Living without Air Conditioning

[Jenlaana]

Are there any tricks to making it seem cooler? Other than running around mostly naked during the day I'm out of ideas. We do have a small window unit in our living room (but its huge and rated for one of those huge units), and we keep the windows all covered as much as possible.

We purchased a 40 yr old home in SC with a fairly new heat/ac unit, and of all the things we thought would break, this was the last one I would have imagined. Its in the 80's and not even the hottest part of the year yet. (i'm also 5 mos pg which is not helping) We only have 1 car and my DH takes it to work with him so I cant really get in the car and go someplace cooler either or we'd go walk around the mall or something.

We're trying to live as simply and energy efficiently as possible, but I'm at my wits end with this one. I miss the winter (we have no heat either, but atleast I was not sweating and had warm clothes to wear)

[J-Max]

I hear ya

We live in an old house (1902) with no air conditioning, it gets very hot here in the summer (90-100+) most of the summer. What we do is open all the doors and windows at night, and close them early in the morning (we live in the middle of nowhere, so we can do this). If dh is here, he will close all the curtains, which keeps it much cooler, but I need the sunlight. We do most of our playing, cooking, ect earlier in the morning or in the evening and lay low and play board/card games or watch a movie durring the hottest part of the day. We also have a couple of big box fans that we use when we don't ahve kids that can stick their fingers in it (haven't used it the last 2 summers, but maybe this year!)

When all else fails, we go to grandmas for the day - she lives an hour away and has a/c

[Naturalyst]

I don't tolerate heat well - as a kid, I used to ask my parents if we could move to Alaska and collected travel brochures for expeditions to the Arctic! But, DH installed ceiling fans and, now, it is a rare event when I feel the need to turn on the AC.

Also, I do my best to keep the heat output in our home to a minimum. In addition to shutting off lights and unplugging things that draw power even when they are "off" (TV, computer, DVD player, etc), I use hot water in the morning to get the wash done and bathing and, then, shut-off the water heater for the rest of the day. Cooking gets done early in the morning. Naked or gauzy gowns and cool showers with Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap (which makes my skin feel cool) make a difference on those 100+ days.

[Kerlowyn]

DH is going to install one of these soon:

http://www.wholehousefan.com/

BIL has one in his home. He turns it on, and the temp in his house drops 10 degrees in 15 minutes, and stays like that most of the day!

[Jenlaana]

I wish my mom was closer so we could go there. I would definitely be there already. I hate not being close enough to my mom

We do have a pool (one of those $400 deals from Target) but it needs to be emptied and cleaned and refilled. Think I'll have DH do that tonight. I just stapled old sheets over the windows behind the curtains in the 1 room w/ a/c and I'm going to put a curtain up in the doorway between the living room and the rest of the house. Maybe we'll get lucky and keep enough a/c in to keep it under 85. I'm fine without sunshine if that helps. I'd live in a pitch black box if it would make me stop sweating. The kids don't seem to mind it though. They're sweaty, but still running around crazy. Guess even heat cant slow them down, lol.

[pixiewytch]

This is a great thread. I know the OP posted it out of necessity but I've been contemplating ways we can wean ourselves off of AC. We live in Fl so it really does seem almost impossible to do this. I already keep the thermostat at 80 but I would like to do more after hearing that AC is one of the biggest energy users.

I would like to get more fans but I'm confused about which to buy with less or no AC. The energy efficient fans like those tower fans don't seem to put out much more than a breeze and yet I would imagine that the heavy duty box fans from back in the day probably use more energy. I am wondering if turning up the AC and using more fans would save energy or would using the fans simply use as much energy as the AC.

[avendesora]

We've been able to do pretty well so far this year by simply opening the windows at night and closing them during the day. When it gets warm inside during the late afternoons, I mist the kids with a spray bottle of water. The evaporation of the water cools them down pretty well!

I have heard good things about whole house fans as well. But they can only cool your house down to the outside temperature, and if you have kids with pollen allergies pulling in cool outside air can be more trouble than its worth.

Fans and more fans.

Good luck,
Aven

[Neth Naneth]

If you have a fan that you can set on a table, place a bowl of ice infront of it. Also when you take a shower right before you get out, turn the water from warm to luke warm (cold if you like, that is what I did) and your body pores will close up, keeping you cooler. Open you windows at night once it cools off, that is if you live in a place that does cool off, and close them in the morning before it heats up again. That way you will be getting fresh air in your house and it will be cool fresh air. I don't use an AC either and am on the second floor of an apartment complex that is about 40 years old, so I am pulling out everything I learned while living without AC in TX. Oh and stay hydrated with plenty of ice water or iced tea.

Happy staying cool you all.

[moearthmommy]

We would always put our pillows in the freezer in the morning and pull them out just before bed on those super hot days, it was a treat as a kid to have a frozen pillow! Also, we "pretended" to have a pool and put our bathing suits on and got into a cold bath.

[Alkenny]

In our mobile home (oven!) last year, I bought some inexpensive DARK sheets and hung them over the curtain rods in the day to keep the sunlight out.

You can run a window unit if you must, just keep it in a small room and keep it blocked off from the rest of the house (hang a blanket up in the doorway if you must).

Take cool showers

Eat and play with ice cubes.

Keep hydrated for that matter! Lots and lots of water on the inside of you will keep you as cool as water on the outside!

Put a fan in the window at night to draw cooler air in.

When I was pregnant 12 years ago in 106 degree heat of summer, we would keep damp towels in the freezer, then take them out and lay them on my back. When they thawed, we'd repeat with another.

