Surviving heat waves without A/C

[Beaker]

Anybody have some tips for surviving heat waves without use of air conditioning? I know I'm a bit early on this, but the wife is already talking about A/C so I figure I need to get on this.

Some background: we live in Denver. We've gotten along without A/C for seven years now. We're familiar with the routine of closing blinds in the morning and opening windows at night, and we have a whole-house fan to help with moving air. But it's not uncommon to get heat waves where it's consistently 95-100F during the day and over 80 at night for days or a couple weeks straight. It can get pretty uncomfortable, especially trying to sleep. So now we're having the conversation about getting an A/C unit this summer.

I'd like to avoid the cost of buying, installing, operating, and maintaining an A/C if I can. So, any other tips for beating the heat would be great.

[Kazimieras]

Cold showers are your friend. Also a ceiling fan can make the world of difference.

We occasionally use a fan with a large bucket of water for it to blow over. The wind evaporates the water, cooling the air that is then blown onto us while sleeping.

[mm31]

+1 for cold showers, they are very effective. I'm used to heat, so 2-3 cold showers a day on very hot days keep me cool

[Mountainman75]

Find a swamp cooler, its all you should need in the dry clime of Denver. A fraction of the cost to buy and operate versus an AC unit.

[GuitarStv]

Insulation is your friend.  The more and the better the quality of your insulation, the cooler your home will stay through the day, although if the night temperatures aren't going down below the 80s it might still be uncomfortable sleeping in the regular living sections.

Sleeping in the basement (if you've got one) is usually much cooler than the rest of the house though . . .

[Christiana]

Acclimation is your friend.  I don't do well with heat, but I can build up some tolerance to it (if I avoid AC as much as possible).

Since I'm fairly miserable when it's 85, 95 degrees doesn't actually feel that much worse to me.  I do use fans, and put my head under a cold faucet from time to time when it gets that hot.

[shedinator]

Hospitable neighbors with AC are your friends.

OK, that one's not really gonna work, but I wanted to jump on the '___is your friend' train.

A few heat survival tips that sort of work (by sort of, I mean they work for me, but I can't necessarily prove their efficacy)...

Drink hot drinks. This one's frequently debated, but my personal experiments have confirmed its veracity. NPR agrees: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/07/11/156378713/cool-down-with-a-hot-drink-its-not-as-crazy-as-you-think

Lock in the cold. When you use a shower to regulate body heat, the last 10 seconds or so should be the opposite temperature. So in the winter, if you're in a hot shower, you turn the water over to cold real quick before you hope out. the chill will tell your body it needs to keep all that heat it just collected. In the summer, take a cold shower, and blast yourself with hot water at the end. Your body will want to return to the equilibrium it established in the cold shower, and will work to expel heat. Honest confession: I got this idea from a Dan Brown novel and have no sources, but it totally works for me.

Layer up. The biggest challenge to hedonic adaptation for me is that my workplace has AC. If I wear my summer-ish clothes (thin pants, short sleeves) to work, the Kansas heat feels downright oppressive when I get home. If I wear a full suit, I stay generally warm at work, and then when I get back to my house, I can switch to shorts and a t-shirt and feel instant relief.

[Spork]

I am all for reducing the use of A/C.... but before you just "don't turn it on ever".... I have one devil's advocate to throw at ya:  A/C does more than cool the house.  It removes humidity.  If you live in a humid area (and are taking 3 cold showers a day!), you probably want to run the A/C some minimal amount to rid the house of excess humidity.

[capital]

I'd like to avoid the cost of buying, installing, operating, and maintaining an A/C if I can. So, any other tips for beating the heat would be great.

A used window unit to cool one or two rooms just during heat waves is obviously a lot cheaper than central air, and may be worthwhile to preserve marital accord. Especially this time of year, you can pick them up free or cheap at the end of the month when people move out of apartments and don't want to deal with moving them. I found an EnergyStar unit left at the curb by some folks moving out a couple blocks away, and cleaned it out myself; that takes care of the purchase, installation, and maintenance costs, leaving only the operation cost.

[dharmon]

Shirtsickles!

When I lived in NYC without A/C, I would leave a t-shirt in the freezer and walk
around shirtless. Then pop it on when the heat gets unbearable.

[Spork]

I'd like to avoid the cost of buying, installing, operating, and maintaining an A/C if I can. So, any other tips for beating the heat would be great.

