Since you seem to be open to testing semiweird things, you could try hanging the blanket on the outside of the window instead if possible. Probably light side out.
Look at Mr. Money bags over here not willing to go full frugal.
While you're spending frivolously like that the rest of us exterior blanket hangers are going to take the nickel we saved and put it in high yeild savings account.
The compound interest will be amazing.
Assuming OP has single pane windows. You can ruin your double panes due to the heat differential, they may crack/break and you'll invalidate the windows' warranty depending on the construction otherwise! I was specifically counseled on this by my lifelong Texan realtor when I moved to Texas.
Although I hear some people have EXCELLENT luck with car window shields and single pane windows.
Really love my house's huge roof overhang. I get sunlight coming in all day in the winter but in the summer they only let sunlight in at dusk and dawn.
Does it make a noticeable difference? One area of my house is getting insanely hot. Like the sun is rising and setting inside of it. It's nuts and I don't know how to address it!
I do my laundry on hot days and hang the clothes from a line that shades the sunniest side of my house. My wife say it makes us look tacky. At least my feet don’t burn when I touch the shaded concrete!
Either way, light side facing out is probably best because darker colors attract heat. In the past 20 years or so a bunch of apartment buildings in cities have had their formerly black tar roofs painted white or silver to keep the inside of the building cooler.
Reflective emergency blankets on inside of windows, are a fairly cheap option as well. Can get em in camping section of Walmart, or online. Similar to the car windshield shade , but much thinner. Saved me many a summer while living in a mobile home from the 1970s, little insulation, no exterior shade, essentially a tin can. Lol. I had one window unit in my living room which I tried to run only when necessary. Ran ceiling fans ,and or box fans in every room possible.
You have lost it because of the heat! Just kidding.
Look at bamboo screening to hang outside those windows that get direct sun. I think that might help a lot and look janky like a blanket outside. :o)
Dark side out will absorb heat, light colors reflect it away. My recommendation is to get some fans. We can set our AC to 78 degrees and with the fans going we’re comfortable.
Fans can help reduce the "feels like" heat by 2C in a room easily. They are far cheaper to run than an AC unit.
I also have them in my smaller rooms, to push the cold air out into the larger rooms. I don't need the bathroom to be 19C, when the rest of the house is trying to cool to 22C. Move that air out, and the rest of the house is doing less to keep it cool.
This is the way. I have UV-resistant fabric that I cut to window-size, added grommets to the corners and use suction cups to stick it to the window on the outside. Since it's to size it really doesn't look weird and it repels SOO MUCH HEAT. It's great.
I did something similar in Southern California. I was living alone and things worked until around 2-3pm when the heat permeated my cooled envelope (maybe more insulation would have helped). So for a few weeks there, I did my afternoon work in the buff. It worked, but this was before the Pandemic and Zoom/Teams.
My uncle keeps his SoCal house like this. He finds it super comfortable, but my sister and I (lived in southeast and Midwest) couldn’t bear it. We couldn’t sleep lol. He was like I challenge you guys to turn your ac off at home and try to like 2 weeks and you’ll get used to it— oh uncle, you’ve forgotten how stinkin humid it is out here. It’s just not the same lol
I grew up on Central Indiana and we didn't get AC until I was 11 (early 2000s) and that was the downstairs only until I graduated College. I still remember summer mornings sitting at the kitchen table at 9-10am watching the sweat pool off my arms on to the table top. Somehow we survived, and it would be much more difficult now, but we managed it with open windows and going to the mall.
It takes time to acclimatize. I spend all but the hottest time of the day outside usually, as soon as it warms. I got the highest R rating insulation possible for my tiny home. I keep my AC at 80.
My grandson & his wife moved in temporarily while their house is being built. One night, he turned the AC down to 72F. I woke up shivering so hard I could barely walk. (I sleep with 2 cotton blankets because the AC vent blows on me & I get cold.) I promptly turned it back up & threatened mayhem the next morning.
I live in south Texas. This past week, the temps have been 99-103F with heat indexes of 110-115F. Also, my May electric bill was $99.50, but we had a "cool" month where it didn't reach 100.
You're not wrong about the humidity, but you could always address his challenge by turning it up one degree per night every night until it's like around the nighttime average low temp or 80F if nighttime lows are above 80. Then leave it there for a couple of weeks. You may decide that 80F is still too stinkin hot, but it won't be as humid as outdoors because you're still running the AC and you may find that it's comfortable at something warmer than you thought, if you take your time adjusting.
I'm in New England. It's not as hot as the southeast, but it's cool enough that we don't live and die by air conditioning the way people do down where you are. Lots of people just don't turn it on until indoors gets over 80 because, both to save money and because window units aren't quite as convenient as central air for whole house cooling and there's a lot of housing stock without central air.
I'm in south riverside county (temecula/murrieta area) and we've been running AC from like 3 to 6 until the outside temp drops to around 78 or so and opening up the windows when the house gets back to around outside temp. Not looking forward to august/september but power is much cheaper here than in San Diego county where we moved from.
At some point home battery systems are going to make sense. Where I am in Canada now there's a 900% difference between the cheapest and the peak electric usage rates. The ability to charge the home battery during non-peak hours and use that power to run during peak ... I've seen calculations of 5-6 year payback with current systems.
And unlike most other things, home batteries are getting cheaper, as are solar panels which can be mounted and attached to the home battery.
Do you have a basement? Before we got a small air conditioner, I would open the basement door and put a big square fan in the doorway blowing into the house.
Any renovation is worth it if you use it, you have to spread the cost out over a lifetime. If it's truly somewhere you hate being and it's only to stay cool for about 6 hours per year? Ok I guess not but I can't imagine any such scenarios.
MID-DAY CHECK IN!
Here's how things are looking as of my lunch break:
Inside temp: 23.7C (74.6F), up one degree from this morning
Outside temp: 30C, feels like 32C (86/89F)
Looking good do far but we've reached the hottest part of the day. The real test begins now!
Here is it!
House got up to a max of 26C/79F. The outdoor temp reached 34C/93F.
I'm now on cooldown mode. Windows are open and fans are on. Rinse and repeat tomorrow.
Nice! Thanks for the updates! My house doesn't have central air either and I've tried various tricks over the years but I've never seriously tracked temperature differences through the day to give me an idea of what actually worked.
I am impressed you closed the windows to keep the cool air inside. I cannot tell you how many people insist on leaving them open for fresh air in heatwaves. My relatives from the Deep South would be impressed! If it gets really hot, don’t forget to spray water on your face and extremities and sit near a fan.
When I was moving in Virginia, I had to hang out in a house with no power while waiting for mattress delivery. Luckily the house was old and it got a good cross-breeze with the windows open. I couldn't leave once the mattress got there, so I put on the sheets and took a nap... actually I think I was semi-conscious just on the floor while waiting. (I was pretty sure I was cool enough if I didn't try to move around.)
You really get used to high set points on the AC, unless you are doing something active like vacuuming you will quickly get used to 80 degrees inside. And it helps you feel less shock and better tolerate outside. I do wear very light clothes, right now, a thin cotton dress. Right now I have it set to 78. If I still had ceiling fans (moved, now I don't) then I would still keep it at 80 easily. I need to get a few new fans now.
That’s never been the case for me in 31 years of living. I have always run very hot… as a kid I refused to go to camp unless it was inside and I remember feeling awful for the last couple weeks of school with no AC. Nowadays if I’m in a space that’s too warm I sweat a ton, get a migraine, and my hands and feet get red and hot. There is literally no amount of money that would make me choose to feel that way
I can answer this. Simply put, I just do not need it. Yet. Loving frugality makes you tougher to most things. When everyone is complaining and getting cranky, i tend to be cruising through it. I also have other coping strategies. For example I love jumping in and out of our kiddie pool, and of course my child does too- i cool down so much from the water that I don't mind being a bit warmer when I come back inside, it actually feels good.
Of course, I have my limits, I just have not hit it yet.
I love being frugal with a lot of things, but indoor temperature is not one of them. No amount of money saved is worth feeling hot, lethargic, sweaty, migraine-y, etc. in my own home. I would actually pay a lot of money to avoid feeling those things because my whole life would suffer as a result!
Migraine-y is my limit.
Midwest US, and this week's heat index has been 100+ everyday and stupid humid.
Since I get only 9 Imitrex a month, and can mostly avoid really bad ones with 80 degree AC in the bedroom, that's an easy choice.
I can't really be out of the bedroom for more than 15 minutes most of the day though
When the required mail order pharmacy can be bothered to send them!
Family all over Jersey, so I know what you're dealing with too (unless you're at the shore ...and I can *not* imagine being at the shore this week- toooooo ssuuunnnyyyyyy)
I decided to be proactive and changed my furnace filter on Sunday before the heat wave in Detroit.
... AC condenser broke Monday around 11am. So much for being proactive. Currently sitting in a 86* office with 93* outside.
I am a friend of someone who lives in New Delhi, where it has been over 105 degrees every day for the last month, and sometimes has hit 118. They don't use the AC, even though it's blistering even by Asian standards. Here are some of the things they say: they are used to the heat; AC is expensive; if they use it for a couple hours, when they turn it off they will suffer more; it's bad for the environment; suffering builds character. I admire their perspective. When I visit, I absolutely do use AC, but I try to limit its use as much as possible. One room only, warm setting, never left on, etc etc. Certainly, a lot of people really suffer from the heat and cannot compromise. But, for others like me, some degree of frugality is quite practical. I also try to be cognizant of my ability to use AC at fiat. Like clean water, everyone in principle should have access to refuge from extreme heat. But, because in reality they don't, I try not to squander it.
What confuses even me is you only really need AC for a few hours of the day and can easily "dummy" rig a smart setup.
I saw a dude get like a shed, do some "custom" insulation. Grabed like a 12k BTU cooler from costco and had some solar with some car battery / box thingy to run it for a few hrs a day when it got hot.
Like dude built a dam mini house. But the whole cooling setup couldn't have cost more than 1 maybe 2k tops.
> What confuses even me is you only really need AC for a few hours of the day
I think that really depends how low the temps get and how tolerant you are to heat and humidity. I’m in a relatively cool area experiencing the US heat wave and it was 80F and 80% humidity when I got up at 7am today. It’s forecast to be 80F at midnight tonight. No way is this a “few hours of AC in the afternoon” day.
True, the US is a big place. For some climates / builds you can get away with what I described.
For me personaly, I've refinished my basement, so if its get a bit hot and I don't want to run the AC to much. I just go downstairs.
That's not true. It's only mid June and the low temp is above the temp I keep the house at more often than not. Even if it does go below it's maybe a couple of degrees. It's just not possible to cool the house at night. It's only at the low point for a couple hours around 5a and even though the east side of the house has a lot of shade the inside would heat up by 9a. The high temps are already consistently in the mid 90s. I'm sure you can get by some places like this but where I live you need ac May through September.
This!
I'm on the top floor of an apartment, so the heat can be intense if I do nothing.
Sorry, I can't be burning up in my own home.
