What: If you do not want to deal with condensation from melting ice, make a rice sock instead. Fill a clean long sock with rice, knot the top and freeze it for about an hour. The compress stays cool for about half an hour. Verdict: Less bulky than a hot water bottle, a rice sock can be wrapped around my wrists or neck to make a cool pillow. Placing it on my forehead was also a good way to soothe a heat-induced headache.
5 COOL DOWN A CAR QUICKLY
What: A car parked in the blazing sun is essentially a giant oven.
To get rid of the hot air inside, roll down one of the windows all the way, then walk to the other side of the car and open and close the door five to 10 times. This creates a circulating air flow that forces the trapped hot air out of the vehicle. Verdict: The car felt cooler than when I first opened it.
However, I would use this method only when the interior of the car is extremely hot as I do not want to wear out the rubber seal of the door.
6 UNPLUG WHEN NOT IN USE
What: Just switching off an appliance or gadget is not enough - you should unplug it completely.
Some appliances give off heat even when switched off. For example, a phone charger might feel warm after a whole day of being plugged into the wall, even if it has not been used. Verdict: I took my phone charger and desktop computer plugs out from their sockets, but I am not sure how much heat I actually reduced. The room temperature felt the same.
7 COOLING FACE SPRAY
What: Brew a pot of peppermint tea and put it in the fridge. Once it is cold, pour some into a spray bottle and mist yourself with it. The menthol in the tea will give your skin a tingly feeling. Take the bottle along with you when you head out for the day for a refreshing spritz whenever you feel like it. Verdict: My skin felt cool when I spritzed on the cold liquid. The additional shiok factor kicked in when I walked past a blowing fan and the liquid evaporated.
8 FRUIT ICE CUBES
What: Wash blueberries and place them in an ice cube tray. Fill the tray with water and put it in the freezer.
Once the cubes have frozen, pop them into cold water for a flavoured drink. You can use other fruit such as strawberries. Verdict: I ended up drinking more water than usual. The flavoured cubes made plain water more exciting to drink.
9 KEEP BLINDS DOWN
What: On hot days, keep your curtains or blinds drawn, especially for windows that get direct sunlight. Windows that have no shade let sunlight into the room and heat it up.
Close your curtains and blinds to reduce the amount of heat the room will absorb. Open them in the evenings, when the temperature outside is cooler. Verdict: I closed the blinds in my bedroom when I went out. At the end of the day, it was not as hot as if I had left the windows open and the blinds up.
10 HALF-ICE, HALF-WATER
What: Fill half a plastic bottle with water, turn it upside-down and freeze it overnight.
If you freeze it upright, the ice pushes out the bottom of the bottle, making it difficult to place the bottle on any surface.
Take out the bottle the next day and top up with water. Verdict: Essentially, this method made a very large ice cube in the water container.
I used a 1.5-litre mineral water bottle and the ice took a few hours to melt. It was probably because I was indoors.
Taking it outdoors will cause the ice to melt more quickly.
11 FROZEN FRUIT
What: Putting frozen white or red grapes in room temperature wine is a good way to chill the beverage. Using ice means a watered-down drink when it melts - which does not happen with frozen fruit.
You can also freeze other fruit such as cherries and cranberries and eat them straight from the freezer as a cool treat. Verdict: I got a brain freeze from eating the grapes straight from the freezer, but it was an instant cool down from the heat.
12 MAKE YOUR OWN COLD BREW
What: Instead of spending $6 on cold brew coffee from a hipster cafe every day, you can build your own cold brew "machine" for a cheap supply.
Cut off the bottoms of two 600ml water bottles and punch a small hole in the centre of one of the bottle caps.
Then cut two sheets of coffee filter paper so that they are big enough to cover the mouth of the bottle. Place both filters in the cap with the hole and screw the cap back on the bottle.
Put the bottle with the filter cap inside the bottle without the cap and invert over an empty water glass. Fill the open bottle with freshly ground coffee - the amount depends on how strong you want your coffee to be. Add water to the coffee grounds and stir until all the grounds have been hydrated.
Put the whole contraption in the fridge and let the mixture drip on its own. You should have a cold brew ready in about an hour or so. Verdict: The "machine" worked well and the brew tasted delicious. However, the whole set-up was precarious because the plastic bottles are light. I knocked it over by accident, which caused quite a mess.
13 SET YOUR MOUTH ON FIRE