Tricks for beating the Summer heat?

[R. M. Perkins]

I'm wondering if anybody has any cool tricks for beating the Summer heat.

We have our air conditioner set at 82F (28C), and we are surviving by wearing minimal clothing, going barefooted, and keeping the air moving with a fan.

Years ago -- when I was a bachelor -- I managed to survive quite a few Summers without any AC by taking the sheets off my bed every night, soaking them in water, wringing them out, putting them back on the bed, and sliding in between the wet sheets.

I know it sounds crazy, but it's amazingly refreshing once you get used to it. All I can say is that you'll try just about anything after your second or third night without sleep.

Unfortunately my wife -- who supports me in nearly every other thing in life -- has nixed that idea. She's concerned about getting the mattress moldy, and that's definitely a possibility if the sheets don't completely dry before the next morning.

So anywho, does anybody else have any good tricks for beating the heat?

 

[Richard Burley]

I believe Marilyn Monroe, in The Seven Year Itch, put her panties in the freezer.

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[RDPipes]

82 degrees?! Judas Priest, why even bother?
I'm one poor SOB but, the A/C is on 73 degrees in the house and shop but, I still haven't A/C in the truck.
As far as beating the heat, I stay indoors when ever I can and wait for Fall or Winter.
But, I remember years back when I didn't have A/C and at night I'd lay in a pool of sweat, get up early, take a shower and break into a sweat again and then have to go to work for 10 hours outside in the heat.
Because it was just part of life I really never gave it much thought till after we got A/C. I now wonder how I ever did it. I reckon that's what innovation and so called progress has done for us, made us a bunch of panty wastes. About 100 or so years ago no one even knew what A/C was, although the wealthy had fans, mostly water driven until electricity in the late 1800's. Before then they all just prayed for a breeze.

BTW, My daughter lives in Arizona where it's 100-120 degrees on a normal summer day and she has her's at 78 degrees and I either sweat a pool or sneak out and turn it down at night and wake to a freezing daughter (she says) chewing me out.  

 

[AJ]

We keep our thermostat set on 68 degrees year round. It stays nice a cool during the Summer. Maybe you should consider lowering  the setting on your A/C.

AJ

 

[tslots]

We only use the house AC during the day (usually only when the outside temps are in the 90s).  It normally cools down after sunset and I like the light evening breezes.   Some days however, weather conditions create a thermal inversion which blocks normal cooling from the ocean.    On those very warm and still nights, I take a cool shower before going to bed.   That and keeping the ceiling fans on at night are enough to provide a decent sleep.

 

[R. M. Perkins]

Cool clip, Richard Burley. Yeah, there'll never be another Marilyn Monroe.

82 degrees?! Judas Priest, why even bother?

I know, right? For me, the big thing is just knocking down the humidity. If I can get it to something civilized, I know I can make it.

I now wonder how I ever did it. I reckon that's what innovation and so called progress has done for us, made us a bunch of panty wastes. About 100 or so years ago no one even knew what A/C was, although the wealthy had fans, mostly water driven until electricity in the late 1800's. Before then they all just prayed for a breeze.

Yeah, I wonder how anybody ever survived before air conditioning, especially in the hotter regions.

My brother was telling me that Houston, Texas, never really caught on until air conditioning caught on. Around the start of the 20th century, there were only about 100,000 people there, and now there are about 4 million people in Houston and the surrounding suburbs.

I imagine there was a lot of that going on back then: people lived where they could and tended to avoid the really unlivable places.

I hear you, ajn27511. It's just that my wife and I went through a big move recently, and we blew through a lot of our savings, so we're on an uber-tight budget until we get back on our feet. So for the time-being, we're going easy on the AC.

And yeah, those cool showers definitely help, tslots. I almost forgot about that, but yeah, I've been taking a cool shower every night, and they go a long way toward cooling me down at the end of the day.

 

[Brewdude]

Not really a trick, but I do have an oscillating fan in the living room. I also keep the drapes closed on very hot days so the radiant heat doesn't warm up the downstairs too much. And I keep the windows closed.

Upstairs in the bedroom I use a box fan between bedrooms with the windows open at night. It may be a bit uncomfortable at first, but it normally cools down at some point so as to make sleeping relatively comfortable.

There again, we don't suffer much from high humidity in the PaC NW. Not anything like when I was a Cheesehead and often had 90+ temps with 90+ R/H. That was pretty brutal, including and especially if one didn't have AC. Which I did not back then.

Fortunately I don't suffer much from high temps these days, as long as they're not accompanied by high R/H.



Cheers,

RR

 

[Brewdude]

Forgot to add that we're experiencing a record hot and dry period right now in the Pac NW. Drought conditions, wildfires, and all the rest.

Actually this past few days have seen a return to moderate temps, and we got rain today! First in a few months. Very welcome. 

