During the hot summer months of the year, many people are looking for low cost alternatives to air conditioning. There are quite a few different alternatives for you to consider when it comes to staying cool and even air conditioning your area. There are many ways you can stay cool such as going to a friend’s house, or simply going to a place that is already air conditioned. However, this is not always possible, but it does not have to be hard or expensive, to cool a hot warm room. You are about to be introduced to some of the most cost effective and environmentally safe alternatives to air conditioning.

Since the refrigerant that is used in your air conditioner is harmful to the environment if it is allowed to leak out of the system, the first responsibility should be to look out for the environment, and use more natural ways to cool the air. The most natural element that can be used for cooling is water. One of the least expensive alternatives to air conditioning is actually so simple that most people would not even think about it, and it uses water. For this alternative to air conditioning, you will only need an open window, a sheet, a fan, and some water. All you do here is hang the sheet in front of a window and get it wet with the water. Then place your fan in front of the sheet and turn it on. As the air is pulled from the outside through the wet sheet, the air will be cooled, and the fan will blow it into your room cooling it off. Though this method will not blow as cold as a real air conditioner will, it will certainly help cool your space, making it a very effective alternative to air conditioning. If you do not have windows then you can also simply use a bucket of ice in front of your fan, and turn it on to blow the cool air around.

The next inexpensive alternative to air conditioning is more efficient than the sheet in front of the window, but it can involve a little bit of extra work to dump out a bucket about every 30 minutes. For this alternative to air conditioning you will need some ¼ inch tubing, a fan, 2 buckets, and some water. How you assemble the contraption is to tie the tubing to the cage on the front of your fan, and leave some extra tubing to hang off, so you can put one end in a bucket on the table, and the other end of the tubing in the bucket on the floor. Now just siphon the cold water from the bucket that is on top of the table to the lower bucket on the floor, with the fan running. As the water runs through the coiled tubing that you have attached to the fan cage, the air will be cooled, and the water will be warmed as it gets into the lower bucket. When the bottom bucket is full, you can simply dump it out, which is where the extra work comes into play. If you have a few extra dollars, you can add a submersible pump to the bottom bucket, and pump the water back up to the top, and just keep some ice in the upper bucket to keep the water cool. This will help the system run longer with minimal amount of extra work, and upkeep.

Another more personal alternative to air conditioning which is a new technology currently being used in Japan, after the nuclear meltdown at the Fukishima power plant, is air conditioned clothing. The clothes have air conditioning in them, which cool your body and enable you to stay cool even in the hottest temperatures. Air conditioned clothing is probably the most efficient use of energy when it comes to figuring out the best alternatives to air conditioning, but it can be considerably more expensive to put together when compared to the other alternatives that were introduced here. Thanks for reading and stay cool!