Friday, February 20, 2009

In need of cool suggestions.



I am not a follower of Feng Shui, but the apartment I am renting faces west, so we usually have cool mornings and really hot afternoons. Being a two storey apartment, the sunlight passes through the glass window on the second floor and my bed room has turned into an oven late in the day. It is not good to lie down in the bed for apart from the heat, it can really strain your eyes even if you close them as you try to rest.

That is why after lunch during Sundays, I would often retreat to my son's bedroom, a much cooler place in the east side, with wooden walls and floor. There I try to beat the heat by sitting in front of the pc or sleeping it off on the bed or a foam spread on the floor.

Oh, but I now dread the coming of the summer season where temperatures could reach over 40deg centigrade. So please, I want to be able to to find ways to bring down the temperature in my big oven without resorting to expensive air-conditioning. Keeping cool with the use of an electricfan is never an easy thing either as the air it blows is the same hot air the room churns out.

So what can I do? Would putting a tall indoor plant in a corner of the room do the trick? I just thought that maybe having at least a green spot upon which my tired eyes can rest will lessen the heat. Or maybe putting on a darker shade of curtain to help filter extra sunlight? But I hate thick curtains as they dont allow air to circulate freely in the room.

So please help me before I melt inside my own room...

9 comments:

Tracey said...

The only thing to do is get a blackout blind, then you leave it rolled up to get in the fresh air, and pull it down for complete darkness when you want it cooler.
Tracey x x x x x x x x x x x

Odette Bautista Mikolai said...

its not just the sun entering the window, the walls are absorbing the heat too and it stays till early evening. everytime i enter the room it seem like entering an oven. darn!

Tracey said...

Air con then....or a nice man with one of those huge....fans!
xxx

MEDICALBOOBOOS said...

A green plant sounds good but would have to be a palm tree to withstand the heat!!!
I make my home a cave in summer with curtains closed in room I am in. Good luck
xoxo

Sid Brechin said...

I would suggest hanging one of those mylar survival blankets over the window in summer. It would reflect the heat and light back out the window. Since you don't have extreme cold there they may not be common. I should be pick one up for next to nothing here so I will mail you one. You will have nothing to lose by trying it. For when you want to lay down I would suggest a sleep mask. I have one I use because if I have a migraine I get very light sensitive. They do make a big difference not in temperature but light.

Tracey said...

Hi Odette, do you want an award?
come get it!
Love Tracey xxx

Odette Bautista Mikolai said...

Kirst,
Thanks for the suggestion.

Sid,
I don't want the room to feel stuffy w/o regular air circulating inside. that mylar survival blanket may block the sun rays from entering the window but the walls will still absorb the heat from outside. that's my dilemma.

tracey,
you don't have to ask. of course i always get excited receiving an award! keep 'em coming, will you? hahaha

Sid Brechin said...

One of the nice things about the Mylar is you can put use it to cover as much or as little of the window as you want.

As to the walls there isn't much you can do that is low cost. Because of our winters our walls are well insulated so they tend to keep us cool in summer as well as warm in winter. In general if the outside walls are white or anything that reflects heat away your inside will be cooler. Just as the interior of a white vehicle will be much cooler than a dark vehicle in summer.

Angry American said...

Also try something like Levoloar blinds. I'm sure they have cheaper versions of them. All you have to do is turn them enough to block out the sun but let them hang about 6 inches above the bottom of the window. This blocks direct sunlight while allowing air to flow through the gap bellow the blinds.

The real trick is getting mother nature to blow a nice breeze into the room to circulate the air.

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