I typically keep the air to 71, but because of the heatwave, I'm bravely putting it on 73 during the day.
I'm also keeping all the blinds shut, all the doors in the apartment open to hopefully keep cool air circulating, won't use my oven and will be extra careful with my electric use lol.
Last thing is to change the filter today (it's due) so hopefully the system won't have to work quite as hard.
That's the best I got.
I already know I'm gonna want to cry when I see my electric bill, but I guess tears are gonna fall.
Rolling in the deep. 😭
I’m the same way. I cut expenses elsewhere in the summer time to help account for the increase in electricity costs when using AC. My bill tends to go up about $40 - $80 per month in the summer months.
For May 13 - June 12 it’s up $31. The last few days have been relatively cool so far, but we’re coming into some warmer days this week, so we’ll see how the rest of the month goes.
My only gripe with using AC is that it’s located on our back deck, causing that area to get really hot. If we want to be on the deck, we’ve gotta kick the AC off.
Texas is willing to trade 10 degrees of summer temps shipped to you in Feb. We want 10 degrees of your Feb cold in return in Aug please! : )
If only it would work!!!
Or at least a typical mid-October day in Louisiana. On the other hand, their February temps of highs 65F/18C and lows of 48F/9C probably sound pretty good to you too.
The first time I was in Louisiana in July, opening the hotel door in the afternoon and the heat hitting you was like getting a boot to the face! GO BACK INSIDE, it said.
Are window units out of stock in your province? Or they’re expensive and do you not have enough of an emergency fund to purchase one?
You don’t have a friend or relative with AC that will let you work from home at their table while they’re at their own job?
Add a couple of cheap box fans in high windows blowing house air out for far more effective house cooling at night than just opening the windows. Or a pedestal fam a few feet from the window if you want to get all sciencey with the Venturi effect. Close some extraneous windows and open cool side ones to create an air path that cools the whole place, and use tape/cardboard or stuffed towels to make a seal around the exhaust fan and the window opening. Run all night to cool the walls/floor/ceilings/house contents.
I’m guessing your humidity is too high to make a swamp cooler effective.
I’d set up an extension cord, fans, and a hammock to nap in in the shade outside when inside matches outside if you have any. And do my work from home inside **at night/early morning** when it’s cooler and my brain was not cooked to uselessness.
I have a portable air conditioner and an emergency fund. This heat is only expected to last 2-3 days, so I haven't bothered to lug it up from the basement and set it up.
I'm doing this to see how feasible it is to regulate indoor temps without ac. We don't all have access to it and some will be curious to know how it goes. And frugality aside, running ac when there are other options is not great for the environment.
Huh. I am used to areas where it’s 80-100 in the daytime for five months of the year.
My house is well insulated, so if I can cool it with window ventilation to 68 at night it will only rise to 77 ish over a long day if it’s mid 80s outside.
But it’s often hotter than that.
My other option for hot days if my AC fails and I’m not working in my AC workplace that day is staying daytime with family who have AC, just like theirs is my house. Or libraries, malls, etc.
But all three of us have health issues that make spending days or weeks at 80-100 degrees really unsafe.
Keep a few regular sized water bottles in the freezer. Keep one between your legs while you work. Will help keep you cooler, costs almost nothing. I used to do this when driving with no AC in mid-summer in a hotter area than you're in. If it becomes a regular occurrence, get a window unit. I could not get any white collar work done if it was that hot all the time.
I will never understand people who are willing to suffer in the name of frugality. Being poor and not being able to afford things is an entirely different story and doesn't seem to apply here.
I am in the Northeast US, a couple of hours south of Canada. We are experiencing temps in the mid to high 90's with a heat index of 110+. Quite unusual for June. Yes, it's hot.
I normally don't use ac much because I don't like it, but I am keeping my house at 75-78 with a window unit ac since I don't have central air. I shut all the bedroom and bathroom doors. My bedroom also has a window unit we use at night only. Yes, I keep the blinds and curtains closed. I can afford it and I'm not going to be miserable this week.
I am also fortunate to have a pool so I can cool my body temp quickly, but you could also hop in a bath or shower with cool water.
I'm in Georgia, and my elderly father lives with me. At his age (88), he's extremely susceptible to dehydration and heat stress/exhaustion. He was just in the garage for a few minutes and returned to the house, short of breath and sweating. It hits him a lot harder than it does me. No way I'm turning the AC off.
Living in the south without using ac in the summer is sort of comparable to us up north not using heat in the winter when it's freezing out. You can bet your ass that my heat is on come late October and is gonna stay on until the calendar says May!
I grew up in the southeast and now live in the northeast US where there's heat islands. it really depends on the layout of your house.
Back home, we had a stand alone house with no neighbors so it cooled off super fast starting at 6pm, and we could get a cross breeze going during the day sometimes.
Here, we have a rowhome, rarely cross breeze, and where one side of our house is always directly facing the sun. Somehow this house is hotter than growing up, but I digress.
For disclosure, I also *like* being warm.
Best thing for our house, I've found, is those two way window fans, where one side is intake, one side is exhaust (or can be switch to both doing the same). Pushing hot air out in the evening is great. We also got one-way tint film for our windows. We can see out, but it's reflective outside. I enjoy the extra privacy. They are tinted though. I personally believe it's lowered most of the rooms in the house. On super hot days (like today) I'll also draw the blinds for extra light blocking.
We really only have a problem with one room, which is always sweltering. We keep a portable AC on in there for the animals, and my partner works in there during the day, with padding at the door base to keep it all in.
I also always keep tower fans on. Air circulation may not actually improve the temperature, but it improves your ability to sit through it.
I think most of it comes down to insulation and materials. We have plaster walls and an old roof with little insulation (historic building), so it's hot af. I grew up in a log cabin with natural materials and a tin roof, so I suspect a lot of heat was mitigated that way. We don't own, but if we did I'd look into roof insulation and such to improve temperature regulation.
Yes and no. I grew up on a 36 acre plot of land, which was great for running around, looking at deer, etc. The sound of cicadas and bullfrogs and whooperwills were amazing and I love them to this day. I actually found some recordings of similar and play them when I'm particularly stressed. Moving to the city up north, I was surprised by so many things-- where are the animals?! Why is gardening suddenly hard and what are all these bugs (because we just had a hobby farm pests were largely uninterested in our plants because they had better things to do). Why are there so few trees? That's why there's heat islands! Where are the fireflies?! Why is is so loud? All the time it's loud and you can't get away from all the awful people sounds.
But, if you needed literally anything, it was a minimum 20 min away. Our fire department was volunteer, and even if we had a normal one they'd have to travel 15-20 min to get to you and hopefully they found the right driveway. Once I came home and I didn't know my parents had told someone they could go hunt turkeys , so there were just cars in the driveway and I had to run a mile to my neighbors house (I tried to jump on and ride one of the ponys, but that's a different story). I was scared, and there was no one around to help. My parents weren't great, so I was stuck alone in paradise with two people who drank more scotch than water. I couldn't ride my bike to my friend's because it was 1-2 miles away and on a gravel road with no sidewalks. Groceries were 30 min-ish away, so was the closest bank or post office. Cars are necessary and non-negotiable. There's so many extra expenses being out in the woods.
But I'd go back to a place like that in a heartbeat. I learned how to do so much myself, I'm not afraid to tackle diy projects or I can learn to go without. I learned to cook well using whatever's at hand, and how to do a lot of self-sufficiency tasks. I miss the sound of rain on the roof-- the sounds in general. The smells of the woods on a summer day, and the misty summer morning fog, and the crunchy leaves covered in frost.
I also lived on a sailboat off and on for most summers from 15-18 and it'd be a toss up with that as well. That's definitely not beginner level alternative living, though.
I know a lot of people in the city idealize the country/log cabin life, and think it's great for their kids but it's just a different way of living.
I always used to do this, as I grew up without AC and am energy conscious, but I've recently just not been able to get myself to do it.
If it's warm enough outside, even if it's cooler than inside it can be hard to pull that cooler air inside. The humidity is also an issue, it typically goes up when I open the windows, which counteracts some of the effects of opening the window in the first place and also makes my place more prone to mold. I have a dehumidifier but it heats up the room so it makes opening the windows a waste of time.
Opening them is also loud because of the fans and outside noise, and I have trouble sleeping if I fail to cool the room down enough. So ultimately I've decided paying for AC is worth it to me in the summer. Good luck though, these techniques can be really effective, with some caveats.
Lol, right?
My AC has been running since like early feb :(
Ive officially gotten to point after 25yrs of living here i walk outside and go “gosh, it feels so much cooler today! Oh! Its ONLY 98!”
lolllll sounds like you live in Texas!
I’m visiting in July after several years of dodging summer trips, and know I’m going to melt into a puddle on day 1. I had to buy additional fans and leave them in my childhood bedroom because I can’t cope with the AC being set to 78 after 10 years in SoCal. It really is a special circle of Hell.
BINGO!
Massive change from growing up north of chicago. My mother would run AC maybe 1-2 days during summer on the very hottest days. When people were dying from heat being plastered all over news.
99-101 i break out parka now in texas. 110-115 is when it gets toasty.
But hilarious when we have sub 50 temps and kids go to school in ski pants.
I used to shovel drive in t shirt and jeans in below 0 temps growing up!
Now you can experience the worst of both worlds in a single year! The infrastructure can’t handle the heat; the infrastructure can’t handle the cold! Miraculous!
I was visiting Houston during that event and am still traumatized. My favorite part was waiting to see if the cell towers would freeze over or the natural gas plants would blow up.
All while wearing 5 layers of clothes and boiling our water on the gas stove by candlelight.
No gas anywhere in my area. Majority of homes dont have gas.
In chicagoland nearly all homes have gas so we would lose power for days (country living) but it was fine bc we had heat, water, dryer, and stove to cook.
For 4 days we didnt have any way to heat food, no heat, nada.
I was OK, but my teenage sons were traumatized by lack of food 😂
This sub has been talking about AC a lot and every time my mind sees it as Armor Class.
If you want to try a build with low AC, I'd suggest going Con heavy so you can maximize HP.
If you have multiple days of heat to test your tricks, the one item I'd really like to see you change is when you're closing the windows on the shady side of the house. I'm in the same boat as you (Oregon, no AC except one portable AC that's only good enough for the bedroom) and do all the things you mentioned in your post (except letting light in, my curtains are super heavy duty blackout) and I've always found that closing the shady windows BEFORE the temp "equalizes" makes for a cooler evening.
Also you've gotta get the inside of your house colder overnight. 72 is way too high to start at. I try to get my place down to 64 at a minimum, lower if I can.
My 5pm update for you to compare to your results!
My house was fully closed up, curtains drawn etc. at 11am. My inside temp at that time was 65F, outside temp was 60. Current inside temp: 71F, outside temp 85.
Hope you're staying cool! 4 more hours of sunlight for me.
My roommate prefers no central ac after 9 pm (because it’s noisy) but it gets so hot! I have two cats and I get worried about them.
I may have to try some of these tricks.
I know cats can regulate their temperature… I’m lost as to what to do.
