How would you cool down a student accommodation room with very limited options?
Posted by Enraged__Koala@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 55 comments
So, as I’m sure you can tell, it’s starting to get quite warm. I’m typing this now sweating in my room at 1am while it’s cool outside because I’m stuck in basically the perfect storm of stuffy conditions.
I’m in student accommodation, a room with one west facing window that can only open at most 5 degrees (so a small window-mounted aircon unit won’t fit and probably wouldn’t be allowed anyway). We’re not allowed to leave the fire doors open so the room has 0 air circulation. The curtains are not effective at blocking sunlight as they’re dark and just end up absorbing the sunlight themselves and radiating it into the room. Every day around 2-3 ish the sun starts beaming into the window until sunset, heating the room up which stays hot until the following morning. I can’t sleep well, and we’re still far from the hottest time of the year…
Any ideas on how I can cool it down? My current thought is buying a dehumidifier as while I don’t have a good way to measure, given the sweatiness I think humidity is the problem. Thanks.
carlbernsen@reddit
Reflective window film should keep the sun’s heat from coming through the glass.
If you don’t mind it being dark you could use Reflectix silvered foam.
The outside wall is another thing.
Maybe move rooms?
JessRushie@reddit
It's a student accommodation, you can't move rooms?
carlbernsen@reddit
With student accommodation, rather than just a shared house, you often can change rooms. Especially if there was a health related reason. ‘My room’s too hot’ may or may not be enough of a reason, OP would have to check their contract.
I would hope that the accommodation would meet certain standards for insulation both from cold and excess heat.
But maybe not. However a known health hazard like black mould for example, would be.
If OP found black mould all along the bottom of the wall behind their bed that would be a valid reason to demand an immediate change of rooms, coincidentally to the cooler side of the building thank you.
But black mould isn’t going to just appear conveniently for OP but carbon black soot powder, flicked onto a dampened wall with a make up brush would make a very convincing look alike. Funnily enough you can get carbon black soot powder on eBay.
spaggy1355@reddit
You can change rooms for any reason provided there's an empty room. I changed because I didn't like sleeping against the wall of someone else's bed. However. That takes like 3 months to actually work. Also, the black mold thing is stupid. Even if it did convince maintenance, they would fix it and you'd stay in the room. And then you've gotta factor in the fact that maintainece take forever, emailing takes forever, and they literally don't care.
Bro isn't a mastermind supervillain
BeardySam@reddit
Tin foil sellotaped to the window is the student option.
Little fans to get airflow in and out of the room at night (different sides of the room if you can, not the same window)
keta_ro@reddit
Windows reflective foil. Easy to instal.
kyrikii@reddit
Doesn’t this only work on the outside of the window? I’m in a student accom rn but the window only opens partially and it’s impossible to apply the foil on the outside. I heard it’s risky to apply on the inside because it may damage the window and you’re also barely doing much as the window still gets hot as fuck anyway
keta_ro@reddit
Is only for inside. Is not waterproof. You usea water with a little bit of soap when you apply the foil on glass.
balloon99@reddit
Swamp cooler. Get a metal tray and put ice cubes in it, make sure it doesn't leak.
Put a fan on one side of the tray and have it blow over the ice.
Street_Dingo_9681@reddit
This works as a dehumidifier too, as long as you make sure the water collecting doesn’t just evaporate straight away.
kimba-the-tabby-lion@reddit
Um, no. They work by evaporation. They make the air more humid.
Street_Dingo_9681@reddit
Um, no. The ice causes the vapour to condense, turning it into water in a tray rather than vapour in the air. If you’d ever had a dehumidifier, or a science lesson you’d know this.
George_Salt@reddit
Swamp coolers work by evaporation. They increase moisture in the air. Swamp coolers are very different to dehumidifiers.
If you'd paid attention to latent heat in your school science lessons you'd know this.
Street_Dingo_9681@reddit
I have no idea what a swamp cooler is, but if you push warm humid air over a cold surface, you dehumidify.
Sinnistrall@reddit
Strange choice to comment on a post specifically talking about swamp coolers, to then reveal you have no idea what one is.
Street_Dingo_9681@reddit
Strange choice to pretend the post was “specifically about swamp coolers” when it wasn’t.
Sinnistrall@reddit
It was, you've just misunderstood
Street_Dingo_9681@reddit
Keep pretending
George_Salt@reddit
A swamp cooler is an evaporative cooler. You push warm air over a block of ice, it melts the ice and picks up water vapour from the surface cooling through latent heat loss. You push warm air over a west surface, it evaporates the water, picking up water vapour and cooling through latent heat loss.
You have no idea is a perfect summary of your posts here. You should get that mansplaining addiction looked into.
