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So, it may be the middle of winter in Canada, but my room is always stifling hot due to a few of things. For one, I have two computers (one of which is usually running) and those produce a lot of heat. Another thing is that I haven't found a way to completely block the furnace vent in my room, and when the furnace is on, the room heats up. The final reason for my room being so hot is that there is almost zero air circulation.

How can I cool off my room WITHOUT using a fan? I don't have access to any good external fans right now.

I've tried opening and closing my door repetitively, but as you can imagine, that gets quite tiring. Even leaving the door open isn't really enough. I've also tried opening the window, but that doesn't work anymore because it is frozen shut completely. I'm all for creative solutions as I can't stand my room being 28 degrees celsius (in the middle of winter, no less!)

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  • Note that a fan would not help you if the temperature is above 98.6 F (37 C).
    – Shokhet
    Dec 28, 2014 at 23:41
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    Wouldn't a question about thawing your frozen windows be a shorter path to a solution?
    – apaul
    Dec 29, 2014 at 0:30
  • Btw you don't necessarily need a "good external fan", especially when there's such a big temperature difference with the outside. This is not an answer since it uses a fan, but get any kind of window open (even a small one or a ventilation opening), open your door, put a cheap desk fan in the doorway pointing out of your room into the rest of the house, the resulting draft should replace much of the air in the room with below-freezing outdoor air quickly. Then turn off the fan before the rest of the house complains that you're freezing them to death, repeat as needed.
    – Steve Jessop
    Nov 7, 2015 at 13:07
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    @Shokhet Sure it would. Moving air is better at carrying away sweat, which is how we cool ourselves when air temperature exceeds skin temperature.
    – Carl Kevinson
    Jan 20, 2016 at 22:45

2 Answers 2

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Keeping cool:

  • Main reason of feeling warm is not with the heat but with humidity. Keep a cold water bowl, may be flower pool in your room where air circulates. Also your pour the ice water in a tray and keep near the window. It sucks the heat when it evaporates. Here We can use any book or sheet for blowing air like hand fan, this makes the process fast.
  • Turn off incandescent & Halogen lights: Switch to CFL or LED lights instead of incandescent bulbs. This is also energy saving. Use white lights instead of yellow. Always Turn off the lights when not in use
  • Close your room door when cooking in kitchen. This will prevent hot air coming into your room. Better to use grills than stove or oven.
  • Shut unwanted/unused rooms and keep the doors open if possible, This prevents cool air spread through unused rooms.
  • Turn on kitchen and bathroom exhaust and open your room. This will exhaust hot air from house.
  • Try to turn off electronics and electrical gadgets when not in use, at least during sleep time.
  • Hot air usually circulates top and tends to go up. So keep your beds on floor.
  • Wet the cotton towel with water and use as screen or hang on the window.
  • Keep the door and windows opened during night time.
  • Close the windows when it is hot outside and even before the day heats up. Instead of bringing new air, this will circulate the hot air from out and make your room warm further.
  • Avoid using electrical items during the day or when you feel it is hot. This include ironing, laundry, dryer, hair dryer etc
  • Avoid using hot water in bathrooms. This will create steam and increases humidity.

On Long term:

  • Install awnings strategically on top of your windows.
  • Insulate your house.
  • Affix cooling sticker on your window. This will reduce the heat transfer through windows. Reflective films on windows outside the rooms which are facing east and inside the room which are facing west and south (west and north for those in the southern hemisphere).
  • Paint outside with light color. This will keep the reflect light and prevent heat being absorbed and passing inside to your room through walls.
  • If you are sleeping with someone on same bed. Better to keep the beds separated this will increase the air flow.
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  • Most of these will work to generally keep the temperature lower, but is there anyway to cool the room relatively fast (within 30 minutes) without too much work? A bowl of ice water may work, but letting it sit there seems like it would take a while to cool down the room. Is there any way to remove humidity from a room easily without a de-humidifier? +1 For a detailed answer otherwise.
    – JohnBobSmith
    Dec 29, 2014 at 11:46
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    @JohnBobSmith simply from the 0th and 3rd Law of Thermodynamics (Physics) cooling the room at all is a LOT of work. Doing it relatively fast requires heavy equipment (an air conditioning unit could maybe do it in 30 minutes).
    – Aron
    Feb 23, 2015 at 6:58
  • In case that's not just a simple typo: Why should you paint the outside DARK? Wouldn't a bright color reflect more and absorb less energy, and therefore keep your room cooler?
    – MaxD
    Nov 8, 2015 at 20:41
  • you can always build a small ac with a computer power supply, a couple of computer heatsinks and some thermoelectric pads, overall costs should not exceed 20 US dollars, since you say you have more than one system I'm assuming you also have some spare parts laying around
    – Just Do It
    Nov 9, 2015 at 17:02
  • I would like to know more about the "cooling stickers" - I have tried to find them online, but couldn't find where to get them from (I'm in the UK). When I Google image search for "cooling stickers" I find many which look like the right products, but when I do a Google web search (or Google shopping search) all I get are regular stickers... I'm baffled... do they go by another name?
    – hazrpg
    Jun 8, 2016 at 12:12
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Open the windows - use a hair dryer or heat gun if you need to get them unfrozen, and make sure to open more than one - then open the doors in between them in order to allow circulation

also, it should be obvious, but wasn't mentioned anywhere yet - make sure there isn't any heating in the room - if it has a radiator, shut the water off - if it has air vents, cover them or turn them off so that your not heating the room unintentionally.

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