An unusual way to lower your house temperature

If your home here in Japan is anything like mine, it's completely devoid of any insulation. That means in winter it's super cold indoors, and in summer it becomes sauna-like very quickly, especially in the rooms we don't have air conditioning units in.

I do think you get used to it a bit over time, and there are steps we take to try and keep our house warmer in winter (e.g. bubble wrapping the windows!) and cooler in summer (cooking first thing in the morning rather than in the heat of the day). I'm still always on the lookout for novel ways of keeping my house cool in the summer, though, but one that I read about online recently might be just a bit too novel for my liking!

Many parts of the world are experiencing extreme heat right now, including the UK, where they are proposing smearing yogurt on windows as a way to decrease the temperature in a house. It sounds wacky, but it's backed by research, with the yogurt approach on external windows reducing internal house temperatures by 3.5 degrees Celsius.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but I don't know that I'm that desperate yet...

The article mentions that it works by creating a thin film on the window, reflecting some of the incoming solar radiation thanks to its light color. Once dried, it doesn't have the trademark yogurt-y smell, either, so you don't need to worry about the outside of your house reeking like spoiled milk.

I don't know that I'm yet at the "smearing yogurt all over the windows" point just yet (pretty sure my neighbors would think I had fully lost the plot) but I did think it was an interesting approach to beating the summer heat!

Have you got any summer house cooling tips that are a bit out of left field?