Cooling Toolkit
Cooling Toolkit for Extreme Heat
To help meet the critical need for resources and tools for communities to ensure the safety of their most vulnerable residents, we’ve developed a toolkit from the Cal-THRIVES project to help communities better cope with extreme heat (A California Toolkit for Heat Resilience in Underserved Environments). Toolkit items and their intended audiences include the following:
- Community cooling tips (For community residents)
- Fact sheets on passive and active cooling measures (For DIY-enthusiasts, NGOs, program administrators)
- Software tools (For extreme heat resilience program developers, engineers, researchers)
- Modeling summaries for building measures and outdoor measures (For extreme heat resilience program developers, engineers, researchers)
- Policy and program recommendations (For state, regional, and local policymakers)
One-page and pocket community guides detailing tips for staying cool in the heat are available for download in English and Spanish.
"Tips to Stay Cool in the Heat" Community Guide
- Download in English (.pdf)
- Download in Spanish (.pdf)
Community Cooling Pocket Guide
- Download in English (.pdf)
- Download in Spanish (.pdf)
The toolkit offers a collection of fact sheets about passive and active cooling measures, ideal for use with more specialized audiences like DIY-enthusiasts, NGOs and program administrators.
Cooling Topic Fact Sheets
- Air Conditioning (.pdf)
- Cool Walls (.pdf)
- Cooling with Trees (.pdf)
- Window Films (Forthcoming)
For extreme heat resilience program developers, engineers, and researchers, software tools are available to assist with neighborhood-scale building modeling.
CityBES
CityBES is an open tool for neighborhood- to urban-scale building modeling, which can model energy savings for one building or a group of buildings. Both passive and active indoor measures are modeled.
- Learn more about CityBES and watch tutorial videos.
- Access the CityBES tool online
Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI)
A Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) modeling tool for Fresco is available online.
For state, regional, and local policymakers, the toolkit offers policy and program recommendations.
- UCCS Extreme Heat Webinar (.pdf)
This toolkit was developed as part of the Cal-THRIVES project funded by the California Strategic Growth Council.