Normally we don't get our summer until the 5th of July (local humor), and then it lasts until Labor day weekend. Not this year!

:| 


Cheers,

RR

 

[eklektos44]

Forgot to add that we're experiencing a record hot and dry period right now in the Pac NW. Drought conditions, wildfires, and all the rest.

Actually this past few days have seen a return to moderate temps, and we got rain today! First in a few months. Very welcome. 

Normally we don't get our summer until the 5th of July (local humor), and then it lasts until Labor day weekend. Not this year!

:| 


Cheers,

RR

I seem to remember swimming in the ocean wasn't all that much fun, unless you liked hypothermia.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Wait, air conditioners do 82 degrees? :shock: Mine starts at 78 and goes all the way up to 11 on the worst days.

We put a pool in back in 2007 after a summer where we had at least 17 days of +105 degree weather. That's how we cool off and enjoy the summer days that we're at home.

We have a hot stretch coming up here and I'll be in the pool outside, with the AC set between 75-78 inside. First world problem.

 

[Dutch]

I have saved quite a bit of money on central air, by investing in a few pair of thong underwear, and a personal misting fan.

 

[Psmith]

I doubt any of these will be relevant for you but as a guy who has lived in Korea for the last 8 years and is married to a Korean I can share the ways we beat the heat. Korea gets incredibly hot and humid in the months of July and August after the monsoons stop.
One way that Koreans deal with the heat is by adjusting their diet somewhat in the summer. They also avoid furniture opting for lounging on the floor which is almost always wood and thus cool.
In terms of sleeping, when the weather starts warming up we switch our sheets to sheets made of a scritchy fabric similiar to muslin. Thats the bottom sheet. And the top sheet will be a light fabric like silk, or synthetic silk.
Then when it gets really hot, we sleep on a sheet of slatted bamboo. It rolls out like a mat but it is on top of your bed mattress so it has some give. We then use pillows also made of bamboo and are filled with herbs like mugwort or green tea. Probably sounds strange but laying your head on a cool bamboo pillow with wafting smells of mugwort can give you an amazing sleep. Takes a couple nights to adjust to these things but when the nights get cooler in September you don't want to give them up. One of the great things about the bamboo mat is that it is smooth and you slide around on it. On hot summer nights one tends to toss and turn so doing so on a smooth cool surface is great. Friends from Canada that visit inevitably pick up one of those pillows before going home.
The other things Koreans do during the heat is nothing. If there is work to be done, like projects, get them done in June or put them off till September. In July and August its generally acceptable to just lounge about and complain about the heat. The hot months are characterized by little activity and the sound of cicadas buzzing in the trees.

 

[Richard Burley]

Cool post, Psmith.

 

[R. M. Perkins]

Thanks, Brewdude. Yeah, we've been making the most of our fans. That's for sure. And keeping the curtains closed, particularly on the sunny side of the house, works for us, as well.

Oh, man, DrumsAndBeer, we had dreams of a place with a pool, but it just wasn't in the budget. However, we do have high hopes that one of our neighbors who has a pool will befriend us.

OMG, Dutch :shock:  I just don't even know what to say to that. :lol:

Spectacular post, Psmith. One thing we've done is cut way down on our protein intake, and that helps a lot, because our bodies have to heat up to break down protein.

The typical "Western" diet is overly reliant on protein, particularly meat, and our bodies just don't need as much protein as most of us tend to think.

Unless we are trying to compete in a Mr. Olympia tournament, one or two servings of protein-heavy foods per week is more than enough.

So yeah, I forgot about that, but we have adjusted our diets to eat more fruits, vegetables and grains, and that has helped us tremendously.

Now, I'm just sitting here considering sprawling out on the floor. We are fortunate to have ceramic tiles throughout the house, and they feel quite nice for our bare feet. I'm betting lying down on them will be fantastic, as well.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Great post, PSmith.

I tried using a buckwheat pillow for few weeks (also supposed to stay really cool) but I couldn't adjust.

 

[Ozark Wizard]

Here in Misery, um,
I mean Missouri.....

A/C in the house, 76. Cooking outside regardless of menu items.. More rice (if that's possible), veggies out of the garden, fruits off the trees. The barn/shop has a couple of fans I used in my spray booth in Oregon, with pans of water in front of them. Sort of a swamp cooler thing. Seems to balance out the relative humidity too. Less alcohol, more water. Little to no sugary stuff either. Lean toward more sea salt on the food too, it seems to help...

 

[i.keenum]

In the swamp down here. Just stay indoors ,if you can, with the AC cranked on full. I haven't had a pipe in about a week due to it being miserable out there. Decided it would be a good idea to move smack dab in the middle of July and that was a mistake, keep hydrated and try and not get heat stroke is all you can hope for.

Me last week right after rolling up carpet we had stripped out of my moms new house and loading it in a trailer with 110 heat index, that is not water in my hair. :lol!: