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I live in a two bedroom house and my room only has one window. The wall adjacent to the door on the left has the single window. Next to the window is a bathroom. The room overlooks the front of the house in a apartment style building, so outside the window there is the hallway which is open and gets plenty of air. My room has a ceiling fan.

room layout

It's really hot in Bangalore right now at 38 degree Celsius and nights are unbearable due to hot air circulating inside the room itself (due to the ceiling fan). I turn up the ceiling fan and it makes a lot of noise. I have my bed facing the window.

I am considering buying a tower fan and keeping the fan facing towards my bed (with its back facing towards the window).

Here is a picture of the type of fan I mean:

tower fan

Am I doing the cross ventilation concept correct?

P.S: A few constraints are:

  1. The diagram is not really accurate in the sense, my door opens inwards and so when it is fully open it covers half the window. As a hack i have to put something behind the door (at the floor level) such that the door only opens half way. I cannot remove the door because our landlord is adamant about it (reasons about upsetting vaastu - an indian variant of feng shui).
  2. I cannot leave the window open at night because of incidents of a stray cat getting in to the house.
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  • Would you possibly be able to add a quick diagram of your room - i.e. walls, door, window, bed, maybe proposed fan location.
    – MrPhooky
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 9:04
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    I edited the question to add a hand-drawn layout diagram. Does it make any sense?
    – Sindhu S
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 9:50
  • Is the window into the hallway?
    – Tim
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 17:45
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    This isn't a hack per se, but it can do what you want. Get a window fan with two fans. Also two controls for the fans. Have one blow in and one blow out. Keeps the cat out and creates circulation without keeping the door open.
    – Doug Watkins
    Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 1:46
  • Even if you can't do @DougWatkins suggestion with a in and out fan, at least get one of these style fans anyways.
    – BPugh
    Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 15:03

6 Answers 6

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Try putting ice in a bowl, pot, or bucket. Put an inexpensive fan on the other side of the ice, pointing at you. The cold from the melting ice should blow onto you and keep you nice and cool.

enter image description here

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You state that you can't have the window open due to a stray cat possibly entering the room. This still is your best option to access colder air, so I would suggest to open the window and add something like wire mesh over the window so that the cat can't enter.

This will depend on approval from the landlord, but if done correctly it should not degrade the apartment, and it should also be possible to do without leaving marks on/around the window.

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If you have a camp bed like this:

enter image description here

Make it so the fan blows underneath it. This will cool you down from the top and the bottom, as the fan blows over and under.

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A simple solution that does really help in a room like this is to have the window open, but also have the door open.

This will allow the hot air to have somewhere to go rather than just circulate around the room. If you don't have the window open (because it is too hot outside and is cooler to keep them shut) then you can continue to use your ceiling fan as you are, but again with the door open.

I know most people don't like having their door open while sleeping, but even if it is just open a small amount, it will help with air circulation - not only with temperature regulation, but it'll also stop your room becoming a stink pit.

If your door automatically closes you can just put something in the way so that it remains open at least a small amount. But note that the more the door is open, the more circulation you'll get.

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  • Thanks for the reply! I forgot to mention I keep both door and window open but window is open less often (say not at night) because a stray cat tries to come inside the house!
    – Sindhu S
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 9:50
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Find a mesh (e.g. chicken wire) that is strong enough to keep out the cat. Fit that across the window opening like a screen door, so you can leave the window open at night. Maybe add a layer of fine mesh (mosquito net) to keep out the bugs.

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All the above answers were great and would work for most people but not for me. Here's why:

  1. Ice bucket method: I have a mini refridgerator that produces 1 tumbler worth of ice cubes at a time. By the time I actually fill up a small bucket I would have consumed a lot of power and time, thus this method is impractical for me.

  2. Door open method: I have already stated in question that opening the door blocks out both outgoing air and light towards window. So that wont do.

  3. Camp bed method: I already have a bed and cant afford to buy a camp bed which is really expensive if available in India. There is no such thing as camping in our city-living actually.

Although nobody suggested this but offline a friend did, what about using a cooler like this:

air cooler

Nope, takes too much precious floor space in my already small room.

I ended up buying the tower fan and its awesome! I put it near my door with the fan facing me and the back of the fan faces towards the window. This does pull in cool air well.

So anyone having a similar room layout as me and limited options, a tower fan has worked for me and you might want to consider it too!

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