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Low Energy Hack to Cool a Hot House: Damp Towels

lifehacker.com — If the air in your house is hotter and more humid than it is outside, you don't have to crank up the air conditioning. A damp towel, as suggested by a Death Valley park ranger, can even things out.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 16, 2009

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77 Comments

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  • bratterscain, on 07/16/2009, -2/+41Hack is the new tip.
  • Ghostalker, on 07/16/2009, -0/+33Damp towels is now a hack.... I wonder what they call me drying off from a shower? Compiling?
  • Kahnza, on 07/16/2009, -1/+34Nothing is modified. Its not a hack, its a Protip!
  • ironhide, on 07/16/2009, -0/+28Stay inside?
  • OLTP, on 07/16/2009, -1/+24I'm pretty sure that if the inside of your house is hotter than the outside, opening a ***** window will work whether there's a damp towel in it or not.
  • Mirsky, on 07/16/2009, -1/+22It's always good to know where one's towel is.
  • juankovo, on 07/16/2009, -1/+19> "If the air in your house is hotter and more humid than it is outside ..."

    So what do I do if it's 80 in my house and 95 outside? WHAT THEN, LIFEHACKER? WHAT THEN?
  • macslut, on 07/16/2009, -0/+17To everyone ripping on them for the lameness of this tip, read TFA, it also suggests blocking the sunlight coming into the house. Get that bitches? You can hack the ***** sun!

    How people come up with this ***** without access to the source code is beyond me.
  • Dasmonger, on 07/16/2009, -0/+15Duh..Anyone that lives in the California deserts knows this...That's why we have swamp coolers that work on the same principle.

    But this would never work in high humidity areas.. Try that in Florida and it will never work!
  • cygnus2112, on 07/16/2009, -1/+14Not that I don't think it's a neat tip. But won't this encourage mildew and mold?
  • Falldog, on 07/16/2009, -0/+13I have a cool hack for you, stay away from I-95 during rush hour.
  • schnikies79, on 07/16/2009, -0/+11Humidity here is often 75 to 100%. Wouldn't work.

    I want to lower the humidity in my house, not raise it.
  • JQP123, on 07/16/2009, -1/+11"If the air in your house is hotter and more humid than it is outside, you don't have to crank up the air conditioning. "

    When this happens, I just raise a window or two. With or without a towel, things quickly become more bearable.

    Unfortunately, where I live the problem is more often the reverse --- the air outside is hotter and more humid than is comfortable. And without AC, the air inside quickly becomes similarly unbearable.
  • FredFredrickson, on 07/16/2009, -0/+9Manipulating the temperature of your house isn't hacking.
  • mmrosek, on 07/16/2009, -0/+9Don't forget to bring a towel!!
  • megaton, on 07/16/2009, -1/+9What?! This guy didn't invent evaporation?!
  • WasabiBomb, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7It would in my house. I have to run a dehumidifier in my basement to keep the mold down.
  • Angostura, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7Hmmm, 30 years ago, in an exceptionally hot summer (I'm British) I remember my mother cooling the house by opening the garden doors and hanging wet sheets over the space. Not exactly new.
  • thesandbender, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7This will work well in dry climates but will be pretty much worthless anywhere in the southeast.
  • s0m31john, on 07/16/2009, -6/+13HACK THE PLANET!
  • counterplex, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6Like that hoopy Ford Prefect. There's a frood who really knows where his towel is!
  • stsvatos, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6digg worthy???
  • Alli3388, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6Yeah, right. It's 105 degrees outside and my apartment is like an oven. The cold wet towel will simply be a hot wet towel in about 30 seconds.
  • SquishyMon, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler
  • WELLDOITLIVE, on 07/16/2009, -2/+7That's what she said.
  • EmmanuelGoldstn, on 07/16/2009, -1/+6True story: Back in college, I once left a portable swamp cooler on in my girlfriend's small dorm room. When I came back hours later it had turned into the Amazon rain forest. I know this because SurvivorMan was in there having sex with the girlfriend.
  • otbeverly, on 07/16/2009, -0/+4Don't panic!
  • FredFredrickson, on 07/16/2009, -0/+4If I go change the oil in my car so it runs better, can I be a hacker too?
  • mrswirl, on 07/16/2009, -3/+7You wanna go get high?
  • WasabiBomb, on 07/16/2009, -0/+4A damp towel is negligible compared to just about every other use of water in your house.
  • cygnus2112, on 07/16/2009, -1/+5Well, not only considering the towel itself. But was wondering about moisture from the towel in rooms that will most likely have normal drywall and non-moisture resistant vinyl paint.

    Or those foolhardy to just lay it on their windowsill, etc.

  • JDanner3, on 07/16/2009, -0/+4This works best in a dry climate. The guy is from Death Valley for crying out loud, that towel is probably drier than a witches kooch in a couple hours.
  • blurrry, on 07/16/2009, -0/+4I might be getting old and forgetful, but I remember learning in physics class that evaporative cooling worked by cooling the surface the water evaporates off of. Kind of like how rubbing alcohol cools your skin as it evaporates, or why our bodies sweat in attempt to cool down. We don't sweat to cool the air around us, we sweat to cool our skin as the evaporating sweat takes the heat energy away from our skin that it used in the process of evaporating.

    I believe in this case, the only thing getting cool is the towel, and the air in the room/house is getting more humid. Doesn't sound so great to me!
  • antoniuk, on 07/16/2009, -0/+3You guys totally missed his reference.
  • themastersb, on 07/16/2009, -0/+3If all those other ***** would just ride their bikes I'd be home by now.
  • Otto, on 07/16/2009, -1/+4Yes, this does add humidity, but not very much. It's a poor-man's swamp cooler, basically.
  • JayTee44, on 07/16/2009, -0/+3this technique will not work in humid places, only dry hot places. Death valley is definitely hot and dry.
    Also, you would need quite a few towels.
    This article strays so far into wishful thinking, it's almost like..... liberal economic policy.
  • lydiasky, on 07/16/2009, -0/+3Nice. Simple technique with good results.
  • WELLDOITLIVE, on 07/16/2009, -2/+5Haxomophone
  • TVarmy, on 07/16/2009, -0/+3Move. If that's not hacky enough, have the real estate agent tell you the GPS coordinates of your new home and go search for it like it's a geocache.
  • geehossiphats, on 07/16/2009, -0/+3Good catch. Perhaps the water from the condensation drain pipe could be used to soak the towel? Would at least make it a little more efficient.
  • velveetaavenger, on 07/16/2009, -0/+2You could try putting a damp towel in front of the radiator, I think that would qualify.
  • greggerm, on 07/16/2009, -0/+2Protip (tm)
  • The_Wallbanger, on 07/16/2009, -2/+4Now your house smells like a moldy locker room.
  • stsvatos, on 07/16/2009, -0/+2Get a cooler of ice or dry ice, crack the lid open a bit and put a fan in front of it...
  • themastersb, on 07/16/2009, -0/+2The only Protip I know is to shoot the Cyberdemon until it dies.
  • JerkStore99, on 07/16/2009, -0/+242.
  • counterplex, on 07/16/2009, -1/+3TIP THE PLANET!
  • rushiku, on 07/16/2009, -1/+3You should try the new Washable Towels(tm). No longer will you be stuck with stinky ass towels that you just can't bear to throw away, preferring to see them crawl back to the wild, I assume. No, now you can put those towels in the washing machine alongside your skid-marked drawers, push a few buttons and hey, presto, clean towels!
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