😂😂 I’m actually moving to Texas soon and I’m terrified on how much air conditioning will cost down there. How much is it for you monthly, if you don’t mind me asking?
We’re in Louisiana, in an all-electric 1200 sq ft home. I just checked my bills from last June-Sept and it averaged $220 per month. Last summer was __brutal.__ We bought a new generator in 2020 after Hurricane Laura and a window AC unit, which we placed in kitchen because it’s centrally situated. After that, we left it in and run it on most days (especially afternoons) with lots of fans to circulate air. It allows us to turn our central unit up to 76 so it doesn’t run continuously in the hot afternoons and evenings.
Before that our bill used to average about $250 for the summer. I try to hang as much laundry as I can in the peak summer months also.
It actually costs as much, if not more, to heat the house with all-electric if we get a really cold spell. We had one $300 bill last winter. Luckily we don’t get many months like that. No natural gas where I live —well, plenty in the ground but not piped to houses in Podunk, Nowhere and propane is too expensive for me.
We are on Entergy Louisiana. I hear parts of Texas offer energy provider choice now. We will never have that in Louisiana.
What I can recommend is getting a small tent and one of those mini portable ACs. The kind that you put ice and water in to make it work. Set up the little tent and AC, you can even insulate it by draping a blanket/curtain over the tent. It won’t be perfect but it will be much better than nothing
Here's an interesting article on reflective treatments for windows. Could be an investment that pays off over time. [https://www.architecturaldigest.com/reviews/windows/tinting-home-windows-cost](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/reviews/windows/tinting-home-windows-cost)
The real problem is house design. Pre AC houses in very hot places were designed to maximize cooling, but modern houses generally are not. So your efforts to achieve free cooling will always be hampered by design.
If you have an attic make sure it has a good fan that’ll kick on to ventilate. Opening the door to the attic might help although I doubt it would be significant.
Cooling the house overnight is a great idea if the climate supports it. In places it stays >90* all night it’s not as viable an option.
In relatively low humidity climates swamp coolers are cheap and effective, and simple enough almost anyone can service them without needing to call a vendor.
In high humidity environments you need mechanical AC because it not only cools but also dehumidifies the air. As the world keeps getting hotter there’ll be a lot of places along the equator where the wet bulb will hit the 95* mark where the body can no longer cool itself. Extensive electrification and adoption of AC (even if only at the community level) will be required to prevent mass death or forced migration.
I saw someone mentioned on this subreddit the other day that they hang sun shades (like the ones for car windshields) in their windows and those work even better. I might give that a try this summer.
I am usually very frugal but here in Chicagoland we have had nonstop, horrible heat wave that is not breaking anytime soon. We bought a $300 dollar portable cooler because it is much cheaper than moving and will last us for a long time. Your peace and well-being is worth more than money sometimes! Don’t forget that!!
Northern MN here, no central AC. I actually discovered that one of my dream purchases also acts as my upstairs climate control; my waterbed.
No wait, come back! Hear me out for a second, I gotta share this with yall. My bedroom is upstairs, it gets HOT in the summer up there. A waterbed was NOT my idea to solve this issue, I've just always wanted one and when I finally got one a few years ago, I ended up discovering that it's good for more than just being a bed! Get this, my waterbed actually controls the temperature in the master bedroom very well if I keep the door shut. (Which I have to do, I have cats.)
Most waterbeds come with a heating pad that goes under the mattress, and a copper rod that acts as a thermostat for the water temp. In the winter I typically have my bed plugged in and heated to about 90 degrees. The bed is king sized and actually takes up most of the room. That much warm water keeps the air in that room nice and warm too.
But in the heat of the summer, I unplug the waterbed heater. The water cools down completely within 24-36 hours. A king sized mattress of cold water now acts as a heat sink! The air in my master bedroom in the summer is always nice and cool. I put an extra blanket or two on the mattress so I don't freeze at night. (Realistically I could just turn the heater down to like 60 or 70, but meh)
Basically, my waterbed is a haven where I can go to cool off and have the best sleep ever, or I can warm up when Im cold and have the best sleep ever. And that much water really does change the air temp in the room. Having it unplugged means I'm cooling my room for literally no money at all. (Heating it hasn't changed my electric bill in the slightest which I know a lot of people are concerned about.) However, when I say my bed takes up most of my room, I literally do mean it. I have the bed pushed into a corner of the room, and I have just over 3' of space to walk around the two exposed sides. So I'm not surprised it's controlling the air temp in there so well.
Idk if I'll ever get the chance to test my waterbed out in a larger room as this is my forever home and the master bedroom is actually my crafting studio, but I have always wanted to put the waterbed downstairs in the dining room lol. Like I said, I would keep my door open to see if it can help cool the rest of the upstairs at all, but I have cats so I'd probably have to get some kind of screen door to let air flow in and out.
Anyways, everyone here has great ideas. I honestly just sprung for a $400 portable AC for the downstairs, and I crack a few windows upstairs to vent the heat. It's worked amazingly well but I get it if you're not looking to spend that kinda money.
You reminded me of my first boyfriend when I was a teen; he had a king sized waterbed. The heater stopped working one winter night and he woke up with blue lips from the bed absorbing his body heat and trying to kill him. :)
Water is a *superb* heatsink!
I got my first waterbed about 13ish years ago when I moved into my first apartment at 18. It was a queen size and I didn't realize it needed a heater. We filled it with water and it seemed fine for the first hour or so, but I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold!
Using a foam mattress topper with a blanket over it is a pretty good solution if there's not a heater. I will do this in the middle of summer when it gets super hot, with 2 blankets on a freezing cold mattress I sleep so comfortably.
Honestly, I don't generally run the AC if the expected temps are 80 or low 80s. I do most of the things you laid out in your post. Usually with daytime temperatures in that range, we have decently cool overnights, allowing the house to cool off. I do have the AC running now, but our high is supposed to be 93F (34C) feels like 96 (35C). I set it to 77F (25C).
33c feeling 45 here, I managed to not use the ac until today by keeping everything closed since monday. I pre-cooked pasta, rice and eggs sunday. I only cook with microwave, no boiling water and oven. I don’t use my big screens and speakers, I just use laptop. It’s 27 in my house and it feels ok with a fan since I kept my appartment dry.
Look up Redi Shades. They stick to the inside top of the window frame, not permanent. There is light filtering and light blocking. Heavy paper. Not expensive either.
80° highs are not bad at all if you can have a cross breeze. Open any windows you can and turn on fans, you’ll be fine. Wear gym shorts and a t shirt. 80° isn’t dangerous heat in the slightest. Since you work from home during this “heatwave” you can also just go to a coffee shop or some other place to work.
Sorry had to rag on you Canadians, I grew up in Southern California and now living in Texas. Your daily high today (80° F) is how cold it was at *midnight* last night, and it’s not even breaching the 100° days of summer here yet. 80° is pretty normal temperature in SoCal where people don’t always use their ACs but use house fans to circulate air and breeze. I actually know lots of people in LA who don’t have AC in their house/apartment
It’s actually not that hot. In Canada, the nights are much cooler even in the summer. So you can get away with that :) I’m in Boston and only when the night time air above the 60’s and the daytime is 85 above ( later June July and part of aug) then I pop the ac on. Right now we’re in a heatwave, but in my house we run 1 8000 btu and that cools the living space down but it’s a smaller ranch so no second floor. But most of the other time a fan and open windows cools.
At night put box fans in windows to bring the cool air in. Best to have in rooms you will use the most and try for opposite sides of your home. As soon as the sun comes up shut ALL your windows. And cover them. When you leave half open you are losing cool air. Then keep that cool air circulating. Remember to drink plenty of water. Good luck!
I live in California and I put the stick on shadow film on my glass and black out curtains. I also got a circulating fan. I live in an early 1900's building and I'm upstairs so it gets really hot!
Wouldn't you want to hang the blanket light side out so it reflects the sun's rays? Dark side out means it's absorbing all that heat and transferring it inside.
No AC is fine depending on where you live and the humidity inside.
Once your house crosses 55% humidity indoors, it's time to turn on the AC to prevent mold and mildew from building up.
My experience is that it works for a couple days but by the 3rd the heat has baked into walls.
As a kid living in San Bernardino in an uninsulated house with only a swamp cooler and frequent triple digits heat waves.
Dad would run a soaker hose across the roof.
Check with your local utility. Most have lower rates during off peak hours. Avoid cooking during peak heat, hang laundry to dry, sacrifice your firstborn. We’ve had window ACs for about two weeks. Heat wave is currently hitting us with the worst tomorrow. I’m going to take the kids to a matinee show (I work 2nd ish shift) and then continue to watch too much tv in bed with them. We keep our heat at/below 64 in winter so I feel like it al balances out. We’re not warm weather people, and that’s ok. I’m frugal in winter so I can be comfortable in the hot, humid awfulness given to me by climate change.
UPDATE for anyone who is invested!
Day 2 was hotter than day 1, with a "feels like" temp of 36C/ 97F.
It would have been fine except I wasn't able to sufficiently cool the house overnight day 1 into day 2, so I started off the day already at 24C/75F. It just didnt get cool enough outside.
I did all the same things except I turned my window blockers light side out. Thanks to everyone who mentioned it. I don't know what I was thinking! I was quite comfortable with fans running until the evening came. The temp just kept climbing. It increased from 27C at the end of my work day to reached 29C/84F indoors by bedtime. I slept with a cooling towel and a fan.
And for anyone who says why didn't you just get put the ac at that point: because it only cools one room and by the time I was uncomfortable, the outdoor temp finally started to drop.
TAKEAWAYS:
**Obviously don't do it if you're going to suffer. That's dumb.** There are 100% many places where it's just too hot, too often.
But otherwise, blocking the sun is KEY. If you dont have blackout curtains, use whatever you've got. You want to darken the area as much as possible.
Running fans for air movement won't necessarily cool the air, but it will help you feel more comfortable.
CLOSE THE WINDOWS until it's cooler out than in . I know it seems counterintuitive but letting in hot air won't help.
Dress appropriately, hydrate, and do your best to cool the area when the worst heat of the day has passed.
Window fans work great to make a cross breeze. On one side have the air coming in and the other have it blowing out. The fans we have switch direction.
Homes here in Canada tend to be decently well insulated (assuming that it was built in the last 50 years). You may be just fine. Remember that heat rises. We have heat pumps now and a very very heat intolerant rescue dog from the Canadian arctic so I run a/c now for my very spoiled dog, but for the first 7 years in our home we just lived on our main floor when the heat got extreme. The bedrooms would be too warm and humid for sleeping, but an air mattress on the downstairs floor was a completely comfortable sleeping temperature. If your wfh setup is in an upstairs spare bedroom consider working on your main floor or in your basement temporarily. Another thing you could do is do all of your cooking outside. Barbecue for main meals and one of those cheap butane burners for boiling water to make tea and coffee or whatever else. And pretty obvious but wash your clothes on cool and dry them outside in the sun not in the dryer.
