Creative Ways to Stay Cool this Summer

Many of the tricks out there for staying cool during summer's hottest days can be chalked up to Internet rumors, but some, however, are legitimate techniques to help keep yourself and your home comfortable in the heat.

As we are now in the hottest time period of the year, residents across Canada will be looking for creative ways to beat the heat. While some of these tips might seem absurd, all of them have been shown to work and will help you get more comfortable, no matter what the mercury says.

Stick close to the trees
On a hot day, one of the most old-fashioned ways to cool down is to seek shade under a tree. According to a recent article from CBC News, the shade from a tree is much cooler than shade from a building. The article stated that since a tree is a live, like human beings, they can sense when they are hot and take measures to cool themselves down. 

"If you looked at a building with trees around it through an infrared camera, a camera that shows you the heat signatures of objects, you'd see that the trees are significantly cooler than the building," Danielle Way, a plant physiologist and assistant professor at Western University in London, Ont., told the news source. 

Assess your wardrobe
Snow pants in July? You're crazy. If you are looking to beat the heat this summer, make sure you are wearing loose-fitting clothes. Any garments with light and woven fabrics, like cotton, will keep you warmer than something like wool. These types of clothing are more breathable and will ensure you stay cool in the hot summer sun. 

Create your own air conditioner
The CBC article also suggest creating what are known as swamp coolers, the old-fashioned way to cool your home. All it takes is soaking a sheet in water and hanging it from the window. The hot air that passes through the sheet evaporates the water in the sheet and creates a cool air stream. The article suggest hanging the sheets in coldest windows and opening windows in a second story, to allow hot air to escape. 

"The upper floor of your house is going to be hotter than the lower floors because hot air rises," James Drummond, a professor at atmospheric science and Canadian Research Chair in remote sounding of atmospheres at Dalhousie University in Halifax, told CBC News. "So opening windows at the top and opening the windows at the bottom will create a chimney effect – cool air being sucked in and hot air leaving through the top floor."

(using your ventilation fan from your furnace also draws cool air from the basement into the main living areas)