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How to stay cool without AC
Summer heat is upon us and it’s important to stay cool. With heat waves rolling across the United States, it’s essential to not get overheated and dehydrated. Many deaths have even been connected to power outages during the heat wave.
These tips will help you and your family stay safe in a power outage situation but might also help you save some money during the summer months.
Close Your Windows. Your first instinct might be to open your windows but often this will make your home hotter instead of cooler. Close your windows, blinds and shades during the day to keep the sun and heat out and trapping the cool in. Open your windows at night if it gets cooler outside.
Eat Cold Foods. Keep your body temperature down by consuming colder foods that will lower the temperature inside of you. This will also prevent you from using stoves and ovens that will raise the temperature in your house.
Install Attic Insulation. This is a great way to keep that cool air in your home and not escaping through the ceiling. This will allow you to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Plant Trees Strategically. Everyone loves sitting in the cool shade on a nice hot day. Where you plant your trees can have a large effect on where that shade is. Be sure to plant deciduous trees on the east and west sides of your home. During the winter, the sun won’t be blocked from getting to your home. You can also plant trees near sides of your house that have a lot of windows.
- Stay prepared with enough emergency water for your family -
Install Awnings. Just like a tree works to block the sun’s rays and provide you with shade, an awning can do the same thing.
Wear Light-Colored, Loose-Fitting Clothing. This will keep your body cool and breezy. Wearing dark or black clothing will absorb the sun and make you hotter. Wear light colors like white and tan.
Food and Refrigeration. If the power goes out for an extended amount of time, the food in your fridge might begin to go bad. You can use a cooler with ice to keep perishable foods good. You should also begin to eat the foods that won’t keep. If you have freeze-dried foods, you don’t need to worry, they won’t spoil!
Avoid Alcohol. To prevent dehydration, avoid drinking alcoholic drinks. Instead, stick to the water bottles and juices.
Drink Water. To avoid dehydration, continue to drink water. It’s recommended that you have about eight glasses of water per day.
Stay Out Of The Sun. This seems pretty intuitive but, to avoid the heat stay out of the sun!
What Ideas Do You Have? What methods have you used to stay cool during this heat wave?
I don’t turn the AC on till about 2 pm. to save on electricity, no matter how hot it gets, I am extremely hot natured and have hot flashes so its miserable sometimes. I wet a bandana with cold water and wear it around my neck and head (my head is hottest) but this helps. Also I will take a quick cool shower. Like the article said I drink lots of cold water and wipe my face and arms reg with cold cloth, stay out of sun when I can. If I have electricity I position fans to form a draft we have ceiling fans in every room and floor fans. lol
July 20th, 2012 at 10:53 amI sit in front of computer, TV, or read a book with my feet in a tub of room temp water – it is amazing how cool you feel with wet feet. I also use a wet cloth around my neck and wear as few clothes as possible. I keep a couple cans of pork and beans and veggie soup in fridge and pretend I’m camping and eat them right out of the can. Cold food keeps my internal temp cool and then I try to see humor in it all so I don’t get upset and stressed and heat up gain – lol.
July 21st, 2012 at 3:29 amAfter a few a few hurricanes, a fertile imagenation has proved fruitful. Durring our 100° days and 80,90° nights we found thay putting our 10″ portable battery operated fans do great when sat between or infront of ice coolers. Making for a great ice box effect. For those that experience respitory issues this has proved to be a life saver. One one set of batteries yoi can easily get 12- 18hrs of breeze depending in fan setting. For extended seasons like the months after hurricane rita, a small solar charger is a must. Using coat hangers you can also hang the small hand held dollar store fans in the window you sleep near and get a breezy nights sleep. Which was a great help to my mother whos health was very fragile durring those days. We madw it almist 3 months
July 23rd, 2012 at 4:12 pmAfter a few a few hurricanes, a fertile imagenation has proved fruitful. Durring our 100° days and 80,90° nights we found thay putting our 10″ portable battery operated fans do great when sat between or infront of ice coolers. Making for a great ice box effect. For those that experience respitory issues this has proved to be a life saver. One one set of batteries yoi can easily get 12- 18hrs of breeze depending in fan setting. For extended seasons like the months after hurricane rita, a small solar charger is a must. Using coat hangers you can also hang the small hand held dollar store fans in the window you sleep near and get a breezy nights sleep.
July 23rd, 2012 at 4:19 pmWhich was a great help to my mother
whos health was very fragile durring those days. We made it almost 3 months with out power and this really made thing a bit more tolerable.
They sell a yellow towel on “as seen on tv” that cools
July 24th, 2012 at 5:15 pmyou down just by adding tap water (but it’s way
Better with cold water).wrap it around your neck.
c
I worked in the desert for years and now live in the semi tropical heat and humidity of southwest Florida, While out in the desert 100+ degree sun we wet our shirt and hat or bandana. At night I would run cool clean water on a top sheet and wring it out as not to soak the bedding. Lay this over you and if possible add a fan to get the air moving around you to carry away your body heat. This works great with those accidental sunburns also combined with the cooling relief of aloe.
July 26th, 2012 at 1:11 pmWe keep our claw-foot tub filled with cold water, like a mini-pool. Everyone has access to it. No washing, just cooling. Then when you wake up in the middle of the night baking hot, unable to sleep, you take a quick, cool dip.
