Just keep in mind this only works if the humidity where you live is on the lower side. If you deal with high humidity where you live you won’t experience nearly as much cooling from those wet curtains or the old wet towel over a box fan trick.
The towel on your head still works though because it’s on a much smaller scale unless you’re dealing with near 100% relative humidity. Double that with a fan of some type and you’re in business.
I was searching to see if someone had posted this already because that was exactly what I wanted to contribute. Excellent work!
As another person stated, that’s an evaporative cooler or “swamp” cooler.
AC works by “moving” heat energy from one place to another by way of the refrigeration cycle. This helps you feel comfortable by both cooling the air and also as a byproduct it removes humidity from it. If you want a nice long video on how that works just search “technology connections air conditioning” on YouTube and enjoy. Very informative.
Upvoted for Technology Connections. If you didn’t link that video I was going to. Window units, if you can mount them or get help mounting them, are superior in every way.
The main problem with swamp coolers is they don’t work very well or at all in high humidity climates due to the way in which they cool air. I’m from East Coast US and it gets pretty damn humid in the summer, which is honestly worse than the heat some days. AC is honestly the best solution if dealing with heat and humidity because it combats both issues even if it can’t fully cool a space.
Dryer climates though? Wet towel over a box fan all the way baby!
Bulk make your food. I find that making cooking an “event” you do every week or so is much more manageable than trying to cook your own food each night.
I’m a big fan of soups, stews and chili. I have a large stock pot and I’ll basically make one of those to where it’s almost full. It can take a long time to cook that much food, but it makes tons of servings. Then I’ll freeze 1/2 to 2/3 of it for future meals. I actually find these types of dishes are even better once you thaw them out. Nutrition wise it’s basically a ton of veggies/beans and some meat, so fairly cheap per meal made and super nutritious.
Bodybuilder style “meal prep” is also awesome if you don’t mind having the same meals multiple times a week. I like bulk making brown rice in a rice cooker along with some kind meat or fish and finally then adding in a microwave steam pack of veggies. If you have an Aldi available to you their California blend is awesome and fairly affordable for the convenience of just popping it in the microwave. Shout out to Sam’s Club and Costco who both have bulk packs of frozen meat and veggies to help on cost.
It can get more complicated if you live with others who have different tastes and preferences from yourself. Another hurdle is having the ability to freeze all the excess foods. But when I was single living in my own apartment I don’t think I ever ate more simply and affordably than that. Sprinkle in the occasional “treat” of some kind of takeout and you’re living the good life!
E: This is obviously from a US perspective, but I’m sure my non-us counterparts can substitute in their equivalents where needed.
No problem! Excessive humidity just sucks in general for us since our main cooling system (sweating) relies on the sweat being able to evaporate. Higher humidity means the air is already full of moisture, so evaporation slows way down and is significantly less effective.