A used window unit to cool one or two rooms just during heat waves is obviously a lot cheaper than central air, and may be worthwhile to preserve marital accord. Especially this time of year, you can pick them up free or cheap at the end of the month when people move out of apartments and don't want to deal with moving them. I found an EnergyStar unit left at the curb by some folks moving out a couple blocks away, and cleaned it out myself; that takes care of the purchase, installation, and maintenance costs, leaving only the operation cost.

Don't count on that.

We were using 2 window units to A/C 600 sqft (and they could barely keep up) in our temporary house.

When we moved to our real house, we're A/C'ing about 1500 sqft (the downstairs) for less than half the cost.

A lot of the window units out there are highly inefficient.

[Russ]

I've read that spicy-hot foods are popular in warmer climates because they make you sweat without actually raising your body temperature, thereby cooling you off. I don't know how much that actually works, but it might be worth giving a shot.

Our power was out during the hottest week of the summer last year, so we were forced into no AC (we usually keep it off, but the roommates would have revolted if we didn't turn it on for this heat). Cold drinks and showers are great, stay hydrated (good tip for almost anything physical, including heat adaptation), wear fewer clothes at home and more clothes in places with AC to self-regulate, and most importantly get out in the heat and do things. 95-100 is not nearly hot enough to be dangerous if you're healthy and watch out for yourself. If you take a 30 minute walk out in the sun at 95 and bright, spending the evening on your 90-degree shaded porch will seem like nothing.

Shirtsickles are clever, I'll have to try that one this summer.

[Dee18]

Don't know if this applies to you and your wife, but I found, when living in the tropics for a semester with room air conditioners, that we were fine if we just kept the bedroom cool enough (around 72) for sleeping.  In the evenings before bed, we spent a lot more time outside than we would have with air conditioning. I would try a room air conditioner with a timer. They are all labeled re. efficiency now so you can consider that when you get one.

[GuitarStv]

Shirtsickles!

When I lived in NYC without A/C, I would leave a t-shirt in the freezer and walk
around shirtless. Then pop it on when the heat gets unbearable.

I used to freeze a large bucket of water, then take it out just before bedtime, stick it infront of a fan, and blow the cooler air directly on me during hot times before regularly using A/C.  It helps a lot if you're losing sleep because of the temperatures . . .

[Matt K]

When going to bed, my wife and I found that putting a wet/damp face cloth on the forehead or chest (just like you do with a kid suffering from a fever) helps a lot. It is easiest if you sleep on your back, but is doable no matter how you sleep. Having a fan going really helps.

[JT]

We grew up in the desert (Australia), sooo heat without air conditioning is something very familiar.

We normally did our chores at the start of the day, before the heat set in.

From mid morning until the time we got home after work, we locked the house down ie thermal curtains closed, verandahs all around the house.  This kept the house nice and cool.

Get home, and open the house up.

A note on the house - it was wood, with verandahs all around and small to medium windows.  Brick houses are no good in the heat cause they hang onto the heat and you roast in an oven at night.

We used fans, but one of the most joyous things to do is get a water sprayer and spray that in front of the fan (when it's really hot this burst of cool spray gives great temporary relief). In fact, spray fine water in each room - whoopsy - this is for dry heat.  I'm not sure if you have wet heat or dry heat.

The other thing we did to help get to sleep was get a cool flannel and rub it on the soles of our feet and our wrists and forehead.  This has an unbelievable cooling affect on the whole body.  eg Kangaroos stay cool by licking their wrists

Keep your hair up off your neck and wear not much. 

When it got unbearable, we often met friends in the freezer department of the supermarket.

The general rule was to avoid exposure at the hottest part of the day.  And in the evenings we would generally jump into a pool.

It's a great life!  Hope this helps!  Stay hydrated!  Great for biking around!

[kolorado]

