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A TVWeek Public Service: 23 Ways to Beat the Heat Today and This Weekend

Jul 22, 2011  •  Post A Comment

With so much of the U.S. sweltering, here are 23 ways to beat the heat, courtesy of an article we found at the Real SImple website.

The article starts off with this suggestion: "Try a desert trick. When the air outside is dry and cooler than the air inside, hang a damp sheet in an open window. ‘That’s what we do here in Death Valley,’ says Dale Housley, a ranger at Death Valley National Park. Incoming breezes are cooled by the evaporating water."

Here’s another tip that uses lots of electricity but could be worth it, according to the article: "Run a fan and an air conditioner simultaneously. You can use the air conditioner at lower power and still feel cool if the fan is blowing over you. That’s because the air conditioner removes humidity from the air while the fan helps evaporate sweat and moves heat away from your body. (Note: Fans don’t cool a room; they just make people feel cooler, so shut them off before you leave.)"

Here’s a third idea: "Skip the drying cycle on the dishwasher. Instead, leave the door open to let the dishes dry. And put off using the dishwasher until evening, when the air is cooler. Or simply wash your dishes the old-fashioned way: by hand."

As for how you should dress, the article says, "Wear one of the widely available synthetic fabrics designed to wick away sweat and that sticky feeling (examples include Coolmax and Nano-Tex); they’re not just for athletes anymore. If you prefer cotton, make it thin, light colored, and, most of all, loose. ‘The best thing is to have sweat evaporate directly from skin to air,’ says Larry Kenney, a professor of physiology and kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University, in University Park. ‘The next best thing is for the sweat to move quickly from your skin to clothing and then evaporate. Loose, billowy clothes allow air movement next to the skin and help with evaporation.’ "

Please click on the link in the first paragraph, above, to see the other tips.

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