Do you have a basement that you can hang out in? Our new house here, we have a finished basement and it's about 65 degrees year round...ahhhh!

[Jenlaana]

No basement here. Because of our proximity to the coast we're too prone to floods to have one unfortunately. We do have a window unit, and the room is way too large, but its a room we do about 99% of our living in. We have a fairly large old house (about 2200 sf) and we found it easier to just move our bed into this room along w/ a couch/tv/pc's and keep this room warm last winter than trying to heat the whole house, so we save a lot of energy that way. My son has his own bedroom elsewhere, and has a fan which seems to be sufficient so far (he's 12). If it were too hot at night we would let him stay back here w/ us like we did last winter when it was too cold.

We used to have a bunch of black sheets but I used them all for my last homebirth so i've just been trying to grab whatever we have available. I was a crazy woman with a staple gun earlier today. (hoping my DH doesnt have a heart attack that I put staples in the wood around all the windows in here)

[eden/averymum]

we don't have A/C, never have.

it's ok most of the summer but it can get to be 110+ degrees inside.

we have fans in each bedrrom blowing at night. open windows at night. close curtains in the day. don't use the oven unless REALLY need to. don't use the dryer. go to the park and lounge in the shade while the kids play in the splash pool. lots of cool drinks.

[pixiewytch]

Are any of you concerned about safety issues with your windows open all night? I know I would love to do that here but the idea of leaving my kids' bedroom windows open at night gives me the heebie jeebies.

[momto l&a]

We have a dog so open windows doesnt bother us. She hears more than we ever do, and we can tell from her bark if it something so be concerned about.

If I recall correctly whole house fans are good for temps up to 90F. They need to be installed in one end of the house and one window/door opened on the other end of the house.

Attic fans can also be helpful. In our old house the first summer we didnt have one and the next summer I installed one. It reduced the house temps by 7+/- degrees. that doesn't seem like much but the house sure felt cooler for it.

[mightymoo]

We have a whole house fan. It's very nice for the edge months - June and September - when the outside temperature still gets down to a comfortable temperature at night. We turn on the fan, leave our window open and some windows downstairs (I don't leave the ones at ground level) and the house cools right down at night, then in the morning I shut the windows and the house stays pretty cool during the day. This only really works though when the outside temperature is low enough to cool the house off at night low enough to last through the day. Once we hit July and August, the house fan doesn't really cut it anymore.

It also only really brings a nice breeze through the window if you have only one or two windows open, if you open all the windows, it has so much airflow you can barely feel it coming in. Also, since our house is very blocky some windows 'trump' others - if I open our living room windows, which are are the bottom of the stairs, it won't pull any air from the rest of the downstairs (which is all past the living room).

However, its definitely worthwhile! I'm going to see how long I can manage before putting the a/c in. I figure if its not installed, its not a temptation, I'll wait until I hit a breaking point before having DH put it in.

[A&A]

We have a solar-powered attic fan, which sends hot air out of the attic, and it really makes a difference!

[Sharlla]

Me live in south Missouri and don't use AC. I just put box fans in the windows and have the ceiling fan on. At night I have a fan blowing on us.

[Jennisee]

I'm usually The Queen of Air Conditioning, but we're going to try to use it as little as possible this summer. Some things we've been doing:

• Open a lot of windows at night to let in cold air.
• After a lot of experimenting, we finally figured out which windows to open during the day for a breeze and which windows to close to keep the hot air out. We used to open our front door because it let in a strong breeze, but we realized that it was sucking in hot air from our south-facing porch.
• Southern and western windows are heavily curtained, but we open the curtains on northern windows for sunlight.
• Run ceiling fans on summer setting.
• We can't take credit for this one, but we have a lot of trees on the south side of our house. Now, we just need more on the west side.
• Aim an oscillating fan directly at us, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.
• Use the microwave, crock pot, and grill instead of the range.
• Eat and drink cold food--ice water, sandwiches, salads, ice cream, chilled produce.
• Make sure to stay hydrated.
• Hang laundry on the clothesline. Dryers put out a lot of heat.
• Wear a lightweight, gauzy nightgown during the day. I keep a set of clothes hanging on the back of the bathroom door if I need to run outside quickly. I also keep a robe there in case someone knocks on the door.
• Take a 60-second cool shower.
• Plan errands during the hottest part of the day because stores are air conditioned. (I park in the shade when I can, use a sun visor to keep the sun out, and put ice packs in DD's car seat before we go into the store to keep it from getting too hot.)
• Go to the pool or beach.

[Alkenny]

To answer about the fear of leaving windows open...I guess it just depends on where you live, but I live in an area that I leave my door unlocked alot too, so...just depends. No fears here.

[earthmama369]

We use box fans that dh sets up in a series of intricately designed patterns throughout the house. Only he knows the secret to keeping things cool.

OK, so that's his little hobby and I let him have it.

-I keep the curtains drawn during the day and then open the windows at night as soon as the temp outside drops below the temp in the house.

-I keep a spritzer bottle of cucumber water in the fridge and we mist ourselves when it's just too miserably sticky and humid to stand it.

-Hot air rises, so we spend a lot of time sitting on the floor playing games.

_We consume a LOT of popsicles during the summer. IKEA recently had popsicle molds on sale for under $1 so we make our own "healthy" pops and keep a constant supply on hand.

-Kiddie pools rock.

-So do libraries, museums, malls, grocery stores, and anywhere else that has free air conditioning. We get VERY social during the summer.

I love the idea of putting pillows in the freezer! Must try that sometime!!