Fans for keeping cool in the Summer

as much as sleeping on the balcony is nice, its just not too practical.

there is no air circulating at my place at all and i need a fan that is silent and can stay on all night.

I hate heat.

any recommendations for fan shops?

Walmart or Real have some nice ceiling mounted fans or you can go for the typical ones called Alaska and come in different sizes.

You might consider a ceiling unit, looks a bit nicer and helps circulate the air enough to keep you coolish in summer and warmer in winter. Plus, if you want to leave the windows open, it might help diffuse some of the outside noise.

@Schotte, don't move to canada... this dry Munich heat is like heaven. Imagine, if you will, lying in your Toronto or Montreal bedroom, three o'clock in the morning, the humidity makes it feel like a thousand degrees and you are, literally, lying in a pool of sweat.

Aldi's going to have this for €15,99 starting tomorrow.

Why not start with your local Baumart... (Obi/Baywa/Pratika)

Those things only work in extremely dry climates if that is one of those water evaporation coolers. Here you will not get much more than a 5°C difference in feel.

Don't Germans think you can get sick from moving air, and therefore aren't big (no pun intended) fans of fans?

I got mine at MiniMal, its that time of the year, so they are popping up in all the flyers. Just check out the nearest Store to you... I have had mine going since friday, and its one of those big oscillating fans, I don't hear it at all. I have it at the foot of my bed, so I can sleep well.

The Humidity here kills me, I am a prairie girl, used to the summer heat, but that humidity.

Good Luck

@Carm, did I misread your post?

There is no humidity here. Not, at least compared to Toronto, Montreal, NYC, etc.

Munich right now:
26°C
Feels Like
26°C

Bangkok right now:
27°C
Feels Like
31°C

Toronto in June 2003:
36°C
Feels Like
45°C

& here I am hating cold and freezing my balls off.

I love heat...and would love a non-basement apartment...oh well.

Wal-mart is usually a good answer.

Munich, humid? The air is so dry here that I have real problems sleeping. Reminds me, need to get a humidifer, but they're v expensive

Humidity is relative. Compared to anywhere close to a major body of water (Toronto, the UK), Munich is dry. But compared to the prairies, Munich is pretty humid. They aren't the Sahara, but they are dry.

I sweat here all the time, my hair droops from the humidity. As Showem said- its all relative, I am used to dry cold (very cold)- so it never seems to cold to me here, and dry heat- as you play sports, its so dry, you are dry! The sweat just evaporates. So, the summers here kill me.

Carm, don't ever go to the south. It is always 90+ temp and humidity at the same time. Two years ago I flew into Atlanta during a summer T-storm and was grounded for 8 hours. It was 105°F and 100% humidity. It was horrid.

amen to that. I got off an air-conditioned Greyhound bus in Little Rock one August day, and it was like walking into a wet Hefty bag. I got right back on the bus, and didn't get out again til Tucson.

As a Kid we drove from Winnipeg to Orlando, in a non airconditioned car- thought I would die!!! I was 8! Was car sick all thru Missouri and Arkansas. The drive back up north was much better, much drier in Tennassee and Kentucky.
I was in India a few years ago, there is humidity. On the beach wasn't so bad, but in the cities!!! Yikes!

thanks a million. i expect to be the proud owner of one of these suggestions tomorrow.

i agree with the relativ thing, this is hotter than anything i can remember in Scotland, frankly I would be as comfortable in the desert as I am here...

Hopefully I can adjust in a couple of weeks of getting used to it...

I cant adjust, its 31 degrees now in our apartment and I have resorted to sitting here with an ice gel pack on my head. Fans just dont cut it when you need to fight raw degrees.

Sucks

Great info on fans. Does anyone have a rec for portable ac units, preferably one with a vent for standard german windows. Thanks!

Kaufhof also has fans for 10-15 euros. Mine is pretty quiet and does a good job.

As far as keeping cool, keep your windows closed when the sun is hottest and keep them open at night when it gets down to 49. Also drink ice water or just chilled water and lots of it.

/don't know about a/c units. I have seen some around in doctors' offices and stuff, but they permanently replaced a window pane to stick the exaust tube out from the ones I've seen.

About AC units...

I could never find anything to fit "properly" into the windows at my old place. I had to do a DIY job and bodge it into place and it was far from perfect. Now in our new place we face the same problem which is why I am looking at getting a proper installed job if possible. Another problem is that the exhaust hose gets so hot, it seems like it is returning more heat to the room than it gets rid of.

As the "installed" units are cheaper than the standalone ones, I think that it would cost less than a standalone one even including fitting.

Another option I was looking at is the standalone ones that have a separate outside bit, connected with an 'umbilical' cable. This would be easier to squeeze through small window gaps. These are really expensive though, but I think they will work better as there is then no 'hot bits' in the flat.

I have yet to see one that has venting hoses for standard German kip-fensters. You would basically need to build and install a "wedge" which is what I did last year. The wedge was basically blankets and insulation, but the window was useless on cool days.
Since I planned to drill an exhaust hole anyway, I didn't build a heavy duty hard plastic insulated wedge, but I might so that I can use the unit in other rooms more portably.

OBI had portable units for as low as ~€150 last week. Of course, more watts, more money. Pratika has the split units for 200-300. You will still need to drill two smaller holes to connnect the outside unit with the inside unit. The pipes connecting the two need to be fairly straight and a maximum of 3m from one another. Anything more than that and you will need to get an expert in HVAC installations. The larger units suck energy so you may need a dedicated outlet and some units require "hoch strom" outlets.

A cold bath does the trick for me.

I wish it was that easy.. I wont bath/shower every 10 mins, and that doesnt stop you breathing in uncomfortably hot air at night.

2 summers ago when it was really hot, I used to keep a face cloth in a bowl of ice water by the bed when sleeping. When I found myself too hot to sleep, I would wring the cloth out and wipe down with it. Very refreshing.

At night you should have the windows wide open to catch the lower temperature air. Last few nights it's dropped enough to make a difference.

Anyways, it's going to rain soon, so then you can go back to moaning about that.

Yes I do. I get sick instantly

In walmart I saw the other they some fans for ten euros and something similar to a portable A/C, but dunno the price or specs.

On the humidity side, man go to Panama and you will REALLY know what is humidity!! Here it´s just wonderful, yes it´s hot, but you can go out, enjoy and breath lightly.

@panama: You're not wrong. I spent a few weeks last year in Gamboa. Even at night it was too hot to do anything except just flop around... the humidity was a killer!

are these fans (€15,99) at Aldi Air conditioning units...

afaik, the Aldi things are just fans: air-movers, not air conditioners. DH picked one up on the way into work today, so I haven't seen it yet. But a friend bought one last year, and it seems to work okay.

Hi Tom,

If you don't have AC open all you windows when you get home turn on a fan to get the air moving and have a HOT shower/bath. When you get out the air actually feels cooler and with the fan working it 's magic the room/flat should feel cooler. This advice comes from experience as I lived in Nevada for 3 years (one without AC) at that was really hot

Was in town so thought Id try Kaufhof as suggested, then i thought on passing I would try Saturn. Nice 30cm diameter fan that oscillates and everything for 12.99euros. i am as happy as a liverpool fan right now. (no pun intended!)

thanks for the advice.