How to Keep Cool Outdoors? Find YOUR Best Outdoor Cooling Solutions

The best outdoor cooling solutions balance the kind and amount of cooling you need with what you have and who you are.

What you already have includes your climate and whatever kind of access you have to water and electricity. It also includes whatever area you need to cool.

Who you are includes whatever activities you do, and whatever your personal preferences are.

All of these combine to help you find your best solutions to keep cool outdoors in your unique outdoor setting.

The Challenge

A cooling product description simply cannot take into account your unique needs to tell you if that product will keep you cool outdoors. One product might be great for one person and not helpful at all for someone else.

Even most of the product websites, who may have loads of information on their products, can’t tell you if another product or cooling method would better for you.

You need a simple way to line up what you need with what’s available. I’ll walk you through that, here.

Types of Outdoor Cooling Methods

Here’s a very brief overview of the six methods used to keep cool outdoors:

• Shade, outdoor fans, and portable air conditioners work in most any climate. But each works best under different conditions.
• Evaporation methods: misting systems, misting fans, and evaporative coolers (“swamp” coolers”) work best in dry, arid climates. They are not recommended at all in climates where humidity level are high (above 80%) in the hottest part of the day.

The Steps to Find Your Best Outdoor Cooling Solution

The best solutions to keep you cool outdoors target what you have and who you are:

1. What you have:
   Your climate
   Your resources
   Your area that needs to be cooled
2. Who you are:
   Your activities
   Your preferences

Below, we’ll walk through each of these.

1. What Do You Have?

To start zeroing in on this, consider your climate and resources.

What is your climate like?

Get a sense of the average humidity levels where you live. Why? To see if you can use evaporative cooling.

The humidity level tells you if you can use evaporative cooling – a major group of outdoor cooling methods that are most effective in climates under 60% humidity (under 80% in some cases), which is when water and sweat can easily evaporate.

Some cooling methods are very particular about the conditions in which they work. Portable air conditioners work best under 60% humidity. They are particular in a lot of other ways, too, but I’ll get into that, later.

Outdoor fans and shades work great in all humidity levels and temperatures. Outdoor fans can even make you feel cooler in humid climates than in arid climates.

• ARID CLIMATES – can use all cooling methods.
• VERY HUMID CLIMATES – can use shade, outdoor fans, and portable air conditioning.

Get a sense of the average temperature levels where you live. Why? For Portable ACs.

If portable air conditioners are starting to look like a solution for you, find out what the average temperatures are when and where you’ll need to be cool outdoors. Most portable ACs work best between 115°F (45°C) and 65°F (18°C). Some kinds sit INside the area to be cooled, so working temperatures are not much concern if the area that needs cooling is enclosed. (The more enclosed, the more efficient the AC unit). Other kinds sit OUTside the area to be cooled. Putting them in the shade helps them withstand high temperatures. Or, you can look for [EXPAND].

What Resources Do You Have? (water and electricity)

Do you have a source of electricity?

Almost every cooling method needs a source of electricity. Exceptions are based on ancient cooling methods, like water features, hanging wet cloths outdoors or filling clay pots with water. Most shade except motorized shades (like awnings that shift with the sun) does not need electricity.

If you have electrical outlets near the area you want to cool, your options are wide open. If not, you can either get a power station or generator, or focus on shade options.

Do you have a source of water?

If you live in a lower humidity climate that can use evaporative cooling, you’ll need a source of water.

Swamp coolers, misting fans, and misting systems with pumps either have a water tank, can draw from a water tank, or can attach to a source of running water.

There are low pressure misting systems that rely on running water, typically from a garden hose. These will get the things around them a bit wet (including people nearby), and are less effective than misting systems with pumps. But they are typically the simplest and least expensive of all evaporative cooling methods.

If you want to used plants for shade (shade trees, tall hedges, vines to cover a pergola or trellis), think about how to get water to those plants.

What is the Area Like That You Want to Cool Outdoors?

There is SO much more variation among outdoor areas than there is among indoor areas. This can make cooling your area challenging because there is much more to consider to cool outdoors areas. One way we can look at these areas is by how open or enclosed they are.

Wide Open Areas

Wide open areas are perfect for adding shade solutions. From plants to pergolas, portable to temporary to permanent, the dizzying variety of shade options can really capitalize on these kind of spaces.