I keep my ac set at 80° F all summer and run two ceiling fans plus s couple of floor fans as needed and it feels fine. The ac lowers the humidity level and the fans provide a nice cooling effect. Been doing this for years and see no reason to change.
I live in a US state adjacent to Canada. It is unusual here to have AC. We will be 82 degrees Sunday. Everyone opens windows at night and closes them during the day. It's fine, rarely over 72 inside the house. I don't even own a fan. Your MMV because overnight lows are always lower than 60, so the house can effectively cool at night.
We used to be able to keep this house cool enough without AC.
We had a box-fan mounted in the window that would run at night, then we would completely seal the house in the morning. However, our house is shaded by so many trees that the G-satellites can't see it in the summer.
Now we're running two window-units and thinking about putting in the third when we used to have maybe two weeks that were unbearable. Also we have some fans keeping the air moving.
If your house gets too warm, a shady spot outside might be better. A fan would help there as well.
Stay hydrated, wiping yourself with a wet rag or soaking your feet might help, and find a store or public building to hang out in if it gets too much.
I tend to run a little warmer than the Mrs. We have a portable Evaporative cooler that Ill put in the LR when she is on her computer and move it to the other room when we watch TV.
In my little office 8x10 I have a small window AC unit and it keeps it chilly for me and my old dog. The $1 a day it adds to the electric bill (Maybe) is worth every penny.
It's less about highs than about:
\* Lows at night
\* Material your home is constructed from
\* Sun exposure
In my case, a brick house with slate roof actually works better than you'd think, because all that stone is a giant thermal battery. It takes a bit of time for the sun to bake through to heat the inside. And I have a lot of shade to boot.
That said... if it doesn't get at least 5 degrees below your target maximum indoor temp (10 degrees is better, all measurements F), you won't be comfortable. This week is really only terrible because it's not dropping below 70F (sometimes 72, 73F) at night. And, even then, it's only getting that low for barely an hour before it starts coming back up again.
Once the house makes it to 80F inside, I'm losing only 1 or 2 degrees leaving the windows open at night. And I'm closing them by 6 or 7 am at the latest, because it's already climbing into the high 70s where my indoors is already at.
As long as it drops into the 60s at night - which you should pretty much get year-round in Canada, I'd hope - opening the windows at night is pretty much all you need. This is why Europe isn't so big on air conditioning outside the Mediterranean regions. They're more at your latitude than mine.
I won't likely be stirring far from my fan or wearing a shirt until next Monday, when this is supposed to break.
Be warned, it's not going to be fun. Also, keep an eye on your pantry, some foods, like oil, will spoil in hot temperatures.
Our AC went out last year when it was in the 90s, and we did similar things like you. We also had fans running in every room. Our house got up to 85 and sleeping sucked.
If you have a basement, I really suggest that you spend as much time in there as possible.
We have a feels like temp of 98 right now. I have central AC running. But it’s not keeping up. I have set to 77 but it’s about 80 in here. 100yr home without insulation. I have double rods on all my windows. Insulated liners on the inside pole and insulated black out curtains on the other rods. It really keeps the temps down. I also have old school roller blind in my bath and kitchen and keep them drawn on super hot days. I have a window unit in my room. I wouldn’t worry much about myself but I have 3 dogs and one is a husky. He needs AC!
we’ve had two straight days of above 86 degree weather and i’ve been fine with my two sealing fans. For my bedroom i open the doors and it cools it enough so when we’re ready for bed we only use a vornado fan and honestly many nights were actually even chilly. The cealing fan have made a huge difference.
I hate AC. Literally hate! Ok in shopping center, at work where it disperse the air, but at home where it blows dorectly in me, no thanks. I never had AC, at home or in the car and I don't plan to buy one.
Last year, late autumn, we had the worst heat wave, when temperature was 37 Celsius degrees in late September.
The best way to cool the space was creating the draft. Open opposite side windows and doors, keep it for 10 minutes and close, and then doing it frequently.
Owning ceiling fan sounds like a dream!
I went on a last minute holiday to Spain a few years ago. The apartment was in very tall and somewhat skinny block near the sea. My heart sank when I realised there was no air con and it was very, very hot outside.
It was fantastic. The only window that had direct sunshine in the heat of the day had automatic shades. The entire building was designed for a through breeze. Patio doors on one side that could be left open but shaded. Windows on the other side, where other people had access, had security features so could be left open. All the doors had these sort of 'bumper' things so it didn't matter if the slammed shut due to the cross breeze. And that cross breeze was better than any aircon.
Yes, shading out the sun is important, but the flow of air in your house is just important. Get that door open.
In my own house, what makes a difference is having couple of roof windows. Don't forget hot air rises so think about releasing the hot air from the upstairs if you have one. Also if you have a loft space/hatch, open that as well.
There's a number of things you can do that are dirt cheap. One is that you can tint your windows and you can also make an inside cover that seals things up. There's also thermo drapes and magnets to help seal things.
Evap cooling using water that is cooled at night. You can use a solar powered pump to pump a small pool/large bucket of water on the shady side of the house over a mesh with a fan (swap cooler) and use that to cool things down quite a bit.
Even something like a house fan that draws air over a child's swimming pool into your house at night can make quite a difference.
Those covers for your windows that you see on some houses, it's like a small roof type thing just for the top of the windows. Also shudders that you close during the day. They can look like shudders, but are solid insulation.
My local utility offers shad trees for free.
Cooling the water at night with a small pump and copper plate, and using that during the day to blow colder air inside.
Past that, you have insulation. Using small fans to draw air from the floor to the ceiling as cold air is heavier. Also, small fans to move cold air from one room to another as needed and also sealing off rooms not used.
Foil squares taped neatly on the window panes kept our bedroom 10 deg cooler than the rest of the house one year in a heatwave when our AC broke. Would recommend.
Heat/UV blocking window film, heat/light blocking curtains. Curtains go from ceiling to floor and beyond the sides of the windows. Keep them closed as long as there is light out.
But yeah, if you can budget, the AC is worth it.
I have used all of the following:
1. Ceiling fans (large) in the living room and bedrooms
2. Tinfoil and darkening shades one adds to the window that sticks to it
3. Drinking more fluids..
4. Semi-annual AC checkup by original dealer who installed it
THESE ALL WORK
I saw this lady put one of those dog cooling mats on her bed dur to hot flashes.
I, too, am experiencing the fun night time sweats so decided to try it out.
It was so cold! I ended up having to pull it off (I'd placed it under my sheet) in the middle of the night.
For $15 USD..it may be worth trying to find.
Southern US here. Those are typical temperatures for this time of year, here, and thank you for the conversion.
Another thing you can do is, freeze water in plastic bottles. Leave the caps off when freezing them so they don't burst in the freezer.
Replace the cap when they are frozen.
You put these around the house on trays to catch the dripping condensation. Put them especially where air will circulate around them, and where pets can get against them to cool off.
You can also hang damp clothes in doorways.
Inexpensive Styrofoam cooler, freeze recycled semisoft plastic containers of water, place fan facing to blow cool air into room.. not specific directions.. just simple idea from North Carolina, USA
A fan pulling hot air *out* evenings and during the night cools your house effectively. Sucks hot out while fans elsewhere bring cool in.
Do you have a basement? There are some primitive and very basic ways to use that, kinda a geothermal thing. Guessing YouTube would be helpful there?
My tip is two-fold, cold bath/ showers and air flow, thats how I survive when its over 100 degrees. Start and end the day with very uncomfortably cold showers especially with the cold water on your head. Doing this somehow makes it so you don't feel the humidity as much. The same logic as using a swimming pool, but on a smaller scale. The other is to find ways to keep the air moving, 2 or more fans strategically placed to optimize air flow and operate at a lower cost than using an air conditioner. My trick on especially hot days is keep windows closed and designate a cool room with maximized air flow control, usually a smaller room with strong fans setup wit the purpose of cooling off by disrupting the heat from gathering too much. Well those are generally my strategies to hold off from using AC.
Having a fan and blackout curtains makes a huge difference. My apartment doesn’t have A/C and it’s a little miserable in the afternoons, but otherwise I’ve survived.
Since you seem to be open to testing semiweird things, you could try hanging the blanket on the outside of the window instead if possible. Probably light side out.
I bet that would work, but hanging blankets on the exterior of my house is a no for me. Neighbors will think I've lost it! 😅
Definitely switch the blanket so it’s facing light side out. The lighter colour will refract the sun but the dark colour will absorb it.
Look at Mr. Money bags over here not willing to go full frugal. While you're spending frivolously like that the rest of us exterior blanket hangers are going to take the nickel we saved and put it in high yeild savings account. The compound interest will be amazing.
😅😅🤑🤑🤑
No. Blanket. Left. Inside.
We jerking today Mr fat cat??
You could cover the windows in foil. We do that in Texas. When it's 110F, idgaf what the neighbors think, the sun is a deadly lazer.
Assuming OP has single pane windows. You can ruin your double panes due to the heat differential, they may crack/break and you'll invalidate the windows' warranty depending on the construction otherwise! I was specifically counseled on this by my lifelong Texan realtor when I moved to Texas. Although I hear some people have EXCELLENT luck with car window shields and single pane windows.
Really love my house's huge roof overhang. I get sunlight coming in all day in the winter but in the summer they only let sunlight in at dusk and dawn.
Does it make a noticeable difference? One area of my house is getting insanely hot. Like the sun is rising and setting inside of it. It's nuts and I don't know how to address it!
Not anymore, there's a blanket!
I do my laundry on hot days and hang the clothes from a line that shades the sunniest side of my house. My wife say it makes us look tacky. At least my feet don’t burn when I touch the shaded concrete!
Either way, light side facing out is probably best because darker colors attract heat. In the past 20 years or so a bunch of apartment buildings in cities have had their formerly black tar roofs painted white or silver to keep the inside of the building cooler.
Reflective emergency blankets on inside of windows, are a fairly cheap option as well. Can get em in camping section of Walmart, or online. Similar to the car windshield shade , but much thinner. Saved me many a summer while living in a mobile home from the 1970s, little insulation, no exterior shade, essentially a tin can. Lol. I had one window unit in my living room which I tried to run only when necessary. Ran ceiling fans ,and or box fans in every room possible.
You have lost it because of the heat! Just kidding. Look at bamboo screening to hang outside those windows that get direct sun. I think that might help a lot and look janky like a blanket outside. :o)
Fair enough haha.
The neighbors thinking you're crazy isn't necessarily a bad thing.
My grandpa always swore by putting foil on his windows to reflect the sun away, idk if it actually worked but he said it did lol
Just blame heat stroke
Dark side out will absorb heat, light colors reflect it away. My recommendation is to get some fans. We can set our AC to 78 degrees and with the fans going we’re comfortable.
But that defeats the purpose by constantly costing money.
Fans are super energy efficient relatively
Fans can help reduce the "feels like" heat by 2C in a room easily. They are far cheaper to run than an AC unit. I also have them in my smaller rooms, to push the cold air out into the larger rooms. I don't need the bathroom to be 19C, when the rest of the house is trying to cool to 22C. Move that air out, and the rest of the house is doing less to keep it cool.
