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Okay on a scale of 1-10 my apartment is fucking hot. It is ridiculous. We purchased a air conditioner last year and kept it on full blast all the time, and it still got hot. We live in a part of the country that doesn't even get that hot, soo MMMMMGHHHHBLLLFUCK.
![[image loading]](http://forest.mtu.edu/pcforestry/resources/studentprojects/hotsun.gif)
The sun is hot
This is coming up so early cause the last 3 days the weather has been seriously fucked up in Eastern Canada. Normal temperature this time of year probably 10' celsius (50 F) and last three days it has been like 20-25' celsius (68-77 F). Gets to about 30-35 C (86-95 F) in apartment
And like fuck obviously our air conditioner isn't put out yet and its just gunna get cold again tomorrow probably.
But here is the real question, cause our apartment gets warm with full blast air conditioning anyways. What can I do to help keep the apartment cool? Lemme give ya some insight to the apartment, its a bachelor, where one whole fucking wall is a bunch of windows, like floor to ceiling pure window wall. Its old so the insulation sucks dick. Also we are on the top floor, and we are on the side of the apartment where the Sun always is. FUCK.
![[image loading]](http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQC-zJC_3fvkibcPgoZ51IanYFDNwDy76GOUFVO_8SnmiDJCZ87)
Like a shittier version of this
This is what I have been trying.
-Keeping everything off during day.
-Dont use lights
-Dont use oven or stove EVER.
-Keep window closed until after sun goes down open at night, and fan on all day.
-I have some heavy drapes that cover the main light windows, while some shitty curtains to cover the 2 tinted windows. (Cant cover whole wall with drapes that shit is expensive and so much window space)
But recently I was thinking hey what the fuck could I do to keep it cooler in here and it be cheap?
Here was my initial thought
-re-enforce keeping sunlight out by covering windows with white (cause white reflects im smart like that) bristol board.
Then that evolved into this:
-do above but put aluminum foil on bristol board so it reflects harder, but then I thought shit, cars driving by will get in accidents and that shit might catch on fire.
Then I thought about this:
Buying sheets of styrofoam to cover windows.
Some questions: Will this melt/catch fire in direct sunlight? Should I cover outer part with bristol board so it is less likely to happen? Will this overall help keeping the heat out of the apartment/keeping the airconditioning in?
Alright guys, I need help let me know and give me any other cheap alternative ideas if ya got em.
EDIT* Added pictures so you would read it.
TL DR; Will put stryofoam over windows help keep hot air out/cool air in? Is it safe? What are cheap ways to keep apartment cool?
 
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I used to live abroad in Turkey for a touristical season as a rep. My flat was at the 4th floor of a big building. No air conditioner. Just a fan. Big windows embracing the sun. Temperature, approx. 35 celcius with peaks of 42-44 celcius during the day. Humidity above 50%. This was around May/June.
The only thing i could do against heat is take as many showers as i could, drink heaps of water. And cover all my windows with aluminium sheets. I didn't have any air conditioner 
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That picture of the sun sure set the mood. Now it feels nice and warm in my room. (I'm in Canada!)
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United States13143 Posts
If it gets cool outside during the night, consider opening your windows in the evening and closing them in the morning. It doesn't help much by the time it gets really hot, but it's better than nothing.
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Since when 20-25C° is hot? Are you insane? 
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Oh man I'm in the same boat. I would always have to take cold showers in the summer before going to bed or I wouldn't even be able to sleep.
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Yeah well its like 35C in the apartment. Which is fucking hot. I come from PEI and the whole winter its like -20C and in the summer people are happy on days where it goes over 20C. Lol.
Will the styrofoam work??? Maybe I will try it anyways lol.
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I used to live in a similar apartment, most of the heat came in from the roof, not the glass windows. I used to grab the firehose and flood the roof with water when it became unbearable. It's a rather cheap method too, as long as you're not the person picking up the bill on the water.
Flat roof by any chance?
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On March 23 2012 02:58 CaM27 wrote:I used to live abroad in Turkey for a touristical season as a rep. My flat was at the 4th floor of a big building. No air conditioner. Just a fan. Big windows embracing the sun. Temperature, approx. 35 celcius with peaks of 42-44 celcius during the day. Humidity above 50%. This was around May/June. The only thing i could do against heat is take as many showers as i could, drink heaps of water. And cover all my windows with aluminium sheets. I didn't have any air conditioner
Did the aluminum catch fire?
On March 23 2012 03:11 Derez wrote:
I used to live in a similar apartment, most of the heat came in from the roof, not the glass windows. I used to grab the firehose and flood the roof with water when it became unbearable. It's a rather cheap method too, as long as you're not the person picking up the bill on the water.
Flat roof by any chance?
It is flat roof and I live on top floor QQ.
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Get those reflective curtains for the windows and black that place out. That helped the most for me. Also, sitting around naked all the time helped too.
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Calgary25998 Posts
Plenty of people in Calgary use aluminum, you don't have to worry about it. I would do that to block the sunlight and then use a strong fan. Keep in mind you need an air source and exit. So you need two windows open. If your building is cool and air conditioned, open your door and use that as the source. Otherwise, open two separated windows, balcony doors, etc. The lowest window/door is the source (suck air in) and the highest window/door is the exit (blow air out).
Another thing is that the air conditioner needs a temperature difference to work well. So if you're venting the air outside, and it's able to just sit there and heat up, then your air conditioner is going to be terrible. Vent it to a wide open space. If you don't have one and are using a balcony, consider putting a fan out there to blow the vented hot air away (but don't blow air into the air conditioner outlet or it won't be able to work well).
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Most of the apartments I have ever lived in faced the west. So I would get all the direct afternoon sunlight and my apartment would always heat up like yours is doing now. Though I lived in the Southern United States, so my idea of heat and your idea of heat are way different. But what temp your used to is what your used to. My initial suggestion (and what I've done before) is to tint all the problem windows (or at least some to see if there is any difference for you). Use something super dark like Limo tint. Or use something designed for the home. 3m has a great line of commerical window tinting options. The lower the number the less light will be allowed in. Example: Ultra PR S50 lets in less light and heat than Ultra PR S70 (both residential 3m window products). I did this for my apartment in Arkansas and my Southwestern facing apt in Maryland and I had a nice decline in my electric bill.
I for one am not a big fan of the aluminum foil approach. It looks a little tacky for my tastes. But Aluminum has an extremely high albedo rating (as does Silver, but silver is the best source to use for conductive heat transfer. so i don't advise covering your windows in silver sheets). But aluminum will get the job done I've no doubt.
And as you've already said, anything white will help reflect he light.
Best of luck
edit: one point for Aluminum is that it is much cheaper than window tinting products
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You're living in a green house. Open the windows and let all the hot air outside and fresh air in. It should be the exact same temperature inside as it is outside within a few minutes.
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Calgary25998 Posts
On March 23 2012 03:28 deathly rat wrote:
You're living in a green house. Open the windows and let all the hot air outside and fresh air in. It should be the exact same temperature inside as it is outside within a few minutes.
That's not entirely true. It depends on air flow. I can't keep my apartment cool in summer with the door open all day and a fan going.
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the extreme solution is to use tin foil to cover your windows. You can just tape the tinfoil on but you get better results if you use soapwater (spray soapwater on window, then apply tinfoil).
If you use soapwater, getting foils off might require a lot of work and sometimes ruins the entire window (it "burns" in it.)
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The problem with opening the windows is I dont think it really increases the airflow that much cause I cant really open the door cause I don't want to have people in the hall being like sup?
Right now it seems like opening the window is a good option if the indoors is hotter than the outdoors. Maybe try to use a fan as a vaccum. As for my air conditioner, it leads directly out the open window so no heating gathering problem IMO. I think Im going to try the aluminum foil approach cause I dont have lots of money for tint and can't really alter the apartment.
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On March 23 2012 03:04 gds wrote:Since when 20-25C° is hot? Are you insane?
Being from Britain I can assure you that everyone will be topless in temperatures such as that!
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On March 23 2012 03:30 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On March 23 2012 03:28 deathly rat wrote:
You're living in a green house. Open the windows and let all the hot air outside and fresh air in. It should be the exact same temperature inside as it is outside within a few minutes. That's not entirely true. It depends on air flow. I can't keep my apartment cool in summer with the door open all day and a fan going.
If you have a large floor fan, place it in a window and face it outwards (so it's blowing air out). Make sure there's room above the fan for air to flow back into your apartment, or, better yet, open a second window. Unless your place is massive, you should be able to replace all the air in your apartment within a few minutes. Just letting your place air out on its own may not help.
Other than that, cover windows (other than the ones that are open) with white sheets/drapes/blinds and don't run any hot appliances. If you do this, your apartment should never be hotter than the air outside. If it's too hot outside, you're probably fucked.
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I just opened both windows and made a fan blowing out one. The problem is I took a screen out my window and cant get it back on from inside, but I fit it snug in a spot and just taped it for now LOL. It seems a bit cooler, how you put screen back in from inside its impossible.
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EPT