I live a half hour south of you and our first summer in CO was last year. There were some brutal heat waves and no ac or swamp cooler in our rental. One weekend last year when the heat index was forcasted to be unbearable we packed a picnic lunch and piled in the car to go over the mountain to a state park that was always 10* or more cooler than the Front Range. That happened to be the weekend the Waldo Canyon fire got rolling and we couldn't get through. Ended up in Cheyenne Mountain and played in a stream up there.
I always checked the hour by hour weather and shut the windows(and window quilts or energy efficient drapes if you have them)when the outside temperature reached 78*. When it dropped below 78* again later in the day I opened all non-sunnyside windows and vented the house with fans blowing in or out.
I got a small pool for the kids and they played in that several hours every day which was a big help for them. They usually came in shivering even on 90* days. If I didn't have a toddler in the house, I'd keep my tub full of cold water and just strip and dip in that a few times a day. Water is a lot cheaper than electricity to run cooling machines.
We were sure to unplug all unnecessary electronic devices.
I bought several popsicle molds and we ate a ton of popsicles. My favorites were root beer(use a little sugar, water and root beer extract)and iced coffee. The kids liked the lemonade, coffee, chocolate pudding and juice pops best.This year I'm adding a cheap shave ice machine to the repertoire.
I also did the shirtcicles thing for me as well as fully wetting down my long hair. The rest of the family thought I was nuts but it really helped!
I cooked outside on the deck whenever possible. We didn't have a grill at the rental but I could plug the slow cooker in out there. We will be getting a small grill this year at our new house so I will very rarely have to cook indoors this summer.
Luckily our bedrooms were in the basement of the rental so nights were tolerable for sleeping with fans running. Our new place has the bedrooms upstairs which I think will be unpleasant on the warmest days. My plan is to move all the lightweight mattresses we have(comfy Ikea futons) down in to the family room on those nights to sleep(ground level with finished concrete floor).
Another option for the worst days is to go to a public place and use their AC. Great day to hang out at the mall, or library, or museum.

[Jill the Pill]

These are great suggestions.  I'll only add: do NOT run the oven, and sleeping on camping air mattresses can be cooler than on regular ones.

[Spork]

These are great suggestions.  I'll only add: do NOT run the oven, and sleeping on camping air mattresses can be cooler than on regular ones.

Ah... the oven is a good one.  We used to either cook things in a solar oven or (for the right sized dish) use a large toaster oven that sat on a table outside.  We now have a hyper-insulated antique oven -- which still throws off some heat, but isn't anything like a normal, modern oven.

[Frankies Girl]

I agree that a window unit for the bedroom is a good idea if you're not wanting to go full house A/C. We actually borrowed one for a week while waiting on the part that was backordered, and that little thing kept the whole house coolish, and if only used in one room, it would keep it nice and cold (definitely do the research on the efficiency tho).

Otherwise, we relied on ceiling fans and very cold showers, and we stuck pillowcases and sheets in the freezer. One thing that seems odd but worked moderately well was powdering the sheets of the bed. I can't remember where I read it, but using baby powder lightly across the surface helped to cut down on the sticky sweaty feeling and made the sheets seem cooler. Oh, there is also the "medicated" powder that has a cooling element in it that was really nice to put on just before going to bed.

We also have all of the windows covered with thermal curtains, and have planted trees to deliberately shade the house during the evenings.

[marty998]

Just take your clothes off. Be free and happy.

An icepack tied around the back of your neck helps too. There's a product that was doing the rounds in Aus last year that looks like a collar but contains an icepack. Only seen it once but thought it was a mighty fine idea.

[oldtoyota]

John Robbins suggests wearing a wet shirt under your regular shirt. Also, wet hair helps.

I second the popsicles.

[StarswirlTheMustached]

In my experience, the key to avoiding A/C is avoiding A/C. That is: if you spend all day cooped up in an office they keep at 50, of course 100 is going to seem oppressive! You'll acclimatize much better if you remain exposed to the heat.

Also, as mentioned, try and keep the heat-generation as low as possible in the house. Cooking, yes-- but no sacrifice there: it's BBQ season! (though if, like me, you bake your daily bread, it can be a bit harder to adapt. Flatbreads help.) Slow cookers are also grand. There's more too it than cooking, though.  Your computer is a space heater (especially if it's a tower). Your TV is a space heater. Incandescent lights are space heaters. How many watts does it consume? That's how much heat it's putting into your house, and you don't want that heat.

[Rural]

Assuming you own the house, consider the bigger fixes, too. Can you do something for shade on the west side of the house? Even if there are no windows, if the sun is beating on the wall, that's going to heat the whole structure. If you can shade with deciduous trees, or even with climbing vines on trellises, you'll cool things off in summer without losing the added heat in winter. You could do the vines even if you're renting.

Look at your insulation; improvements there will help both summer and winter.

If heat is more of a problem for you than cold, think about a light-colored roof the next time you have to do a roof.

[MrsPete]

I grew up without air conditioning.  In addition to what's already been said, I'll add a few more:

- Old houses were better designed for heat (here in the South anyway):  high ceilings, windows on catty-cornered walls, curtains to keep sun out.  Porches too keep the heat out.
- Get up early and do your work first thing, then stay in the house and read or nap during the heat of the day.
- Sandwiches for lunch don't require heating up the kitchen.  Similarly, a bunch of baked potatoes makes a decent lunch and can be baked the night before. The crockpot doesn't heat up the house. 
- Kiddie pools aren't just for kids. 
- Avoid wearing dark colors and tight clothes.