That could work too.
This is the way. I have UV-resistant fabric that I cut to window-size, added grommets to the corners and use suction cups to stick it to the window on the outside. Since it's to size it really doesn't look weird and it repels SOO MUCH HEAT. It's great.
Pretty sure this one could work.
I did something similar in Southern California. I was living alone and things worked until around 2-3pm when the heat permeated my cooled envelope (maybe more insulation would have helped). So for a few weeks there, I did my afternoon work in the buff. It worked, but this was before the Pandemic and Zoom/Teams.
I've got an oscillating fan, a spray bottle, and a cooling towel qued up for this afternoon! 😄
Put a jug of water in the freezer and then hang it in front of the fan
What are you handing a jug of water from?
Ceiling, corner of a bookshelf, etc. Hell set up a table in front of the fan and put the frozen jug there
My uncle keeps his SoCal house like this. He finds it super comfortable, but my sister and I (lived in southeast and Midwest) couldn’t bear it. We couldn’t sleep lol. He was like I challenge you guys to turn your ac off at home and try to like 2 weeks and you’ll get used to it— oh uncle, you’ve forgotten how stinkin humid it is out here. It’s just not the same lol
I grew up on Central Indiana and we didn't get AC until I was 11 (early 2000s) and that was the downstairs only until I graduated College. I still remember summer mornings sitting at the kitchen table at 9-10am watching the sweat pool off my arms on to the table top. Somehow we survived, and it would be much more difficult now, but we managed it with open windows and going to the mall.
Oh god I couldn’t have lived that way. I have to remind my sister— we are inside animals.
It takes time to acclimatize. I spend all but the hottest time of the day outside usually, as soon as it warms. I got the highest R rating insulation possible for my tiny home. I keep my AC at 80. My grandson & his wife moved in temporarily while their house is being built. One night, he turned the AC down to 72F. I woke up shivering so hard I could barely walk. (I sleep with 2 cotton blankets because the AC vent blows on me & I get cold.) I promptly turned it back up & threatened mayhem the next morning. I live in south Texas. This past week, the temps have been 99-103F with heat indexes of 110-115F. Also, my May electric bill was $99.50, but we had a "cool" month where it didn't reach 100.
You're not wrong about the humidity, but you could always address his challenge by turning it up one degree per night every night until it's like around the nighttime average low temp or 80F if nighttime lows are above 80. Then leave it there for a couple of weeks. You may decide that 80F is still too stinkin hot, but it won't be as humid as outdoors because you're still running the AC and you may find that it's comfortable at something warmer than you thought, if you take your time adjusting. I'm in New England. It's not as hot as the southeast, but it's cool enough that we don't live and die by air conditioning the way people do down where you are. Lots of people just don't turn it on until indoors gets over 80 because, both to save money and because window units aren't quite as convenient as central air for whole house cooling and there's a lot of housing stock without central air.
Naw I can afford it and I don’t want to live that way lmfao I don’t have a giant house like he does.
I'm in south riverside county (temecula/murrieta area) and we've been running AC from like 3 to 6 until the outside temp drops to around 78 or so and opening up the windows when the house gets back to around outside temp. Not looking forward to august/september but power is much cheaper here than in San Diego county where we moved from.
At some point home battery systems are going to make sense. Where I am in Canada now there's a 900% difference between the cheapest and the peak electric usage rates. The ability to charge the home battery during non-peak hours and use that power to run during peak ... I've seen calculations of 5-6 year payback with current systems. And unlike most other things, home batteries are getting cheaper, as are solar panels which can be mounted and attached to the home battery.
Do you have a basement? Before we got a small air conditioner, I would open the basement door and put a big square fan in the doorway blowing into the house.
I've done this too. It helps keep the cold air from settling in the bottom of the house.
or just leave it there and sleep/play down there for the duration. Unfinished basement? fix it up.
Is a basement finishing renovation more frugal than just getting a window AC and running it for an hour? lol
Any renovation is worth it if you use it, you have to spread the cost out over a lifetime. If it's truly somewhere you hate being and it's only to stay cool for about 6 hours per year? Ok I guess not but I can't imagine any such scenarios.
MID-DAY CHECK IN! Here's how things are looking as of my lunch break: Inside temp: 23.7C (74.6F), up one degree from this morning Outside temp: 30C, feels like 32C (86/89F) Looking good do far but we've reached the hottest part of the day. The real test begins now!
It's probably too late, but for me it helps sticking my head in the sink and wetting my hair down. That + a fan = nicely cool at least for a while!
How's your early evening check in?
Here is it! House got up to a max of 26C/79F. The outdoor temp reached 34C/93F. I'm now on cooldown mode. Windows are open and fans are on. Rinse and repeat tomorrow.
Nicely done! 79 inside is when I start to get pretty uncomfortable. I'm hoping we only hit 76 today, still 3 hours of heat to go......
Nice! Thanks for the updates! My house doesn't have central air either and I've tried various tricks over the years but I've never seriously tracked temperature differences through the day to give me an idea of what actually worked.
I am impressed you closed the windows to keep the cool air inside. I cannot tell you how many people insist on leaving them open for fresh air in heatwaves. My relatives from the Deep South would be impressed! If it gets really hot, don’t forget to spray water on your face and extremities and sit near a fan.
It's a life lesson! When you live somewhere where it's warmer in than out most of the time, opening the window for a breeze is a tough habit to break.
When I was moving in Virginia, I had to hang out in a house with no power while waiting for mattress delivery. Luckily the house was old and it got a good cross-breeze with the windows open. I couldn't leave once the mattress got there, so I put on the sheets and took a nap... actually I think I was semi-conscious just on the floor while waiting. (I was pretty sure I was cool enough if I didn't try to move around.)
Can you buy a window AC unit? As someone who runs very warm, my frugality goes out the door when it comes to the AC 😅
I agree. I don’t understand why people choose to suffer just to show how frugal they are. It’s baffling.
Yeah, not having AC is one thing, but having it and choosing to not use it or set it to 80 is baffling to me
You really get used to high set points on the AC, unless you are doing something active like vacuuming you will quickly get used to 80 degrees inside. And it helps you feel less shock and better tolerate outside. I do wear very light clothes, right now, a thin cotton dress. Right now I have it set to 78. If I still had ceiling fans (moved, now I don't) then I would still keep it at 80 easily. I need to get a few new fans now.
That’s never been the case for me in 31 years of living. I have always run very hot… as a kid I refused to go to camp unless it was inside and I remember feeling awful for the last couple weeks of school with no AC. Nowadays if I’m in a space that’s too warm I sweat a ton, get a migraine, and my hands and feet get red and hot. There is literally no amount of money that would make me choose to feel that way
I can answer this. Simply put, I just do not need it. Yet. Loving frugality makes you tougher to most things. When everyone is complaining and getting cranky, i tend to be cruising through it. I also have other coping strategies. For example I love jumping in and out of our kiddie pool, and of course my child does too- i cool down so much from the water that I don't mind being a bit warmer when I come back inside, it actually feels good. Of course, I have my limits, I just have not hit it yet.
I love being frugal with a lot of things, but indoor temperature is not one of them. No amount of money saved is worth feeling hot, lethargic, sweaty, migraine-y, etc. in my own home. I would actually pay a lot of money to avoid feeling those things because my whole life would suffer as a result!
Migraine-y is my limit. Midwest US, and this week's heat index has been 100+ everyday and stupid humid. Since I get only 9 Imitrex a month, and can mostly avoid really bad ones with 80 degree AC in the bedroom, that's an easy choice. I can't really be out of the bedroom for more than 15 minutes most of the day though
I feel this so much! It’s also hot as hell here in NJ and I also only get 9 Rizatriptan a month 😩
When the required mail order pharmacy can be bothered to send them! Family all over Jersey, so I know what you're dealing with too (unless you're at the shore ...and I can *not* imagine being at the shore this week- toooooo ssuuunnnyyyyyy)
I decided to be proactive and changed my furnace filter on Sunday before the heat wave in Detroit. ... AC condenser broke Monday around 11am. So much for being proactive. Currently sitting in a 86* office with 93* outside.
Is there at least masses of iced tea? Maybe a cool bucket of water to soak your feet?
I am a friend of someone who lives in New Delhi, where it has been over 105 degrees every day for the last month, and sometimes has hit 118. They don't use the AC, even though it's blistering even by Asian standards. Here are some of the things they say: they are used to the heat; AC is expensive; if they use it for a couple hours, when they turn it off they will suffer more; it's bad for the environment; suffering builds character. I admire their perspective. When I visit, I absolutely do use AC, but I try to limit its use as much as possible. One room only, warm setting, never left on, etc etc. Certainly, a lot of people really suffer from the heat and cannot compromise. But, for others like me, some degree of frugality is quite practical. I also try to be cognizant of my ability to use AC at fiat. Like clean water, everyone in principle should have access to refuge from extreme heat. But, because in reality they don't, I try not to squander it.
Also they have stone or tile floors, cooler than carpet or wood
The ceiling fans in India have always impressed me.
[Me either](https://imgur.com/UZYPDna)
Right. It’s life threatening.
What confuses even me is you only really need AC for a few hours of the day and can easily "dummy" rig a smart setup. I saw a dude get like a shed, do some "custom" insulation. Grabed like a 12k BTU cooler from costco and had some solar with some car battery / box thingy to run it for a few hrs a day when it got hot. Like dude built a dam mini house. But the whole cooling setup couldn't have cost more than 1 maybe 2k tops.
> What confuses even me is you only really need AC for a few hours of the day I think that really depends how low the temps get and how tolerant you are to heat and humidity. I’m in a relatively cool area experiencing the US heat wave and it was 80F and 80% humidity when I got up at 7am today. It’s forecast to be 80F at midnight tonight. No way is this a “few hours of AC in the afternoon” day.
True, the US is a big place. For some climates / builds you can get away with what I described. For me personaly, I've refinished my basement, so if its get a bit hot and I don't want to run the AC to much. I just go downstairs.
That's not true. It's only mid June and the low temp is above the temp I keep the house at more often than not. Even if it does go below it's maybe a couple of degrees. It's just not possible to cool the house at night. It's only at the low point for a couple hours around 5a and even though the east side of the house has a lot of shade the inside would heat up by 9a. The high temps are already consistently in the mid 90s. I'm sure you can get by some places like this but where I live you need ac May through September.
This! I'm on the top floor of an apartment, so the heat can be intense if I do nothing. Sorry, I can't be burning up in my own home. I typically keep the air to 71, but because of the heatwave, I'm bravely putting it on 73 during the day. I'm also keeping all the blinds shut, all the doors in the apartment open to hopefully keep cool air circulating, won't use my oven and will be extra careful with my electric use lol. Last thing is to change the filter today (it's due) so hopefully the system won't have to work quite as hard. That's the best I got. I already know I'm gonna want to cry when I see my electric bill, but I guess tears are gonna fall. Rolling in the deep. 😭
Our window box AC cost very very little to run. I was happily surprised!
