Ray Holton SecretsThe Free Cooling Manual · First Edition
Get The Manual $37
The Complete Passive Cooling Reference · 60 Methods

Your grandparents' house was cooler than yours — and it had no air conditioning.

The Free Cooling Manual restores the knowledge: 60 methods — shade, night air, water, mass, salt, and the sky itself — each with honest numbers, real costs, and exact build steps. Most under $30. Many free.

  • Every method in the same 4-line card: What it is · Honest effect · Cost · The move
  • Real temperature numbers and climate limits — no fantasy physics
  • The truth about salt cooling — and the version that actually works
  • Includes The Don't-Buy List: 8 "beat the heat" gadgets that lose to a $20 box fan
$67$37Launch price
Get The Free Cooling Manual → Instant PDF download · Free updates to every future edition · 7-day money-back guarantee
150°Fa dark roof in July sun
−10°Fyour basement, free, daily
$0cost of the best method inside
60methods, honest numbers
The basic passive-cooling toolkit: clay pots, salt, shade cloth, a fan, a thermometer The Free Cooling Manual cover
First Edition · 60 methods
The problem

Modern houses are built to collect heat — then sold a machine to fight it.

Dark roofs that hit 150°F. Bare west-facing glass. Sealed rooms that can't breathe at night. Then a compressor runs five months straight to undo it all — and the bill lands on you.

For thousands of years before that machine existed, people in hotter climates than yours kept homes livable with shade, airflow, mass, water, and the night sky. The physics never stopped working. We just stopped using it. This manual is the complete restoration — 60 methods, honest numbers, weekend builds.

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The system

No single trick. A stack that multiplies.

The manual is organized the way the physics works — block heat first, flush it second, store coolness third. Each layer makes the next one stronger.

1

Block

Shade, white surfaces, the window playbook. Every unit of heat stopped outside is one you never fight inside — the highest-leverage layer, mostly under $30.

2

Flush

Night air is free cold, delivered six to ten hours a day. Cross-breeze pairs, stack effect, fan tricks — the house breathes all night, seals like a thermos all day.

3

Store & Dry

Thermal mass holds the night's coolness through the afternoon; desiccants strip the humidity that makes heat unbearable. The layer that makes 85°F feel fine.

What the summer industry sells

  • $89 "personal AC" — a wet sponge with a fan
  • $60 misting fan that makes rooms muggier
  • "Nano-ceramic" sprays with no published numbers
  • Oversized AC that cools fast and feels clammy
  • A new miracle gadget every June
vs

What the physics sells

  • $0 — the window schedule + night flush
  • $10 — the humidity gauge that runs the system
  • ~$25 — window film with a real spec sheet
  • ~$150 — the white roof that works for a decade
  • 60 methods, each with its honest number attached
How every method works

Four lines. Honest numbers. Builds you can do this weekend.

No fluff chapters, no fantasy claims. Every one of the 60 methods gets the same disciplined card — what it is, what it really does in degrees and comfort, what it costs in 2026, and exactly how to do it. The honesty is the point: a method you trust is a method you'll actually build.

37THE WHITE ROOF

What it is: reflective "cool roof" coating over a dark roof — the highest-impact paint job in home cooling.

Honest effect: dark roofs hit 150–170°F in summer sun; coated white, the same surface runs dozens of degrees cooler — and the rooms below feel it directly.

Cost: ~$100–200 in coating, DIY.

The move: flat and low-slope roofs are a weekend job; buy by the published reflectance number, not the marketing.

Ray Holton in a cool adobe room
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Who's behind this

"I don't sell gadgets. I sell shade, airflow, and physics."

I'm Ray Holton — the voice behind the Ray Holton Secrets channel on YouTube, where I dig up the cooling methods the world used for centuries before the compressor, and test what they're honestly worth today.

Here's my problem with the summer industry: it sells you a $90 "personal AC" that's a wet sponge with a fan, while the methods that actually work — the white roof, the night flush, the window schedule — cost almost nothing and get no airtime, because nobody profits when your house cools itself. This manual is all of it, in one reference, with the real numbers attached.

— Ray Holton

▶ Watch the channel
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What's inside

All 60 Methods — The Full Index

Nothing hidden. These are the actual methods — the Manual gives you the complete card for every single one.

