Cool down your whole house with this 68p tin foil window trick

With temperatures expected to climb up to 40C over the next two days, many Brits are trying to find the best ways to cool down on a budget.

The UK is expected to be hotter than the Sahara today, while parts of the country could see Death Valley highs of 42C.

The Met Office’s first ever red extreme heat warning has kicked in, as Brits are warned to “stay indoors, do as little as possible” and avoid public transport as the heatwave forces school and businesses to close.

Extreme heat and a cost of living crisis could see families struggling to decide between keeping cool and cutting costs – despite a horrifying “threat to life” warnings from the Met Office.

Energy and pricing specialist Uswitch revealed that keeping a typical 120w pedestal fan on all night could eat up around 3.4p an hour of electricity – this would be a not so budget-friendly amount of 33p per night if left on from 10pm to 8am.

However, Leeds Live has revealed a little known hack that can cool your house down with just a 68p roll of tin foil – sold in Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Aldi.

The cheap hack involves rolling out kitchen foil and spreading it on the windows that get direct sunlight.

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Normally, when sunlight shines through a window, it magnifies the heat of the sun and makes your house even warmer.

But foil works by reflecting the sun off the window, sending it back outside instead.

If you can’t get your hands on foil, try keeping your window open but your curtains drawn, blocking direct sunlight from entering.

This will still warm your room slightly through the curtains.

Is this method safe?

Tin foil, also known as aluminium foil, is non toxic and it doesn’t melt until it reaches 660C – therefore this is completely safe during a heatwave.

Other ways to cool your house down your house include:

• Opening windows and doors is an efficient way to cool down your house as this allows air to circulate through the house as long as the temperature outside is cooler than inside.

• Placing bowls of water through the house in different rooms to evaporate into the air is another option.

• Turn off appliances that aren’t being used – these can generate small amounts of heat

• Use energy saving LED lightbulbs – regular lightbulbs generate enormous amounts of heat

• Keep lights off as much as possible to cool down your house and save you money

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