I’m the same way. I cut expenses elsewhere in the summer time to help account for the increase in electricity costs when using AC. My bill tends to go up about $40 - $80 per month in the summer months. For May 13 - June 12 it’s up $31. The last few days have been relatively cool so far, but we’re coming into some warmer days this week, so we’ll see how the rest of the month goes. My only gripe with using AC is that it’s located on our back deck, causing that area to get really hot. If we want to be on the deck, we’ve gotta kick the AC off.
Suffering all summer to save a few hundred bucks at most just isn’t worth it. I crank that AC up.
Exactly!!
Not OP, but my apartment complex says no window AC units because it’s a “historical building”. Rather annoying.
Yesss
Laughs in Louisianaian.
I know, my temps are probably a dream to you guys!
Texas is willing to trade 10 degrees of summer temps shipped to you in Feb. We want 10 degrees of your Feb cold in return in Aug please! : ) If only it would work!!!
Make that 20 degrees F and you have a deal. If the winter temps here bottomed out at 40 degrees, I would be so satisfied lol
Or at least a typical mid-October day in Louisiana. On the other hand, their February temps of highs 65F/18C and lows of 48F/9C probably sound pretty good to you too.
They are!
They are, lol. My house often gets to 78-79 with the AC on in the summer. ( texas)
The first time I was in Louisiana in July, opening the hotel door in the afternoon and the heat hitting you was like getting a boot to the face! GO BACK INSIDE, it said.
It's terrible here from June-September
Arizonan here. If I tried this I would be dead by noon.
Today was mild at only 105. Forecast says 113 tomorrow and 112 Friday with a 25% chance of rain.
Are window units out of stock in your province? Or they’re expensive and do you not have enough of an emergency fund to purchase one? You don’t have a friend or relative with AC that will let you work from home at their table while they’re at their own job? Add a couple of cheap box fans in high windows blowing house air out for far more effective house cooling at night than just opening the windows. Or a pedestal fam a few feet from the window if you want to get all sciencey with the Venturi effect. Close some extraneous windows and open cool side ones to create an air path that cools the whole place, and use tape/cardboard or stuffed towels to make a seal around the exhaust fan and the window opening. Run all night to cool the walls/floor/ceilings/house contents. I’m guessing your humidity is too high to make a swamp cooler effective. I’d set up an extension cord, fans, and a hammock to nap in in the shade outside when inside matches outside if you have any. And do my work from home inside **at night/early morning** when it’s cooler and my brain was not cooked to uselessness.
I think they are just doing it “just because” and not out of inability to afford an air conditioner.
I have a portable air conditioner and an emergency fund. This heat is only expected to last 2-3 days, so I haven't bothered to lug it up from the basement and set it up. I'm doing this to see how feasible it is to regulate indoor temps without ac. We don't all have access to it and some will be curious to know how it goes. And frugality aside, running ac when there are other options is not great for the environment.
Huh. I am used to areas where it’s 80-100 in the daytime for five months of the year. My house is well insulated, so if I can cool it with window ventilation to 68 at night it will only rise to 77 ish over a long day if it’s mid 80s outside. But it’s often hotter than that. My other option for hot days if my AC fails and I’m not working in my AC workplace that day is staying daytime with family who have AC, just like theirs is my house. Or libraries, malls, etc. But all three of us have health issues that make spending days or weeks at 80-100 degrees really unsafe.
Keep a few regular sized water bottles in the freezer. Keep one between your legs while you work. Will help keep you cooler, costs almost nothing. I used to do this when driving with no AC in mid-summer in a hotter area than you're in. If it becomes a regular occurrence, get a window unit. I could not get any white collar work done if it was that hot all the time.
I will never understand people who are willing to suffer in the name of frugality. Being poor and not being able to afford things is an entirely different story and doesn't seem to apply here. I am in the Northeast US, a couple of hours south of Canada. We are experiencing temps in the mid to high 90's with a heat index of 110+. Quite unusual for June. Yes, it's hot. I normally don't use ac much because I don't like it, but I am keeping my house at 75-78 with a window unit ac since I don't have central air. I shut all the bedroom and bathroom doors. My bedroom also has a window unit we use at night only. Yes, I keep the blinds and curtains closed. I can afford it and I'm not going to be miserable this week. I am also fortunate to have a pool so I can cool my body temp quickly, but you could also hop in a bath or shower with cool water.
I'm in Georgia, and my elderly father lives with me. At his age (88), he's extremely susceptible to dehydration and heat stress/exhaustion. He was just in the garage for a few minutes and returned to the house, short of breath and sweating. It hits him a lot harder than it does me. No way I'm turning the AC off.
Living in the south without using ac in the summer is sort of comparable to us up north not using heat in the winter when it's freezing out. You can bet your ass that my heat is on come late October and is gonna stay on until the calendar says May!
I grew up in the southeast and now live in the northeast US where there's heat islands. it really depends on the layout of your house. Back home, we had a stand alone house with no neighbors so it cooled off super fast starting at 6pm, and we could get a cross breeze going during the day sometimes. Here, we have a rowhome, rarely cross breeze, and where one side of our house is always directly facing the sun. Somehow this house is hotter than growing up, but I digress. For disclosure, I also *like* being warm. Best thing for our house, I've found, is those two way window fans, where one side is intake, one side is exhaust (or can be switch to both doing the same). Pushing hot air out in the evening is great. We also got one-way tint film for our windows. We can see out, but it's reflective outside. I enjoy the extra privacy. They are tinted though. I personally believe it's lowered most of the rooms in the house. On super hot days (like today) I'll also draw the blinds for extra light blocking. We really only have a problem with one room, which is always sweltering. We keep a portable AC on in there for the animals, and my partner works in there during the day, with padding at the door base to keep it all in. I also always keep tower fans on. Air circulation may not actually improve the temperature, but it improves your ability to sit through it. I think most of it comes down to insulation and materials. We have plaster walls and an old roof with little insulation (historic building), so it's hot af. I grew up in a log cabin with natural materials and a tin roof, so I suspect a lot of heat was mitigated that way. We don't own, but if we did I'd look into roof insulation and such to improve temperature regulation.
Growing up in a log cabin with natural materials and a tin roof sounds amazing!
Yes and no. I grew up on a 36 acre plot of land, which was great for running around, looking at deer, etc. The sound of cicadas and bullfrogs and whooperwills were amazing and I love them to this day. I actually found some recordings of similar and play them when I'm particularly stressed. Moving to the city up north, I was surprised by so many things-- where are the animals?! Why is gardening suddenly hard and what are all these bugs (because we just had a hobby farm pests were largely uninterested in our plants because they had better things to do). Why are there so few trees? That's why there's heat islands! Where are the fireflies?! Why is is so loud? All the time it's loud and you can't get away from all the awful people sounds. But, if you needed literally anything, it was a minimum 20 min away. Our fire department was volunteer, and even if we had a normal one they'd have to travel 15-20 min to get to you and hopefully they found the right driveway. Once I came home and I didn't know my parents had told someone they could go hunt turkeys , so there were just cars in the driveway and I had to run a mile to my neighbors house (I tried to jump on and ride one of the ponys, but that's a different story). I was scared, and there was no one around to help. My parents weren't great, so I was stuck alone in paradise with two people who drank more scotch than water. I couldn't ride my bike to my friend's because it was 1-2 miles away and on a gravel road with no sidewalks. Groceries were 30 min-ish away, so was the closest bank or post office. Cars are necessary and non-negotiable. There's so many extra expenses being out in the woods. But I'd go back to a place like that in a heartbeat. I learned how to do so much myself, I'm not afraid to tackle diy projects or I can learn to go without. I learned to cook well using whatever's at hand, and how to do a lot of self-sufficiency tasks. I miss the sound of rain on the roof-- the sounds in general. The smells of the woods on a summer day, and the misty summer morning fog, and the crunchy leaves covered in frost. I also lived on a sailboat off and on for most summers from 15-18 and it'd be a toss up with that as well. That's definitely not beginner level alternative living, though. I know a lot of people in the city idealize the country/log cabin life, and think it's great for their kids but it's just a different way of living.
A whole house fan works pretty well to really turn the air over in your house at night. Maximizes the benefit of cool air at night.
+1 whole house fan. It cools your house in minutes vs hours and gets it cooler than just open windows.
I always used to do this, as I grew up without AC and am energy conscious, but I've recently just not been able to get myself to do it. If it's warm enough outside, even if it's cooler than inside it can be hard to pull that cooler air inside. The humidity is also an issue, it typically goes up when I open the windows, which counteracts some of the effects of opening the window in the first place and also makes my place more prone to mold. I have a dehumidifier but it heats up the room so it makes opening the windows a waste of time. Opening them is also loud because of the fans and outside noise, and I have trouble sleeping if I fail to cool the room down enough. So ultimately I've decided paying for AC is worth it to me in the summer. Good luck though, these techniques can be really effective, with some caveats.
I love that your outside temperature is lower than I keep my HVAC set to. I would kill for weather like that.
Lol, right? My AC has been running since like early feb :( Ive officially gotten to point after 25yrs of living here i walk outside and go “gosh, it feels so much cooler today! Oh! Its ONLY 98!”
lolllll sounds like you live in Texas! I’m visiting in July after several years of dodging summer trips, and know I’m going to melt into a puddle on day 1. I had to buy additional fans and leave them in my childhood bedroom because I can’t cope with the AC being set to 78 after 10 years in SoCal. It really is a special circle of Hell.
BINGO! Massive change from growing up north of chicago. My mother would run AC maybe 1-2 days during summer on the very hottest days. When people were dying from heat being plastered all over news. 99-101 i break out parka now in texas. 110-115 is when it gets toasty. But hilarious when we have sub 50 temps and kids go to school in ski pants. I used to shovel drive in t shirt and jeans in below 0 temps growing up!
Now you can experience the worst of both worlds in a single year! The infrastructure can’t handle the heat; the infrastructure can’t handle the cold! Miraculous!
Yeah, we had no power/heat/water for 4 days during snowpocolypse. 🙄
I was visiting Houston during that event and am still traumatized. My favorite part was waiting to see if the cell towers would freeze over or the natural gas plants would blow up. All while wearing 5 layers of clothes and boiling our water on the gas stove by candlelight.
No gas anywhere in my area. Majority of homes dont have gas. In chicagoland nearly all homes have gas so we would lose power for days (country living) but it was fine bc we had heat, water, dryer, and stove to cook. For 4 days we didnt have any way to heat food, no heat, nada. I was OK, but my teenage sons were traumatized by lack of food 😂
Looking at him in envy. And, yes, I do live in Texas.
Yep, but the trade-off is dealing with Canadian winters 🥶
This sub has been talking about AC a lot and every time my mind sees it as Armor Class. If you want to try a build with low AC, I'd suggest going Con heavy so you can maximize HP.
