This European heatwave has been going on for weeks and shows no signs of abating. It’s really wearing me down. Any tips for staying cool when you don’t have air conditioning? I’ve tried the whole shutting the windows and blinds thing they recommend but that just makes it worse. I already feel uncomfortably hot at the best of times as a side effect of my medication. So an actual heatwave on top is literal torture. It’s so bad in the UK that supermarket refrigerators have stopped working due to the heat, and the news says its going to be the longest heatwave in 50 years.
This is unironically how they cooled homes before AC: ice and fans.
I came here to also suggest swamp coolers.
You can turn this into an evaporative cooler/swamp cooler (great if it’s not too humid out) with a couple of cloths in front of the vent holes as wicks and a bit of water in the bottom of the bucket. Evaporative cooling works better until it gets too humid then you can throw the ice in there.
Quicker/dirtier/easier solution is to wet down a cloth and stick it on the back of a box fan. This only works if it’s not too humid.