Not every rental has a split system, and even the ones that do often have it in only one room. Before summer temperatures actually arrive is the right time to set up the habits and small changes that make the biggest difference — not the week it hits 40°C and everything’s sold out (see our portable AC and heater guide if you do want a device on top of these tips).
None of what follows requires landlord permission, drilling, or major spending.
Block Heat Before It Gets In
This matters more than almost anything you do once a room is already hot — prevention beats correction.
- Close blinds and curtains on the sun-facing side during the day, especially mid-morning through late afternoon. A closed curtain can meaningfully cut how much heat actually reaches the room, compared to leaving it open with just the glass between you and full sun.
- Light-colored or blockout curtains work better than dark, thin ones — dark fabric absorbs heat rather than reflecting it.
- External shading (an umbrella positioned to shade a window, an outdoor blind if your lease allows a freestanding one) is even more effective than internal curtains, since it stops heat before it reaches the glass at all.
Get the Airflow Direction Right
A fan blowing randomly into a hot room doesn’t do much. Airflow strategy matters more than fan power.
- Cross-ventilate: open windows on opposite sides of the home (or use a door to connect two rooms) so air actually moves through, rather than just recirculating in one spot
- Time your ventilation — open up in the early morning and late evening when outside air is cooler than inside, and close everything up once outside temperature exceeds inside temperature
- Position a fan to exhaust, not just blow — pointing a fan out an open window in the evening actively pulls hot air out, which is often more effective than pointing it inward
Reduce Heat You’re Generating Yourself
A lot of indoor heat on a hot day doesn’t come from outside at all — it comes from appliances and habits.
- Cook outside the hottest hours, or lean on a microwave/air fryer instead of an oven — an oven running for 40 minutes adds real, lingering heat to a small kitchen
- Switch to LED globes if your rental still has older incandescent bulbs — incandescent lighting generates significantly more heat for the same brightness
- Unplug electronics not in use — anything left on standby generates small amounts of heat that add up in a small, enclosed apartment
- Run the dishwasher and washing machine in the evening, not midday, if you have flexibility
Cool Yourself, Not Just the Room
Sometimes the most efficient move is cooling your body rather than the whole apartment, especially at night for sleep:
- A damp cloth on pulse points (wrists, neck) cools faster than people expect, especially with a fan nearby to accelerate evaporation
- Cotton or linen bedsheets breathe significantly better than synthetic blends for hot-night sleeping
- A frozen water bottle near a fan creates a genuinely noticeable cooling effect for a small area — a low-cost version of an evaporative cooler’s principle
Make Use of the Coolest Part of Your Home
Not every room in a rental heats up equally, and it’s worth actually noticing which one stays coolest — often a room without west-facing windows, or one with tile rather than carpet.
- Consider relocating where you spend peak-heat hours to that room temporarily, rather than trying to cool the whole apartment evenly
- Tile and floorboards stay cooler than carpet underfoot — worth knowing if you have a choice of where to set up a desk or reading spot during a heatwave
When It’s Genuinely Not Enough
These habits meaningfully reduce indoor heat, but they have limits — during a sustained heatwave (especially multiple days above 35–40°C), no amount of curtain management fully replaces active cooling. That’s the point where a portable air conditioner, an evaporative cooler, or simply visiting an air-conditioned public space (library, shopping centre) for the hottest part of the day becomes the more realistic plan, particularly for anyone medically vulnerable to heat.
A Simple Daily Routine for Summer
Morning: Open windows for cross-ventilation while it’s still cool, then close blinds and windows before it heats up outside Midday–afternoon: Blinds closed on sun-facing windows, minimal cooking, fans positioned for airflow not just noise Evening: Reopen windows once outside temperature drops below inside temperature, position a fan to exhaust hot air out
The Bottom Line
Keeping a rental cool without air conditioning is mostly about timing and prevention — blocking heat before it enters, moving air deliberately rather than just running a fan on high, and reducing the heat you’re adding yourself through cooking and electronics. It won’t fully replace air conditioning in a genuine heatwave, but it meaningfully reduces how often you need one.
Got a no-aircon cooling trick that’s worked for you through an Australian summer? Share it in the comments.