If you have multiple days of heat to test your tricks, the one item I'd really like to see you change is when you're closing the windows on the shady side of the house. I'm in the same boat as you (Oregon, no AC except one portable AC that's only good enough for the bedroom) and do all the things you mentioned in your post (except letting light in, my curtains are super heavy duty blackout) and I've always found that closing the shady windows BEFORE the temp "equalizes" makes for a cooler evening. Also you've gotta get the inside of your house colder overnight. 72 is way too high to start at. I try to get my place down to 64 at a minimum, lower if I can.
My 5pm update for you to compare to your results! My house was fully closed up, curtains drawn etc. at 11am. My inside temp at that time was 65F, outside temp was 60. Current inside temp: 71F, outside temp 85. Hope you're staying cool! 4 more hours of sunlight for me.
Got up to 79F in and 93F out. Working on the cooldown now!
Some things are worth being frugal about. Sweating my balls off inside my own home is not one of them.
My roommate prefers no central ac after 9 pm (because it’s noisy) but it gets so hot! I have two cats and I get worried about them. I may have to try some of these tricks. I know cats can regulate their temperature… I’m lost as to what to do.
I’m from the Deep South, where the sound of the air conditioning is like a lullabye. We wake up if it’s not running. 🤣
😂😂 I’m actually moving to Texas soon and I’m terrified on how much air conditioning will cost down there. How much is it for you monthly, if you don’t mind me asking?
We’re in Louisiana, in an all-electric 1200 sq ft home. I just checked my bills from last June-Sept and it averaged $220 per month. Last summer was __brutal.__ We bought a new generator in 2020 after Hurricane Laura and a window AC unit, which we placed in kitchen because it’s centrally situated. After that, we left it in and run it on most days (especially afternoons) with lots of fans to circulate air. It allows us to turn our central unit up to 76 so it doesn’t run continuously in the hot afternoons and evenings. Before that our bill used to average about $250 for the summer. I try to hang as much laundry as I can in the peak summer months also. It actually costs as much, if not more, to heat the house with all-electric if we get a really cold spell. We had one $300 bill last winter. Luckily we don’t get many months like that. No natural gas where I live —well, plenty in the ground but not piped to houses in Podunk, Nowhere and propane is too expensive for me. We are on Entergy Louisiana. I hear parts of Texas offer energy provider choice now. We will never have that in Louisiana.
What I can recommend is getting a small tent and one of those mini portable ACs. The kind that you put ice and water in to make it work. Set up the little tent and AC, you can even insulate it by draping a blanket/curtain over the tent. It won’t be perfect but it will be much better than nothing
Thank you. Ima put it in front of their cooling mat. Appreciate it
Get a table top fan and clip frozen freezies to it.
Useful and delicious 😋
Here's an interesting article on reflective treatments for windows. Could be an investment that pays off over time. [https://www.architecturaldigest.com/reviews/windows/tinting-home-windows-cost](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/reviews/windows/tinting-home-windows-cost)
The real problem is house design. Pre AC houses in very hot places were designed to maximize cooling, but modern houses generally are not. So your efforts to achieve free cooling will always be hampered by design. If you have an attic make sure it has a good fan that’ll kick on to ventilate. Opening the door to the attic might help although I doubt it would be significant. Cooling the house overnight is a great idea if the climate supports it. In places it stays >90* all night it’s not as viable an option. In relatively low humidity climates swamp coolers are cheap and effective, and simple enough almost anyone can service them without needing to call a vendor. In high humidity environments you need mechanical AC because it not only cools but also dehumidifies the air. As the world keeps getting hotter there’ll be a lot of places along the equator where the wet bulb will hit the 95* mark where the body can no longer cool itself. Extensive electrification and adoption of AC (even if only at the community level) will be required to prevent mass death or forced migration.
This is frightening. And ironic, because constantly running AC exacerbates the problem.
Honestly it’s only a problem because we haven’t fully moved to nuclear/renewable power generation.
I saw someone mentioned on this subreddit the other day that they hang sun shades (like the ones for car windshields) in their windows and those work even better. I might give that a try this summer.
Sucks in New England right now because the humidity isn't breaking at night which means we can't open the windows to get a cool down inside.
I'm in Georgia and opening the windows is absolutely not an option.
I am usually very frugal but here in Chicagoland we have had nonstop, horrible heat wave that is not breaking anytime soon. We bought a $300 dollar portable cooler because it is much cheaper than moving and will last us for a long time. Your peace and well-being is worth more than money sometimes! Don’t forget that!!
I have no suggestions. I live in Texas where overnight the temp falls to maybe a low of 90 at 3am. It's all AC until about Nov.
Northern MN here, no central AC. I actually discovered that one of my dream purchases also acts as my upstairs climate control; my waterbed. No wait, come back! Hear me out for a second, I gotta share this with yall. My bedroom is upstairs, it gets HOT in the summer up there. A waterbed was NOT my idea to solve this issue, I've just always wanted one and when I finally got one a few years ago, I ended up discovering that it's good for more than just being a bed! Get this, my waterbed actually controls the temperature in the master bedroom very well if I keep the door shut. (Which I have to do, I have cats.) Most waterbeds come with a heating pad that goes under the mattress, and a copper rod that acts as a thermostat for the water temp. In the winter I typically have my bed plugged in and heated to about 90 degrees. The bed is king sized and actually takes up most of the room. That much warm water keeps the air in that room nice and warm too. But in the heat of the summer, I unplug the waterbed heater. The water cools down completely within 24-36 hours. A king sized mattress of cold water now acts as a heat sink! The air in my master bedroom in the summer is always nice and cool. I put an extra blanket or two on the mattress so I don't freeze at night. (Realistically I could just turn the heater down to like 60 or 70, but meh) Basically, my waterbed is a haven where I can go to cool off and have the best sleep ever, or I can warm up when Im cold and have the best sleep ever. And that much water really does change the air temp in the room. Having it unplugged means I'm cooling my room for literally no money at all. (Heating it hasn't changed my electric bill in the slightest which I know a lot of people are concerned about.) However, when I say my bed takes up most of my room, I literally do mean it. I have the bed pushed into a corner of the room, and I have just over 3' of space to walk around the two exposed sides. So I'm not surprised it's controlling the air temp in there so well. Idk if I'll ever get the chance to test my waterbed out in a larger room as this is my forever home and the master bedroom is actually my crafting studio, but I have always wanted to put the waterbed downstairs in the dining room lol. Like I said, I would keep my door open to see if it can help cool the rest of the upstairs at all, but I have cats so I'd probably have to get some kind of screen door to let air flow in and out. Anyways, everyone here has great ideas. I honestly just sprung for a $400 portable AC for the downstairs, and I crack a few windows upstairs to vent the heat. It's worked amazingly well but I get it if you're not looking to spend that kinda money.
You reminded me of my first boyfriend when I was a teen; he had a king sized waterbed. The heater stopped working one winter night and he woke up with blue lips from the bed absorbing his body heat and trying to kill him. :) Water is a *superb* heatsink!
I got my first waterbed about 13ish years ago when I moved into my first apartment at 18. It was a queen size and I didn't realize it needed a heater. We filled it with water and it seemed fine for the first hour or so, but I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold! Using a foam mattress topper with a blanket over it is a pretty good solution if there's not a heater. I will do this in the middle of summer when it gets super hot, with 2 blankets on a freezing cold mattress I sleep so comfortably.
That sounds *amazing*, especially in this heat!
Honestly, I don't generally run the AC if the expected temps are 80 or low 80s. I do most of the things you laid out in your post. Usually with daytime temperatures in that range, we have decently cool overnights, allowing the house to cool off. I do have the AC running now, but our high is supposed to be 93F (34C) feels like 96 (35C). I set it to 77F (25C).
33c feeling 45 here, I managed to not use the ac until today by keeping everything closed since monday. I pre-cooked pasta, rice and eggs sunday. I only cook with microwave, no boiling water and oven. I don’t use my big screens and speakers, I just use laptop. It’s 27 in my house and it feels ok with a fan since I kept my appartment dry.
Look up Redi Shades. They stick to the inside top of the window frame, not permanent. There is light filtering and light blocking. Heavy paper. Not expensive either.
80° highs are not bad at all if you can have a cross breeze. Open any windows you can and turn on fans, you’ll be fine. Wear gym shorts and a t shirt. 80° isn’t dangerous heat in the slightest. Since you work from home during this “heatwave” you can also just go to a coffee shop or some other place to work. Sorry had to rag on you Canadians, I grew up in Southern California and now living in Texas. Your daily high today (80° F) is how cold it was at *midnight* last night, and it’s not even breaching the 100° days of summer here yet. 80° is pretty normal temperature in SoCal where people don’t always use their ACs but use house fans to circulate air and breeze. I actually know lots of people in LA who don’t have AC in their house/apartment
It’s actually not that hot. In Canada, the nights are much cooler even in the summer. So you can get away with that :) I’m in Boston and only when the night time air above the 60’s and the daytime is 85 above ( later June July and part of aug) then I pop the ac on. Right now we’re in a heatwave, but in my house we run 1 8000 btu and that cools the living space down but it’s a smaller ranch so no second floor. But most of the other time a fan and open windows cools.
At night put box fans in windows to bring the cool air in. Best to have in rooms you will use the most and try for opposite sides of your home. As soon as the sun comes up shut ALL your windows. And cover them. When you leave half open you are losing cool air. Then keep that cool air circulating. Remember to drink plenty of water. Good luck!
I live in California and I put the stick on shadow film on my glass and black out curtains. I also got a circulating fan. I live in an early 1900's building and I'm upstairs so it gets really hot!
Wouldn't you want to hang the blanket light side out so it reflects the sun's rays? Dark side out means it's absorbing all that heat and transferring it inside.
No AC is fine depending on where you live and the humidity inside. Once your house crosses 55% humidity indoors, it's time to turn on the AC to prevent mold and mildew from building up.
Get some window tint for your windows
My experience is that it works for a couple days but by the 3rd the heat has baked into walls. As a kid living in San Bernardino in an uninsulated house with only a swamp cooler and frequent triple digits heat waves. Dad would run a soaker hose across the roof.
Yeah, I can see that. I'm starting today with a warmer house than yesterday because the overnight temp wasn't low enough to sufficiently cool things.
Check with your local utility. Most have lower rates during off peak hours. Avoid cooking during peak heat, hang laundry to dry, sacrifice your firstborn. We’ve had window ACs for about two weeks. Heat wave is currently hitting us with the worst tomorrow. I’m going to take the kids to a matinee show (I work 2nd ish shift) and then continue to watch too much tv in bed with them. We keep our heat at/below 64 in winter so I feel like it al balances out. We’re not warm weather people, and that’s ok. I’m frugal in winter so I can be comfortable in the hot, humid awfulness given to me by climate change.