SECTION 1THE SALT & DESICCANT METHODS (6 methods)

  • 01The Real Salt (Calcium Chloride)
  • 02The Salt Jar Dehumidifier
  • 03The Dry-Air Dividend
  • 04The Salt Chimney, Honestly
  • 05Recharging Your Desiccant
  • 06The Closed-Room Protocol

SECTION 2SHADE FIRST (8 methods)

  • 07The Outside Rule
  • 08Shade Cloth Walls
  • 09The Awning Math
  • 10The Vine Curtain
  • 11The Tree Plan
  • 12The Pergola Effect
  • 13Shade the Machine
  • 14The Hot Wall Fix

SECTION 3THE WINDOW PLAYBOOK (8 methods)

  • 15The Window Schedule
  • 16Reflective Window Film
  • 17The Two-Layer Curtain
  • 18External Shutters & Roller Blinds
  • 19The Foil Trick, Done Right
  • 20The Cardboard Stopgap
  • 21Screens That Don't Block Wind
  • 22The Glass Audit

SECTION 4NIGHT FLUSHING & VENTILATION (7 methods)

  • 23The Night Flush Protocol
  • 24The Cross-Breeze Pair
  • 25The Fan-Out Trick
  • 26The Stack Effect
  • 27The Whole-House Fan
  • 28The Exhaust Habit
  • 29Ceiling Fans, Used Correctly

SECTION 5THE EVAPORATIVE METHODS (7 methods)

  • 30The Humidity Line
  • 31The Wet Sheet Door
  • 32The Clay Pot Fridge (Zeer)
  • 33The Bucket Swamp Cooler
  • 34Real Evaporative Coolers
  • 35The Evening Sprinkle
  • 36The Body Kit

SECTION 6RADIATIVE & ROOF COOLING (6 methods)

  • 37The White Roof
  • 38Radiative Sky Paint, Honestly
  • 39The Attic Radiant Barrier
  • 40Attic Ventilation
  • 41The Roof Sprinkler Question
  • 42The Night Sky Radiator

SECTION 7THERMAL MASS & THE OLD ARCHITECTURE (6 methods)

  • 43Why Adobe Stays Cool
  • 44The Mass You Already Own
  • 45The One Cool Room
  • 46High Air, Old Doors
  • 47The Sleeping Porch Revival
  • 48The Basement Advantage

SECTION 8EARTH COOLING (4 methods)

  • 49Earth Tubes, Honestly
  • 50The Cellar Borrow
  • 51The Buried Pantry
  • 52The North-Side Microclimate

SECTION 9THE DON'T-BUY LIST (8 methods)

  • 53"Personal AC" Evaporative Cubes
  • 54The TV-Ad "AC Alternative"
  • 55Indoor Misting Fans
  • 56Solar Attic Fans
  • 57"Nano-Ceramic" Spray Coatings
  • 58Oversized Air Conditioning
  • 59The Dehumidifier-as-Cooler Mistake
  • 60The "Free Energy Cooling" Video Genre
Get Every Method — $37 →
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One manual · One price

The Free Cooling Manual

First Edition · Instant PDF · Yours forever

  • 60 method cards across 9 sections
  • The honest Salt & Desiccant section
  • Shade First, the Window Playbook & Night Flushing
  • White roofs, thermal mass & earth cooling
  • The Don't-Buy List (saves more than the book costs)
  • Free updates: every future edition included
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Before you order

Common Questions

Here's the honest answer — and it's the first section of the book. Salt doesn't chill air; the right salt (calcium chloride, not table salt) dries it. And in humid weather, dry air genuinely feels several degrees cooler, because it lets your body's own cooling work again. The manual gives you the version that works, the build that's a waste of time, and the $5 setup that beats the $50 gadget.
Yes — and the book is built to tell you exactly which methods to use. Shade, the window playbook, night flushing, roof cooling, thermal mass, and the desiccant section all work in humidity. Evaporative methods don't — and unlike the gadget industry, every evaporative card says so plainly, with the humidity line that tells you when it works and when it's a wet towel.
A large share of the manual is renter-friendly and fully reversible: the window schedule, films, the foil and cardboard methods, night flushing, fan techniques, desiccants, the one cool room strategy, the body kit, and more. The roof and landscaping sections are for owners — everything else moves out with you.
Most methods are under $30, and a third of them are completely free — they're habits and physics, not purchases. The single most powerful method in the book (the window schedule plus night flush) costs exactly nothing. Every card carries a typical 2026 price so you can budget to the dollar.
A downloadable PDF, delivered instantly through Hotmart. Read it on any device or print it. First Edition buyers get every future expanded edition free through their Hotmart library. No app, no subscription, no DRM.
7-day money-back guarantee, handled directly through Hotmart. If it's not what you expected, you get a full refund — no questions asked.