July 30th, 2012 at 11:15 amWhen I am feeling hot and miserable I cool down by thinking about our young men and women fighting a war, carrying 60-80 pound packs, in 110+ temperatures or remembering our Vietnam vets that “hiked” though the wet, steamy jungle. Imagine that, I feel cooler already. God Bless the USA.
July 30th, 2012 at 11:59 amkeep half gallon cartons of water in the freezer. when it gets too hot place the frozen carton into a tray of water (cooking pan or aluminum ) that is at least 2 inches deep. Thats it ,and it will lower the temp. in your room at least 10 degrees…. really works.
July 30th, 2012 at 12:31 pmive kept cool by your methods and put my ways on facebook
our 40degrees is lower with a breeze today in middlesex
July 30th, 2012 at 12:38 pmwith some cloudcover and expected some rain by this evening
A spray bottle (for water only) is good for misting down exposed skin; you lose heat through the evaporation.
July 30th, 2012 at 1:33 pmI installed a “Whole House” Fan years ago. In the summer when the days are 100+, I get up at 4:30am. I open all the windows and run the fan until 7 am. This pulls all the cool outside air into the house and pushes it through the attic. From 7am on, the house is closed up tight. Stays nice and cool. I also cook outside using a Coleman stove and a crock pot. Keeps all that heat where it should be … Outside!
July 30th, 2012 at 2:33 pmHaving fans on will circulate the air so it doesn’t get “stuffy”, thus making it seem cooler even without AC.
One of the biggest helps, though was getting a tile roof installed. Part of the process was first installing two layers of plywood… then roofing paper, and when the tile itself was installed, we had vents and some special “risers” put in so that air circulates under the tile (this is cement tile– much lighter weight than clay tiles).
Double paned windows installed in the west-facing living room, and a new, solid patio roof (with skylights) to replace clear corrugated panels also helped a lot.
July 30th, 2012 at 3:29 pmI went to Texas in August a few years ago and knew I would be miserable because of how hot it gets there. So I did a search on the internet for personal cooling systems and found something called Black Ice. With Black Ice I could get into my hot rental car in the Texas heat and be comfortable until the Air Conditioning kicked in. I also bought the soft ice bag cooler and kept it in the trunk so that I could always have a Black ice charging which takes about 20 minutes in ice water. Plus the hotel had an endless supply of Ice for me to keep my Black Ice charged. I understand it works great for hot flashes too!
July 30th, 2012 at 4:22 pmHere is their website: http://blackicecooling.com/index.html
Here’s what we did, when we lost power after a hurricane in Biloxi, Ms in 1985. Prior to the hurricane I had frozen a bunch of the rectangular milk and ice cream buckets I had saved. 1 gallon icream buckets are great; because they will stay frozen a lot longer. Anyway, we put that ice in the fridge and it kept pretty well for a couple of days. But, we also had blocks stored in our upright freezer to help keep that stuff frozen for as long as possible. It was miserable without cool air. but I had filled our bathtub and our washing machine with water, prior to the hurricane, for washing, bathing, and flushing, (and also some other large containers.) It was great to be able to take some of the wash water and put it in a bowl of ice and wash with wash cloths. It helped to keep us cool. There are lots of things you can do to prepare and have a few things to make life a little easier after a power outage,and these are just some. Get creative about how you can help alleviate the discomfort of a situation like this, you will be surprised at the things you might innovate. And don’t forget to store drinking water.
July 30th, 2012 at 9:28 pmBattery powered fans really help.
July 30th, 2012 at 9:36 pmKeep blinds on the windows closed.
We had an attic fan installed and it really helps on a daily basis, but if we don’t have electricity I plan to open the door to the attic and hope the heat will rise into the attic and out the fan, even if it isn’t running.
You might also look at solar attic fans.
I’ve also read that you should open the windows at the top so the hot air flows out.
If I had three votes I would give them all to the WET TOWELL: Folded, wrap it around the back of the neck to the chest and tuck the ends under the arm pit to each side. Use the ends to wash your face and forehead. Place the middle part of the unfolded wet towell over the top of the head and use a head band or ear warmer band to hold it in place. Then pour a cup of cold faucet water on the top of the head. Warning: If you are wearning the wet towell and band on top of your head do not go to airport while wearing the wet towell in this manner.
August 1st, 2012 at 7:47 pmWe survived 5 days of no power in the recent outage with a generator to run the AC. Until then the basement was the only cool place in the 100* temps. It was 105* the day the storm hit.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:38 pmAll of the above comments are terrific and will be used in my arsenal for heat survival! We drink iced water all day long and rest more than do chores if the heat is extreme. Even with an air conditioner running we put fans in front of the registers so we can keep the conditioning at higher temps. We cover all our windows, shut the doors, keep off the lights, and eat lightly. I sometimes think it is harder to manage in high temps than it is if we had no power in the winter.
August 3rd, 2012 at 12:53 pmI’m quite surprised that I’ve not seen tin-foil mentioned! Taping tin-foil, shiny side out, to your windows will reflect a LOT of the heat back out and away! I live in NW Missouri and use this method every summer.
August 24th, 2012 at 10:07 pmJeannie C. Good idea! Thanks for the idea!
August 28th, 2012 at 9:41 am