I cannot seem to cool my apartment off...PLEASE HELP!?

Question

I live in an apartment that has 2 bedrooms and a loft, a small living room and dining room. The thermastat shows that it is 90 degrees inhere. We have one high velocity fan in the loft and one in the living room and the 2 bedrooms have box fans. Each bedroom has a window facing south and our livingroom has a sliding glass door facing south. I have covered 1/2 sliding door w/foil and painted other half black to keep out light. sliding door is kept shut windows almost shut during the day open at night. We can't afford to run air conditioning. What can I do or am I doing something wrong to cool it off? Should I open sliding door but keep blinds shut? I get headaches fromthe heat and have been sick w/them all week. It is only 82 degrees outside right now. PLEASE HELP!

There were so many GREAT ideas and I tried a mixture of them a lot of you are right so I had to pick best answer as the one that I benefited fromthe most (ones who had various answers that worked over just one answer). THAX TO ALL!

Answer 1

Run the AC. It might not costs as much as you think. Close all the windows, check for air leaks around doors and windows. If you find air leaks have the landlord fix them. If he wont then you fix them with supplies from your local hardware store. (you can deduct the cost from your rent if you show a receipt) Also turning off lights makes it seem cooler in the house.

Answer 2

Black attracts sunlight so get the black paint off. Go to an automotive store and buy some of the window tint and put that on both doors.
Heat rises so get the fan out of the loft because you are blowing all the hot air into the rest of your apartment.
At night put fans in your windows and blow cool air from outside. Close your windows all the way before the temperature rises outside and blow your fans inside from floor level.
Try not to do any cooking inside. Don't use the toaster. Invest in a grill from a yard sale. We got one for $10.
This will help until probably 3:00 in the afternoon. Then it is up to you to see if the temp is dropping outside to put the fans back in the windows.
Get some room darkening blinds on your windows.
Last, if you are on a top floor, find out what the heck your neighbors are doing downstairs that is causing heat in your apartment. Also, is the central air located next to your apartment? If so,see how hot that is.

Answer 3

Basically, it the outside temperature is colder than inside, you need to get the inside air outside and the outside air in! So, closing windows won't help- it'll actually make it worse as you're creating a greenhouse effect. If you had air-con running, you would need to seal the windows to stop the air-con working overtime.


Putting foil on the sliding door to reflect heat should work, but painting the other half black I don't understand as that might make it absorb heat.

A fan on it's own will not actually cool down a room. It is a common misconception. The fan must either be used to duct the heat out of the room like an extractor fan, or create a breeze which works by cooling you by evaporation.

There's a simple experiment which shows fans do not cool down air directly. If you have a fan and put a thermometer in the air flow, you will not notice any temperature drop in the thermometer if the fan is on or not. If however you put some water on the thermometer (simulating sweat) you'll see the temp[erature drops. The other reason a fan cools us down is we are at about 37 degs C and the outside air is lower, so the fan blows a stream of colder air over us which takes heat out of us.

One thing to do is to sit in your fan flow and spray your self every now and then with a plant sprayer/humidifier with water. This will act like super sweat and cool you down. You can also use the same trick in bed at night.

Answer 4

Why did you paint half the sliding door black? black draws heat into the apartment, you should have painted it bright white to reflect the suns rays. I would put the fans facing south to blow out and the fans on the north to blow in or use no fan on the north, air movement is good. The down side is that you are probably drawing in humidity which makes everything feel hotter, nothing short of a dehumidifier and or an AC will help. If you have to buy an AC don't buy cheap, they are crap and will never meet your expectations (examples: Heir, Dawoo) If the price is too good, then the product is no good ... trust me. also over size it by one size, if room calls for a 5000 BTU, get a 6000 or 8000 BTU makes a huge difference, in fact if your room is bigger than a toy box never buy a 5000BTU AC

Answer 5

Keep the (extern!) blinds shut
Open all your windows

The fans don't actually cool the room off. It's just that the sweat on your skin dries of quickier, making you feel less warm.

If you paint a window black, it will be warmer inside, as the color black doesn't reflect the light - and therefore heats. If you really wanna paint it, then paint it white: it reflects the light and the heat.

Otherwise, you should get extern blinds for the door, and close them but leave the door open (for air, and the blinds keep the light/heat out).


Early morning, open all your windows: the cool air will come in. Then close everything, as it will be warmer outside than inside.

Good luck

Answer 6

Painting half the sliding door black was a mistake. Put your hand on the black area when the sun is shining. It's probably pretty hot. If your problem is really that bad, you will probably have to run the air conditioner. If you put aluminum foil on all the windows facing South, there will be a noted improvement.

Answer 7

I have the same problem. During the day keep the blinds closed to create a dark environment, I crack my sliding glass door and put an oscilating fan in front to draw fresh air in. my two bedrooms are on the second floor, I close the blinds in each room and put fans in each room with the doors open to circulate the air... At night when it cools off a bit, open the windows and sliding glass door to help circulate the slightly cooler air. To sleep keep a fan pointed at your feet and lower legs. Your feet are actually your body's temp gage, keep your feet cool and you stay cool. Good Luck!

Answer 8

The ceiling fans will just move air around. They will not cool or condition the air. This means you need to bring cooler air into the space. The only way to do that would be ventilation from the outside or air conditioning. It is probably more efficient to run a new air conditioner than running enough fans to get the desired effect. The air conditioner would be much quieter, too. Get a small window unit for your room to just cool that space if you don't want to cool the entire apartment.

Answer 9

Heat travels up & cold travels down. I suspect that your "high velocity" fan in the loft is bringing your hottest air from your highest space down into whatever cool air you have in your lower level living spaces. You need to get the hot air OUT after it moves down. So, yes, I'd try opening a door or window to give you some circulation. Unfortunately, once your walls & ceilings get hot, there isn't much you can do if you aren't willing to spend extra money to run your air conditioning system. The foil will reflect SOME sunlight, but the foil still transfers heat to the glass & then into the rooms air. Painting the window black also adds to your problem, as black ABSORBS heat more than any other color! You need some type of covering for your glass areas that will INSULATE & keep the heat from entering your room. If you can afford it, buy some inexpensive bamboo or plastic indoor/outdoor roll-up window shades & hang them on the outside of your windows apx 2-3 feet out from the glass. This will SHIELD your windows from the direct sun & allow airflow without allowing the sun to shine directly into your room, adding more heat. I used to hang these shades from the roof overhang on hooks to remove them when the weather changes. I purchased them at K-Mart, but I have seen them at Wal-Mart for apx $7 - $15 each in the middle isles. You could also try using wet towels & sheets hung up in front of your fans & you can re-wet them as they dry. A block of ice might help, but this is time consuming & expensive in the long run. If you have no extra money, I suggest a 99cent spray bottle & keep cool by spraying yourself down with water & using a cold towel on your neck area to cool down your body temperature.

Answer 10

Heat Rises, and you might need to run the AC. the best way to keep cost down from the ac you can leave the thermastat to 75-70 degrees. Dont move the temp up or down. Keep windows close and block out sunlight