Since shade shifts with the time of day and time of year, you can use wide open spaces to adjust where you put your shade. This way you can put shade exactly where you need it when you need it. Shade planning and a shade assessment are helpful in deciding where to put your shade and can be critical with expensive and permanent shade structures.

Misting fans and low pressure misting systems are also great to cool open outdoor areas. Some systems can get things wet, which is usually less of a problem with open areas. And breezes can make low pressure systems more effective. As with misting fans, breezes help disperse and evaporate the heavier water droplets in low pressure systems.

Challenges

Be cautious of winds because they can knock over lightweight shade solutions. There are many ways available to anchor the different kinds of shade.

You need access to electricity for every other cooling method except low pressure misting. Evaporation cooling needs water, as well. Portable power stations / generators and water tanks can help you overcome this.

While breezes offer some cooling, the openness of these spaces allows cooled air to just float away from the very area you want to cool. Capture some of that cool air with some kind of shade structure.

Partially Enclosed Areas

Partially enclosed areas have one or more walls, and / or some kind of overhead shade. The enclosure, itself, provides some cooling – the more it blocks the sun. This enclosure helps contain the coolness you are trying to create. It often provides access to resources like water faucets and electrical outlets. It provides places to mount various cooling solutions, like fans on the ceiling or walls, or pipes overhead for misting systems.

Challenges

While containing cool air is a major plus, the more enclosed an area, the more airflow becomes an issue. For example, swamp coolers and misting systems are great for partially enclosed areas. But they also need access to fresh air so the area doesn’t become too humid. Adding an outdoor fan to one or more corners of your area can help move that cool air to reach as far as possible.

Totally Enclosed Areas

Enclosed areas are fantastic for portable air conditioners – the more enclosed and better insulated, the better!

These areas are also great for outdoor fans. Outdoor fans make you feel cooler as their breezes touch your skin, so the amount of enclosure doesn’t matter as much as how close you are to the fan.

Challenges

Evaporative cooling is not suited for enclosed areas. Without fresh, circulating air, evaporation can make an enclosed area feel hot and humid – the opposite of what you want to feel.

2. Your Activities

Where and when will you need the most effective cooling? For how many people? Will they be mostly in one focused area or in several areas?

Cool Zones

It can cost more to cool outdoors areas, simply because they are typically larger than indoor areas. You can work around this by creating one or more cool zones in the areas you want to use. Focusing on smaller areas means you can cool the most used areas for less cost.

This might be an area where most of the activity takes place, like a seating area or table. Or, it can be a resting place away from the activity, like a dedicated canopied cooling area at a festival or other large event.

Combine cooling methods to make it a true cool retreat – shade plus any other method, a misting system with a ceiling fan or other fan you can move as needed. You could set up vertical panels to contain the luscious cool air of a portable air conditioner.

The chilled air of a portable air conditioner can be a critical component of a cool zone, especially at outdoor events that are a distance from any air conditioned buildings. Health and safety can come into play in the outdoor heat, and cool zones can prevent heat related illnesses. Shade, fans, evaporative cooling, and air conditioning are all helpful.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends air conditioning in cool zones because it is so effective at cooling the body down. So, despite how finicky portable air conditioners can be, they can be an important tool to keep cool outdoors.

3. Your Preferences

Keeping cool outdoors is not only about technology and science. There is a personal element, too. What works for someone might not work for someone else. Balance aesthetics, budget, and effectiveness. Choose methods that suit your style and needs.

• Aesthetics versus function – how something looks.
  Maybe a misting fan suits your resources, area, and activities, but maybe you’d rather not see the cooling unit. Then you could consider a misting system plus a fan. Or maybe you like the functionality of a misting fan over a misting system.
• Benefits versus budget –
  Maybe you don’t want to feel confined to a cool zone but don’t want to take on the cost of cooling a huge area. Consider multiple cooling zones. You might be willing to be hot for a few moments while you move between zones. Or maybe the benefits of comfort, engagement, and moving around freely are worth the extra expense.
• Effectiveness versus efficiency –
  Maybe the thought of using a certain cooling method, like a portable air conditioner outdoor seems wasteful to you. But to someone else, that kind of cooling, even in a less than perfectly enclosed area can be a vital help with health or guest care.

Find Your Best Solution to Keep Cool Outdoors

Browse my In-Depth Cooling Methods pages to learn more about each cooling method.

Or go straight to my shopping page to find carefully selected outdoor cooling solutions.