After a June of learning together, July was all about getting our hands dirty. Building on the conversations started at our Summer Energy Saving & Cooling Workshop, the "Resilient Homes, Resilient Neighbours @ Birmingham" programme moved from ideas to action, helping Hong Kong new arrivals build their own low-cost, low-energy air coolers to use throughout the rest of the summer.

Turning Ideas Into Devices: The DIY Air Cooler Workshop

On Saturday, 18 July, we held the Beat the Heat Maker Workshop: DIY Air Cooler (消暑匠人工作坊：DIY 迷你冷風機) at St. Mary's Church, Selly Oak. The response spoke for itself: 31 applications came in from 15 households. To keep the workshop safe and hands-on, we limited places to 21 participants from 9 households, ensuring everyone received plenty of support during the building process.

The two-hour workshop opened with an overview of climate change and local heatwave risks. Participants learned that the West Midlands recorded the UK's highest estimated heatwave mortality rate during the June 2026 heatwave, at 49 deaths per million people. The region was also subject to multiple UKHSA Heat-Health Alerts, including a rare Red Heat-Health Alert issued that June. These figures brought home why this work matters close to home. Participants were then introduced to the concept of personal thermal comfort and learned how a directed current of cool air can lower skin temperature by 2°C to 3°C within 10 to 15 minutes. This is enough to ease heat stress and improve sleep without needing to cool an entire room. Participants then moved on to measuring, cutting and assembling their own air coolers. Our Lead Facilitator, Thierry Leung, was on hand throughout the practical session to answer questions, guide the assembly process, and explain the cooling principles, running costs and everyday maintenance of the finished air coolers.

What made the session special was who was building together. Grandparents and grandchildren worked side by side, with adults handling the utility cutters while children helped with gluing and fitting the final pieces. One parent, Olivia, told us afterwards that her children had learned a great deal and thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on process of making their own air cooler.

By the end of the morning, every household took home a working air cooler. Several participants said they could already feel the airflow before they had even left the room.

What Participants Told Us

Among the households that responded to our post-event survey, self-rated understanding of direct body cooling and thermal comfort improved markedly over the course of the workshop, and participants rated their willingness to try direct skin-cooling approaches very highly. They also gave the workshop top marks both for giving them new skills to cope with heatwaves and for building their hope and confidence in managing extreme summer heat.

Perhaps most encouragingly, every responding household said they would be willing to volunteer at future workshops. Participating households have also joined a WhatsApp group to continue supporting one another through the summer. 

Financial motivation (saving on electricity) and neighbourhood mutual aid both stood out as the strongest reasons participants gave for wanting to keep learning heatwave skills, a reminder that these two drivers, money and community, tend to move together. 

Out and About: Promotion Booth

The Air Cooler Workshop wasn't the only thing happening in July. We also ran a promotion booth to introduce Climate Transition 2100 CIC and the wider Resilient Homes, Resilient Neighbours programme to new faces, with leaflets, a registration QR code for upcoming activities, and a couple of playful ways to get people thinking about energy.

Visitors tested their instincts in "Can You Pick the Energy-Saving Choice?", a quick game where choosing the more energy-efficient option in each scenario earned a sweet treat. Visitors were invited to write their favourite summer cooling tips on cards and hang them on a tree display, creating a community collection of ideas ranging from opening windows at night to drinking iced water and keeping curtains closed during the day.

Looking Ahead to August 

With demand for the DIY Air Cooler Workshop far outstripping the places available in July, we'll be running it again in August to reach more households before summer ends and to learn more about how the air coolers perform in everyday use. We're also taking these low-cost, low-carbon cooling ideas to a wider audience at our next event, the "Cool Down Birmingham" at the Hong Konger Market, which will bring interactive game stalls and live demonstrations to the whole community. Further energy-saving workshops will be announced through August, so keep an eye on our channels for details.

This project is generously funded by the National Lottery Community Fund (Awards for All England). We are incredibly grateful for their support, which has enabled us to help local families develop practical skills while showing that climate resilience begins with community, dignity and shared local wisdom.

We would also like to acknowledge CarbonCare InnoLab for generously sharing their experience and practical advice from a similar DIY air cooler initiative in Hong Kong. Their insights helped inform the development of our Birmingham workshop.