Old-school hacks to stay cool without the aircon

Learn about low-cost tricks for staying cool without cranking the air conditioner, from rice congee to foot baths.

Transcript

00:00As temperatures and power bills soar amid a cost-of-living crunch,

00:05let's explore some old-school ways to stay cool without cranking up the aircon.

00:10These are all kinds of know-hows that were ready to hand 50 or 60 years ago,

00:15but in a sense air conditioning has sort of obliterated our memory of those cultural practices.

00:21During hot days we need to be prepared to vary our schedule and to really plan around the heat

00:27in terms of what we do when, maybe not exercising on super hot days or if you're cooking doing it

00:32in the morning before the temperature really spikes in the afternoon.

00:37Associate Professor Healy, a geographer from Western Sydney University,

00:43interviewed social housing tenants about methods they use to keep cool.

00:47Every single one of them had sort of little hacks or adaptive practices.

00:52The region is usually six to ten degrees hotter than the city

00:56and in 2020 Penrith recorded a temperature of 48.9 degrees Celsius.

01:04So if it's still cool in the morning, shutting up the drapes and shades or whatever you have

01:10available to block out the sun, it's going to help with the temperature.

01:14That's more effective in hot and dry conditions than hot and humid conditions.

01:19If you can, install shades outside your windows

01:23or move potted plants in front to create a green screen.

01:28In the evenings, open up your windows for cross ventilation.

01:32In one of the communities we've been looking at in Riverwood, there's a large

01:36elderly Chinese population and one of the things that they talked about was using cooling food.

01:43They switch their diet during summer months eating things like rice, congee and mung beans

01:49which bring down bodily temperature.

01:52Other low-cost tricks to stay cool include having a foot bath,

01:57placing a wet face cloth on your wrists or the back of your neck,

02:01misting your skin or clothes with water and then positioning yourself near the fan,

02:07freezing water in a container and putting it in front of your fan for cool air.

02:13Sort of creates an immediately cool environment that works best in a small room.

02:18While a fan can be a cost-effective environmentally friendly option,

02:23they are more effective in dry conditions.

02:27Fans work just on the principle of circulation, right?

02:30So that's it's the movement of air that cools the body and that works well if you're sweating

02:36in a hot dry environment because it enhances that the power of that evaporative cooling.

02:41In humid heat it's less effective.

02:44Finding local cool refuges like lakes, libraries,

02:48moors and community halls is another key method to stay cool.