How To Cool Down in Summer Heat

How to cool down is a topic during the summer. With recent heat waves early this summer, I imagine how to cool down will be a hot topic all summer. (Sorry for the pun.)

Here are a few tips on how to cool down, or what Dave Black calls “Emergency Cooling” from his book What To Do When The Shit Hits The Fan.

How To Cool Down from Dave Black’s Book:

• Prepare for the heat. In the evening open the windows and turn on the fans for cross-ventilation. That will cool the house down. When the sun comes up in the morning, shut all the windows and doors, close the curtains, and leave them shut and closed all day until cooler evening. Then open things up again.
• Drink plenty of water, even if you’re not thirsty, and even if it’s humid. Dehydration will speed the effects of heat illnesses. Alcohol will dehydrate you, and caffeinated, carbonated, and heavily sugared drinks like lemonade are not efficient hydrators. If it’s real hot, drink the coolest water you can find. Be aware that it IS possible to overhydrate. On a hot day with moderate physical activity an adult will go through about a gallon. Too much more than that can cause a condition called hyponatremia, with symptoms similar to those of heat injuries.
• Sports drinks can be beneficial in replacing electrolytes that you have sweated off. Avoid salt tablets unless a doctor tells you otherwise.
• Avoid strenuous activity, and work during the coolest parts of the day (early morning).
• Stay inside, or at least avoid direct sunlight and stay in shaded areas. Outside, wear lightweight, loose-fitting, long-sleeved clothing. A hat with a large brim helps protect against the sun.
• If possible, keep the air moving. Put a fan in an upstairs window to blow off the heat in the upper levels. A fan in a lower window will help create a heat-reducing cross-draft.
• Turn off any sources of heat, including lights and computers. Keep the stove off. Eat foods that don’t require cooking.
• Eat frequent small meals and avoid high protein foods.
• Move to the lowest level of the building (probably the basement). Cold air is more dense and sinks to lower levels. Also, lower levels might stay cooler because of the colder ground it conducts from.
• Wet your wrists with cold or ice water.
• If you’re sweating, use it to your advantage. Stand in a breeze or in front of a fan. When water evaporates, it absorbs heat, drawing it away from the body.
• Get in a tub of water or take a shower if it doesn’t deplete precious water supplies. Sit with your hands or feet in a basin of cold water.
• Fill a glass with ice and blow into it and let your face catch the cool air that comes out.
• Take off your shoes and hats. The head and feet have a big role in regulating body temperature.
• If you can’t keep up with the heat, go to a community shelter where it’s likely to be cooled.

A few more tips that Dave Black provides to turn yourself into a human swamp cooler. If you live in a dry climate, one of these techniques can cool you off considerably:

• Use a squirt bottle to saturate the sleeves of your shirt or the legs of your pants. Evaporation will cool the arms and legs.
• Put on a dripping wet T-shirt. Be prepared for strange looks, but at least you’ll be cooled off for an hour or so.
• Put a wet towel on the back of the next or top of the head.
• Consider wearing a “gutra,” the large white scarf made of a thin breathable material and worn by Arabian men. Make your own out of whatever thin material you can find. Soak it with water and plant yourself in a breeze. Reap the benefits. The author actually tested the cooling efficiency of wet gutras while doing remote backcountry projects in Arabia. The temperature difference between unshaded air outside the gutra and air around the face beneath the gutra is significant.
• Run a fan over an ice chest. It will melt precious ice, but it can provide localized relief for a couple of hours.
• Consider purchasing an expensive portable single-room air conditioner, with the understanding that running it will require about 700 watts or more to cool about 300 square feet. That means you’ll need a generator to run it if the power’s off.

I will be adding more tips to the membership pages on this topic (member benefits), but for now, I hope these tips from Black’s book help you stay cool during the hot days of summer. If you want more advice on What To Do When The Shit Hits The Fan, check out Dave Black’s book on amazon: