'I tried 99p kitchen foil trick to cool down my house but there was a catch'

Daily Mirror

7 days ago

Most of us love the warm weather that the summer brings, but there's a fine line between a nice day and an insufferably hot one.
British homes are not built to cope with rising temperatures, and even if you're lucky enough to spend most of your day working from an air-conditioned office, we can all relate to the struggle of trying to get to sleep when it's still 20°C in the middle of the night.
Resorting to desk fans isn't always the best idea either, as if your room is already hot, you'll likely just be pushing around that warm air and not doing anything to cool yourself down. There are some hacks you can try which involve using hot water bottles as cooling devices, but when I heard about a trick that can cool your whole house down for just 99p, I had to try it.
Apparently, all you have to do is cover your windows with kitchen foil. Sounds simple enough, but does it actually work? That's what I'm here to find out, as I've put the hack to the test.
My bedroom is an extension of my house, with a flat roof and one large window that stretches across the back wall. In the summer, it's akin to a sauna and has already reached peaks of 30°C this year.
It's by far the hottest room in the house, and it also happens to be where I sleep on those clammy nights and where I work. So it was the perfect room for me to conduct my aluminium foil experiment.
Most of us will have kitchen foil at home already, but if you need more to cover your windows, it can be picked up at supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Aldi for as little as 99p.
All you need to do is take the foil out of your kitchen drawer and rip off large strips, taping them to the plastic frame that lines your window until the whole thing is covered.
In theory, the trick should work because glass windows magnify heat, but the shiny foil reflects it, meaning that it should bounce the sunlight off your windows and prevent the heat from entering your house.
And I have to say, it does work, though maybe not to the degree you would hope.
I put the trick to the test one afternoon after work, and while I was in the middle of standing on my bed and wondering if the neighbours thought I was insane, I was working up quite a sweat.
However, by the time half my window was covered and I was standing in the shade of the foil, I could already feel the difference as my body temperature started to balance out.
According to the thermometer app on my phone, my bedroom was a balmy 28 degrees before the tin foil went up. After taking a well-deserved dinner break once the job was finished, I tested the temperature again and found it had already dropped to 26 degrees.
Getting to sleep that night wasn't as much of a chore as it had been earlier in the week, either. Although I did have my fan on for a little while, I stayed cool once I switched it off instead of instantly wishing I could leave it on all night.
The next morning was a similar story, as by 10am, my bedroom temperature was a fairly reasonable 23 degrees. Yes, I was definitely still hot and had to put on my fan, but I wasn't sweating buckets, and the fan actually helped cool me down instead of just blowing hot air in my face.
The foil trick is generally safe to use from a health standpoint, as experts at H2ouse said sunlight won't melt the foil, nor will it release any harmful toxins once it starts to get hot.
They said: "The heat of the sun cannot melt the aluminium foil - it is tough enough to handle high oven temperatures, so it can certainly handle the power of summer sunlight. And exposure to heat will not radiate harmful toxins into your house when it's exposed to sun and heat, either."
However, according to Adam Pawson, Head of Digital at Safestyle, kitchen foil should be placed outside your windows and not inside, as the sun bouncing off the foil can make the glass too hot. This isn't necessarily dangerous, but it can cause the seal in your window to break, meaning you may have to replace it.
He told Ideal Home: "Blocking your windows with tin foil will help to keep your rooms cooler in the heat as it reflects the heat back outside. However, one mistake people make is by placing the foil on the inside of the window. It is really important to be careful to place the tin foil on the outside of your windows rather than the inside to prevent the glass from getting too hot."
This might not be practical if you don't want to be climbing ladders to cover your upstairs windows in foil, and when combined with the odd looks you'll get from your neighbours, you might be better off sticking with your desk fan.