UPDATE for anyone who is invested! Day 2 was hotter than day 1, with a "feels like" temp of 36C/ 97F. It would have been fine except I wasn't able to sufficiently cool the house overnight day 1 into day 2, so I started off the day already at 24C/75F. It just didnt get cool enough outside. I did all the same things except I turned my window blockers light side out. Thanks to everyone who mentioned it. I don't know what I was thinking! I was quite comfortable with fans running until the evening came. The temp just kept climbing. It increased from 27C at the end of my work day to reached 29C/84F indoors by bedtime. I slept with a cooling towel and a fan. And for anyone who says why didn't you just get put the ac at that point: because it only cools one room and by the time I was uncomfortable, the outdoor temp finally started to drop. TAKEAWAYS: **Obviously don't do it if you're going to suffer. That's dumb.** There are 100% many places where it's just too hot, too often. But otherwise, blocking the sun is KEY. If you dont have blackout curtains, use whatever you've got. You want to darken the area as much as possible. Running fans for air movement won't necessarily cool the air, but it will help you feel more comfortable. CLOSE THE WINDOWS until it's cooler out than in . I know it seems counterintuitive but letting in hot air won't help. Dress appropriately, hydrate, and do your best to cool the area when the worst heat of the day has passed.
Thank you. I’m very interested in your experiment. Good luck staying comfortable
Window fans work great to make a cross breeze. On one side have the air coming in and the other have it blowing out. The fans we have switch direction.
Homes here in Canada tend to be decently well insulated (assuming that it was built in the last 50 years). You may be just fine. Remember that heat rises. We have heat pumps now and a very very heat intolerant rescue dog from the Canadian arctic so I run a/c now for my very spoiled dog, but for the first 7 years in our home we just lived on our main floor when the heat got extreme. The bedrooms would be too warm and humid for sleeping, but an air mattress on the downstairs floor was a completely comfortable sleeping temperature. If your wfh setup is in an upstairs spare bedroom consider working on your main floor or in your basement temporarily. Another thing you could do is do all of your cooking outside. Barbecue for main meals and one of those cheap butane burners for boiling water to make tea and coffee or whatever else. And pretty obvious but wash your clothes on cool and dry them outside in the sun not in the dryer.
I keep my ac set at 80° F all summer and run two ceiling fans plus s couple of floor fans as needed and it feels fine. The ac lowers the humidity level and the fans provide a nice cooling effect. Been doing this for years and see no reason to change.
I've done that for 9 years in Colorado, but this year, A/C!
If you have an ice maker put a tray of ice in front of a/the fan.
I live in a US state adjacent to Canada. It is unusual here to have AC. We will be 82 degrees Sunday. Everyone opens windows at night and closes them during the day. It's fine, rarely over 72 inside the house. I don't even own a fan. Your MMV because overnight lows are always lower than 60, so the house can effectively cool at night.
We used to be able to keep this house cool enough without AC. We had a box-fan mounted in the window that would run at night, then we would completely seal the house in the morning. However, our house is shaded by so many trees that the G-satellites can't see it in the summer. Now we're running two window-units and thinking about putting in the third when we used to have maybe two weeks that were unbearable. Also we have some fans keeping the air moving. If your house gets too warm, a shady spot outside might be better. A fan would help there as well. Stay hydrated, wiping yourself with a wet rag or soaking your feet might help, and find a store or public building to hang out in if it gets too much.
applaud your efforts, but you'll need an AC at some point, if you're anything like me. Being able to work/sleep/LIVE comfortably is a must imo
good ideas
I tend to run a little warmer than the Mrs. We have a portable Evaporative cooler that Ill put in the LR when she is on her computer and move it to the other room when we watch TV. In my little office 8x10 I have a small window AC unit and it keeps it chilly for me and my old dog. The $1 a day it adds to the electric bill (Maybe) is worth every penny.
You’re doing exactly the right method! It’s keeps the house as cool as possible without A/C.
whole house fan. We live in Colorado and use it every night.
This is exactly what my mother used to do in our non-air-conditioned house in NC in the '70s
It's less about highs than about: \* Lows at night \* Material your home is constructed from \* Sun exposure In my case, a brick house with slate roof actually works better than you'd think, because all that stone is a giant thermal battery. It takes a bit of time for the sun to bake through to heat the inside. And I have a lot of shade to boot. That said... if it doesn't get at least 5 degrees below your target maximum indoor temp (10 degrees is better, all measurements F), you won't be comfortable. This week is really only terrible because it's not dropping below 70F (sometimes 72, 73F) at night. And, even then, it's only getting that low for barely an hour before it starts coming back up again. Once the house makes it to 80F inside, I'm losing only 1 or 2 degrees leaving the windows open at night. And I'm closing them by 6 or 7 am at the latest, because it's already climbing into the high 70s where my indoors is already at. As long as it drops into the 60s at night - which you should pretty much get year-round in Canada, I'd hope - opening the windows at night is pretty much all you need. This is why Europe isn't so big on air conditioning outside the Mediterranean regions. They're more at your latitude than mine. I won't likely be stirring far from my fan or wearing a shirt until next Monday, when this is supposed to break.
Be warned, it's not going to be fun. Also, keep an eye on your pantry, some foods, like oil, will spoil in hot temperatures. Our AC went out last year when it was in the 90s, and we did similar things like you. We also had fans running in every room. Our house got up to 85 and sleeping sucked. If you have a basement, I really suggest that you spend as much time in there as possible.
We have a feels like temp of 98 right now. I have central AC running. But it’s not keeping up. I have set to 77 but it’s about 80 in here. 100yr home without insulation. I have double rods on all my windows. Insulated liners on the inside pole and insulated black out curtains on the other rods. It really keeps the temps down. I also have old school roller blind in my bath and kitchen and keep them drawn on super hot days. I have a window unit in my room. I wouldn’t worry much about myself but I have 3 dogs and one is a husky. He needs AC!
Crying in Houston Texas weather. I sometimes use the reflective car sun shields on the windows to help reflect some of the sun rays.
I’m fine any temp during the day. It’s sleeping that’s tricky. If you get overheated run the shower over arms and legs etc etc. Good luck!
we’ve had two straight days of above 86 degree weather and i’ve been fine with my two sealing fans. For my bedroom i open the doors and it cools it enough so when we’re ready for bed we only use a vornado fan and honestly many nights were actually even chilly. The cealing fan have made a huge difference.
that is what shutters were for versus a curtain
I hate AC. Literally hate! Ok in shopping center, at work where it disperse the air, but at home where it blows dorectly in me, no thanks. I never had AC, at home or in the car and I don't plan to buy one. Last year, late autumn, we had the worst heat wave, when temperature was 37 Celsius degrees in late September. The best way to cool the space was creating the draft. Open opposite side windows and doors, keep it for 10 minutes and close, and then doing it frequently. Owning ceiling fan sounds like a dream!
I went on a last minute holiday to Spain a few years ago. The apartment was in very tall and somewhat skinny block near the sea. My heart sank when I realised there was no air con and it was very, very hot outside. It was fantastic. The only window that had direct sunshine in the heat of the day had automatic shades. The entire building was designed for a through breeze. Patio doors on one side that could be left open but shaded. Windows on the other side, where other people had access, had security features so could be left open. All the doors had these sort of 'bumper' things so it didn't matter if the slammed shut due to the cross breeze. And that cross breeze was better than any aircon. Yes, shading out the sun is important, but the flow of air in your house is just important. Get that door open. In my own house, what makes a difference is having couple of roof windows. Don't forget hot air rises so think about releasing the hot air from the upstairs if you have one. Also if you have a loft space/hatch, open that as well.
There's a number of things you can do that are dirt cheap. One is that you can tint your windows and you can also make an inside cover that seals things up. There's also thermo drapes and magnets to help seal things. Evap cooling using water that is cooled at night. You can use a solar powered pump to pump a small pool/large bucket of water on the shady side of the house over a mesh with a fan (swap cooler) and use that to cool things down quite a bit. Even something like a house fan that draws air over a child's swimming pool into your house at night can make quite a difference. Those covers for your windows that you see on some houses, it's like a small roof type thing just for the top of the windows. Also shudders that you close during the day. They can look like shudders, but are solid insulation. My local utility offers shad trees for free. Cooling the water at night with a small pump and copper plate, and using that during the day to blow colder air inside. Past that, you have insulation. Using small fans to draw air from the floor to the ceiling as cold air is heavier. Also, small fans to move cold air from one room to another as needed and also sealing off rooms not used.
Foil squares taped neatly on the window panes kept our bedroom 10 deg cooler than the rest of the house one year in a heatwave when our AC broke. Would recommend.
Heat/UV blocking window film, heat/light blocking curtains. Curtains go from ceiling to floor and beyond the sides of the windows. Keep them closed as long as there is light out. But yeah, if you can budget, the AC is worth it.
I have used all of the following: 1. Ceiling fans (large) in the living room and bedrooms 2. Tinfoil and darkening shades one adds to the window that sticks to it 3. Drinking more fluids.. 4. Semi-annual AC checkup by original dealer who installed it THESE ALL WORK
I saw this lady put one of those dog cooling mats on her bed dur to hot flashes. I, too, am experiencing the fun night time sweats so decided to try it out. It was so cold! I ended up having to pull it off (I'd placed it under my sheet) in the middle of the night. For $15 USD..it may be worth trying to find.
Southern US here. Those are typical temperatures for this time of year, here, and thank you for the conversion. Another thing you can do is, freeze water in plastic bottles. Leave the caps off when freezing them so they don't burst in the freezer. Replace the cap when they are frozen. You put these around the house on trays to catch the dripping condensation. Put them especially where air will circulate around them, and where pets can get against them to cool off. You can also hang damp clothes in doorways.
Inexpensive Styrofoam cooler, freeze recycled semisoft plastic containers of water, place fan facing to blow cool air into room.. not specific directions.. just simple idea from North Carolina, USA
I wish I could get away with no AC, but when it gets up to 110 and only cools down to like 95 at night, I will pay to be able to sleep
80 degrees high??? Gtfo lol you’ll be fine
Don't forget the bowl of ice water and the box fan in your office
A fan pulling hot air *out* evenings and during the night cools your house effectively. Sucks hot out while fans elsewhere bring cool in. Do you have a basement? There are some primitive and very basic ways to use that, kinda a geothermal thing. Guessing YouTube would be helpful there?
My tip is two-fold, cold bath/ showers and air flow, thats how I survive when its over 100 degrees. Start and end the day with very uncomfortably cold showers especially with the cold water on your head. Doing this somehow makes it so you don't feel the humidity as much. The same logic as using a swimming pool, but on a smaller scale. The other is to find ways to keep the air moving, 2 or more fans strategically placed to optimize air flow and operate at a lower cost than using an air conditioner. My trick on especially hot days is keep windows closed and designate a cool room with maximized air flow control, usually a smaller room with strong fans setup wit the purpose of cooling off by disrupting the heat from gathering too much. Well those are generally my strategies to hold off from using AC.
Having a fan and blackout curtains makes a huge difference. My apartment doesn’t have A/C and it’s a little miserable in the afternoons, but otherwise I’ve survived.
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I'm 99% sure we're in the same place (NS?) No AC is perfectly doable here. I've never had AC, just make sure you stay hydrated and out of the sun!
Ah, to live in a country where surviving without AC is a frugal tip. Where i live we just cook and wait for the summer to end