Street_Dingo_9681@reddit
My point re. swamp coolers was nuanced, but clearly you ignored/were oblivious to that. So in mainsplained terms, my point is that IRRESPECTIVE of swamp coolers, passing warm humid air over a cold surface condenses the humidity and if the drained water is removed, will dehumidify a space, and I still don’t give a fuck about swamp coolers.
KonkeyDongPrime@reddit
They are fairly cheap to buy as a tower fan unit. They use a fabric medium that gets rotated through a little bucket to bring the cold water up across the fan air path. In any scenario, it’s worth salting the ice to drop the temperature further.
Apidium@reddit
Windows closed in the day with blocking for the light. You can tape up tinfoil or buy something that blocks it. Windows open at night.
You can get a portable air conditioning unit and pipe it out the window. Just smash the end of the output pipe so it shoves out of the window.
You can buy a fan and point it so it's circulating the room. Or use paper and tape to make a sort of tube that directs the air so that pushes the hot air out via the window. Or sucks in via it. You may want to mess around with what works best.
You can remix above with a tray of water /ice water to make a mini swamp cooler. Or you can buy one. You may think it's humid but odds are it's not at 100% humidity. So it can help.
Realise you don't care much if the room is cool or not. You care if you are cool. Cotton and bamboo fibres tend to be cooling. Wool is not. Dress yourself and your bed appropriately. Swap your blanket for a sheet. On ghastly days I have gone to bed under a damp towel. Point a fan at this contraption for maximum cooling.
Sport cooling gel can go a long way. Idk how that shit works but it does. Stay hydrated. If you are sitting at say a desk see if there are desk spaces in air conditions areas (library's can be a good option). If not get a bucket of cool water and work with your feet in said container. Damp socks while a slip hazard can work. If you have long hair put it up in a bun. Cool showers when possible.
If you get a small misting sprayer spraying that on exposed skin then letting it evaporate is my more recent hack. Make sure it sprays a superfine mist. If it more spits out clumps of water then you just end up damp and not cool. I had to try 3-4 in the last heatwave to find one that worked.
tomgrouch@reddit
If you tinfoil the windows, be prepared for a lot more "random" inspections
I lived opposite a chippy with a flashing neon sign in first year, so I put up tinfoil as the cheapest way to clock out light and my flat, especially my room, got inspected way more than the neighbours
SnooMacarons9618@reddit
We have mylar sheets over our windows (safety blankets or similar from Amazon was the cheapest way we found to buy them). In summer from the back we look like a grow house, but it keeps the place significantly cooler.
If you want to get serious about it, build some small wooden frame that are the size of your window and attach the mylar to that, they are easier to put up/take down like that. (And if you are doing that, it's worth making a second frame to attach insect netting to, then you can also block insects when you do have the window open.)
NOTE - can cause windows to heat up a lot. I've heard of people cracking windows this way, never seen it, it's never happened to us in the south of England, but it seems fair to warn about it.
Apidium@reddit
The cheap and dirty option is tinfoil taped around cardboard
SnooMacarons9618@reddit
The advantages of mylar are that it still lets some light in, and it is a lot less prone to ripping. I think we got a pack of about 6 blankets for £5 or so, it was pretty cheap.
Whichever way you do it, it looks dodgy as fuck :) I kind of like that, my wife doesn't. I imagine our neighbours hate it, but are too polite to say anything.
whitefire9999@reddit
Yeah it’s a major problem now in the UK the issue is we now get heat like being abroad but at the same time we don’t build our houses like they do to stay cool we literally live in insulated boxes, and this time of year it doesn’t cool down enough in the evenings to cool your property down so it’s heat on top of heat, there are a few options I use blackout thermal blinds they definitely help but are very limited in how much they do, I also use a fan which just creates some personal airflow, tbh as soon as it starts pushing 30c all it does it blow hot air at you but it’s all about airflow and does work, I did buy a portable AC unit a few years ago, just a warning I ran if for a month and with energy prices atm it cost me about £350 in electric for 4 weeks moderate use, yeah I got rid of it immediately for my own sake so I wasn’t tempted to use it they are insanely expensive, ice in front of a fan does work but again in a very limited capacity and in very hot environments you go through ice at an insane rate, unfortunately there’s no real good solution without spending 100s on an AC unit and then much more than that to actually run it as they are so expensive to run compared to proper ‘built in’ ones, do you know how much the avg casino on the vegas strip spends on ac per day? Just electric it’s over $10,000 yep that’s not a typo 10 grand a day…
crazyabbit@reddit
Window film , you can get a UV reflecting one which should help with some of your issues
mmoonbelly@reddit
If you have a shower in your room and don’t pay the water bill, open the door and run a cold shower through the night.
Heat transfer.
