer, ALWAYS be prepared to get outta it in a hurry, and bring triple water or have a planned water stop

Inflatable folks too you are wearing a dinosaur or a pikachu not fur but that is still a goddamn closed environment and will also cook you

Manual fan, electrical fan, water bottles, ice packs are required for safe summer fun and probably also a shirt inside so you can go into ice cream store

10) con goers, save yourselves $15 and go to a dollar store or local equivalent and buy a cheap folding fan before the con