When it’s too hot to work, sleep or even concentrate properly, it can be very disruptive to daily life. Unfortunately, excessive indoor temperatures are becoming more commonplace in the summer, especially here in the UK.
As always, the Lee Jackson Air Conditioning team are here to provide you with a refreshing breeze to beat the heat.
Normally we provide this through our AC installation services. But in this post, we’re also about to share these top 9 ways to cool a room that you can try today.
Use Fans (But In The Right Way)
Fans don’t cool the air. Instead, they cool people by accelerating evaporation from the skin. That distinction matters because a fan running in an empty room achieves almost nothing. The real gains come from how and where you position them.
During the day, face a fan outward at a window to expel hot air from the room. At night, reverse it to draw cooler outside air in. If you have a ceiling fan, set it to run counter-clockwise in summer as this will push air straight down rather than drawing it up, creating a more direct cooling effect.
For a quick drop in perceived temperature, place a bowl or tray of ice in front of a fan. As the ice melts, the air passing over it picks up moisture and feels noticeably cooler. It won’t last long, but it works well as a short-term measure on very hot evenings.
Install Air Conditioning
For reliable and consistent cooling, air conditioning is the most effective solution available.
Many types of air conditioning units exist. However, as leading air conditioning installers, we find that a fixed split-system unit, comprising a wall-mounted indoor unit connected to an outdoor compressor, offers the best balance of efficiency and performance for UK homes.
Whichever air conditioning unit is a good match for your property, the universal benefits are always the same, in that air conditioning gives you more control over the temperature of the room than most other methods. When it comes to lowering the temperature of a room in summer, it’s simply not as easy to achieve as warming the room in winter.
If you’ve been considering installing air conditioning but have been putting it off, consider this your sign that it’s high time your property benefited from a professional cooling solution.
Reduce Internal Heat Sources
Every electrical appliance in your home generates heat as a byproduct of running, and that heat accumulates throughout the day. Ovens, tumble dryers and older incandescent light bulbs are among the worst offenders.
On hot days, avoid using the oven where possible by cooking outdoors, using a microwave, or switching to cold meals.
Hang laundry outside rather than tumble drying and switch off lights and electronics when they are not in use.
LED bulbs produce significantly less heat than incandescent alternatives, so replacing older bulbs is a simple long-term fix.
Heat-Reflective Window Treatments
Windows are one of the primary routes through which solar heat enters a building, particularly those facing south and west.
Closing blinds and curtains before the heat builds in the morning (ideally before 9am on sunny days) makes a considerable difference to how much warmth accumulates over the course of the day. Blinds with a silver or white reverse side reflect sunlight back out of the window rather than absorbing it.
Window film can reduce heat gain substantially without blocking light entirely, making it a practical option for rooms where you want natural light without the heat.
Cool Yourself
Personal cooling measures often deliver faster results than trying to lower the room temperature directly.
A cool shower before bed reduces your core temperature and makes it easier to fall asleep on warm nights. Likewise, keeping a spray bottle of water nearby and misting your skin periodically draws heat away through evaporation.
A bowl of cool water to rest your feet in has a surprisingly effective whole-body cooling effect, as the body loses heat efficiently through the extremities.
Lightweight, breathable bedding in natural fibres such as bamboo or cotton also makes a significant difference to sleep quality during hot weather. Sleeping as low as possible in the room helps too, since heat rises and the air near the floor is consistently cooler than at ceiling level.
Improve Building Fabric & Insulation
In the UK, our homes were never designed to handle the temperature fluctuations that we now experience. This is especially the case for the extreme heat events we have seen in recent years, where temperatures have soared above 40°C.
It’s not possible to control the weather, although the structure of your home has a significant influence on how well it handles heat in summer.
Homes with solid stone, brick, or concrete walls benefit from the thermal mass of those materials, which absorb heat slowly during the day and release it at night, acting as a natural buffer. That’s so long as the building is ventilated well overnight to flush that stored heat out before the next day begins.
In terms of more modest measures, loft insulation is commonly associated with keeping warmth in during winter, but it is equally effective at slowing the transfer of solar heat through the roof into the rooms below. If your loft insulation is thin or old, topping it up is one of the more impactful changes you can make.
Draught-proofing gaps around window frames, doors and floorboards also helps. While typically considered a winter measure, sealing these gaps prevents warm outside air from seeping in during hot weather.
Install A Window Canopy Or Awning
Shading a window from the outside before sunlight reaches the glass is considerably more effective than trying to block it from inside with blinds or curtains. By the time solar radiation passes through unshaded glass, a proportion of that heat is already inside the room.
An external canopy or retractable awning intercepts sunlight before it reaches the window, reducing heat gain at the source.
Fixed canopies provide permanent shade and require no maintenance beyond occasional cleaning. However, retractable awnings offer more flexibility as they can be extended on hot days and retracted when shade is not needed or during high winds.
Awnings are particularly effective on south and west-facing windows, which receive the most direct sun during the hottest part of the day.
Ventilate Effectively
During the summer months, especially, it can be difficult to ventilate your home without allowing hot air in. As a result, ventilation is most effective when timed and directed carefully.
If the outside air is hotter than the air indoors, keeping windows closed will maintain a cooler internal temperature. However, once the outside temperatures drop below indoor levels in the early evening, open windows widely to flush accumulated heat out of the building.
Cross-ventilation speeds this process considerably. It involves opening windows on opposite sides of the house to create airflow through the space rather than allowing warm air to sit still. If windows are only available on one side of a room, opening them at both top and bottom creates a stack effect, with warm air escaping from the top and cooler air entering from below.
Strategic Planting
Sometimes, when there is a need to cool a room inside, the solution can actually be found outside in the form of strategic planting.
Vegetation offers some of the most effective long-term shading and cooling solutions available, and unlike most other measures, it improves with time.
Trees and tall shrubs planted to shade south and west-facing windows can significantly reduce the solar heat entering a room during the hottest part of the day, without blocking daylight in winter when the sun sits lower in the sky and the canopy is bare.
Climbing plants or a green wall installed on a sun-facing external wall insulate the surface beneath, reducing how much heat is transferred into the building.
Heading indoors and large houseplants release moisture through their leaves in a process called transpiration, which lowers the ambient temperature slightly and improves air quality. While the individual effect of indoor plants is modest, combining several in a single room contributes meaningfully to overall comfort during hot weather.
Need To Cool A Room In The East Midlands? Contact The Lee Jackson Team!
If you happen to be reading this post from Nottingham, Derby or Leicester in the East Midlands, we have yet another way you can cool your room: air conditioning installation from Lee Jackson.
Modern air conditioning is extremely flexible towards the needs of your home or commercial premises, including the need to offer you zoned climate control. There are many different AC unit types available to suit all property types and budgets.
Get a free quote for air conditioning today by sending us a message. You can also give us a call on 0800 949 9070.