ConsciouslyIncomplet@reddit
Tinfoil in window.
Pip1710@reddit
I would also get a dehumidifier; the UK can be pretty humid for a temperate climate, and this makes everything feel more uncomfortable in the heat
LupercalLupercal@reddit
Keep your window closed and your blind/curtain drawn during the day
No_Calligrapher9732@reddit
Ebay
malcolmmonkey@reddit
Fuck the fire door rules. If it’s too hot they’re getting propped open. Blocking or locking fire exits is a cardinal sin but propping open fire doors is a forgivable evil.
Nerderis@reddit
Add white curtains/blinds to your list
larrow11@reddit
Sometimes windows with limited opening have been "set" to do so on their hinges. This can often be adjusted with a screwdriver.
begin111@reddit
Tin foil the windows. Buy a small AC unit and run it later in the evening.
kimba-the-tabby-lion@reddit
Lidl are selling air conditions until wednesday for £150, and "swamp coolers" from this Sunday for £15
https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/silvercrest-portable-air-cooler/p10030232
oldt1mer@reddit
Get yourself a couple of the pet cooling pads and put them on your bed
Jayatthemoment@reddit
In pillowcase! I have a cheap pillow of Amazon with cooling gel. It doesn’t make a massive difference but a few little things add up.
running_on_fumes25@reddit
Portable air-conditioning unit. Squash the pipe so it fits out the window
Geek_reformed@reddit
Reflective/thermal window film will help - it's easily removable once you leave the room. With that and curtains closed during the day it should help. Keep the window closed during the day and only open it once the outside temp is lower than the inside one. Close it again once it starts to heat up.
A fan will help. You can get fans that have a water tank in them which you fill up with ice (they often come with ice packs). The cool air is pulled up by the fan and pushed out. A cheap version of his is just a fan with a bucket of ice/iced water in front of it - cool air rises and the fan pushes it out.
You head helps control your internal temperature. Pop a hot water bottle in the freezer or some get some cooling pads and have them on your head/under your pillow at night.
Humidity - you can get little room thermometers that have humidity meters for pretty cheap on Amazon.
BG3restart@reddit
Windows closed, curtains drawn across, use a fan.
Superior_human1234@reddit
You can make the window open fully if it’s a multi way opening one, like it opens from the top but looks like it should be able to open normally too. Just figure out what type of restriction is on and google how to take it off. In my accommodation I had to unscrew the handle and flip it round.
CatalinaBigPaws@reddit
Try to see if there is a way to angle a small fan near the open window at night to pull in the cool air.
elbapo@reddit
Place a thick white towel over the window during sunshine hours and close the windows.
Then at night, what you need is aiflow.. Can you collaborate with fellow inmates on the opposite side of the hall? What you need is air to flow from one side of the building to the other- so you need at least one other prepared to leave their room door and widow ajar and window open on the opposite side while you donthe same. The more the better. Not very great for security etc. But that's the tradeoff.
Aircon- are there any air vents? From a shower for example. Im thinking buy a mini aircon unit and rig it to the vent. Failing this- check some out to see if their out pipes are ever smaller than the window gap.
...or you could buy supermarket ice and place it on a tray ideally up high. Not very economic but combined with a fan this could be a desperation measure for the worst nights.
KonkeyDongPrime@reddit
Swamp cooler. You can buy them for fairly cheap as a tower fan with a water bucket, but beware that the more humid conditions are, the less effective it will be. Use ice, water and salt to further drop the temperature across the medium.
mhoulden@reddit
No-drill blinds are a thing. They use spring-loaded rods to fit in the window frame. I would go for white ones so they don't absorb too much heat. Blackout ones are still thick enough to keep the sun out.
krappa@reddit
You can find blackout blinds with suction cups on amazon. They have a reflective surface on the outside so they reflect most of the light. Of course it'll make your room depressing as it's blocking the light, but it's worth setting that up every time you leave your room, so you don't let the heat in when you don't need it.
Good luck. It's a tough situation.
GeggingIn@reddit
Hot water bottle. Ice.
Dorrellectric@reddit
So a cold water bottle?
GeggingIn@reddit
Well, yes. Try filling it with boiling hot curry for long train journeys too.
ShauniGT@reddit
Dehumidifier, oscillating fan, gel pillow inserts that you put in the freezer then into your pillowslip to keep your pillow cool. Also put ice in front of the fan so it keeps blowing cold air and not just recirculating the humid air.
PerformerOk450@reddit
We bought a smaller one of these last year, game changer for cheap room cooling. It's not an aircon unit, you have to put water in it, but it works very well, no hose out of the window either. Smaller ones available online around £15
https://www.aldi.co.uk/product/ambiano-air-cooler-000000000000631651
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