From carefully placing fans around your home to wearing wet socks in bed, many Brits are willing to try just about anything to beat the heat.
But if you really want to keep your house cool, scientists advise trying a more unusual method.
Dr Ben Roberts, a senior lecturer in healthy buildings at Loughborough University, claims Brits should apply yoghurt to the outside of their windows.
While this sounds strange, his research has shown that this tactic can actually lower the temperature in your home by as much as 3.5°C.
However, the advice has raised eyebrows with many Brits.
The team at Which? posted a video about the yoghurt method, and the comments were less than complimentary.
‘That would smell minging,’ one user wrote, while another said: ‘Flies gonna love that.’
Meanwhile, one simply stated: ‘We’re not doing this lads.’
The team at Which? posted a video about the yoghurt method, and the comments were less than complimentary
Dr Roberts came up with the heatwave hack after exploring low–cost ways to keep his house cool.
The idea is that the yoghurt forms a thin film on the window, reflecting some of the incoming solar radiation, and preventing heat from passing through.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: ‘We can’t get houses to cool down during the day.
‘That’s a real problem for a lot of people, so we’ve started to look at shading solutions, stopping sun getting into your house during the day.’
To put it to the test, Dr Roberts conducted an experiment on two identical test houses – painting yoghurt on the windows of one, but not the other.
The results showed that the temperature inside the house with yoghurt on the windows was 0.6°C lower on average.
However, during particularly hot and sunny conditions, the indoor temperature dropped by a whopping 3.5°C.
While you might worry about the smell, Dr Roberts reassured that there was no pong whatsoever after the yoghurt dried – a process that took around 30 seconds.
Scientists at Reading University have recorded 15 days over 30°C so far this year, following a run of heatwaves that have left the nation sweltering
If the yoghurt method sounds a step too far for you, thankfully there’s an easy alternative – tinfoil.
Dr Roberts’ experiments found that placing tinfoil on your windows is even more effective, causing the inside temperature to drop by as much as 6°C.
The news comes as experts confirmed that 1976’s 30°C record has been broken.
Scientists at Reading University have recorded 15 days over 30°C so far this year, following a run of heatwaves that have left the nation sweltering.
This has overtaken the previous record of 14 days recorded 50 years ago – and we’re only halfway through summer.
The Reading University Atmospheric Observatory recorded its first 30°C day on Sunday 24 May, when 30.8°C was reached.
Over the next seven weeks this threshold was breached another 14 times, including yesterday when 30.7°C was recorded.
Commenting on the new record, Professor Andrew Charlton–Perez, from the University of Reading, said: ‘For half a century, 1976 was the benchmark every hot summer got measured against.
‘Now 2026 has taken its place. We’ve recorded 15 days above 30°C so far this year, overtaking the 14 days set in 1976, and there’s still six weeks of summer left to go. That tells you something important.
‘Our climate is shifting, not just having a warm spell. Summers this hot and dry used to be rare, once–in–a–generation events.
‘Now they will be far more frequent, and that brings real dangers for public health that we cannot afford to ignore.’
