The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: johnintaiwan on March 28, 2014, 08:44:41 AM
-
I am guessing many of you are probably laughing at the fact that people still use A/C and consider themselves mustachian, but the fact is the weather in the tropics where I live can be brutal. In the summer it is often over 30C with nearly 100% humidity. Last year we made it until mid may before we had to turn the A/C on. This year i convinced my wife to try and shoot for June at the earliest. This week has seen temps in the 30's and all my coworkers have been using their A/C all ready, so we are doing well so far.
Anyone else live in a crazy hot place and care to join or one-up me?
-
I'm all for a good challenge but this one is not for me. It's well into the 100's here by June and I'm not badass enough to go without A/C. Best of luck to you.
-
Not a one-up, just a story:
My girlfriend and I went a summer in Nor Cal without any AC. Temperatures were often around 110 F, low humidity though. It helps a lot when it cools down to 80 F at night. Now that we've done it, we don't care to do it again.
Props to you for throwin' down!
-
Anything over 90F and high humidity, unless it cools down a lot overnight, just isn't worth it (to me). I don't mind in the daytime, but I'll run the air during the night, otherwise it's impossible to sleep even with an industrial fan blowing across me.
Double ditto for the kids. Sprinklers and whatnot help in the day, but good luck getting them to sleep in that.
We're going to try being more badass this year, but we're an easy four months away from those temps anyways :P
-
My brother finally had to leave his Caribbean dream behind, in part because of the climate. His house was built by and for locals, so there was no way to air condition it (louvered windows, etc.). I visited him a few times, and while it was certainly bearable, it could get rather hot & sticky after a while.
He said the worst part after living there a while wasn't the heat, but the humidity, specifically the fact that you never felt dry. You would step out of the shower in the morning, and whatever residual moisture was left on your skin would just linger there until it was replaced by sweat.
-
Back on topic: beyond a certain point, I would be worried about the effect that might have on household "stuff"? Humidity isn't good for electronics, heat makes refrigerators work harder, etc. And I'm not really sure what effects it might have on the house itself?
-
It is common for some houses here to not have A/C. They are all brick construction and are typically built with a shared wall between two houses (if that makes sense). So on our block there is a row of about 7 houses all touching. I guess this helps keep the houses cooler. There are only windows in the front and back of the house. All of these have overhangs which help quite a bit. Our first floor houses most/all of our electronics and it doesn't have A/C anyway.
This challenge is still in its infancy, but nearly came to an end already tonight. I think it was around 35C. But we are still going strong. We will see how my parents will do when they arrive for a visit tomorrow. I think I will have to exempt them from the challenge.
-
Not here, thanks. We got our AC installed last summer when we spotted mold starting up a wall. It's pretty stable indoors here at 85% humidity unless we run AC or a dehumidifier, and the dehumidifier adds heat.
Folks who have been living in underground houses far longer than us tell us this gets much better about two years in as the concrete cures, and we should hit the two year mark about midsummer, so we may reevaluate, but if things aren't radically a change from last summer, no.
-
I'd declare that I'm in except would it be cheating in that I've pretty much been a/c free at home for the last 7 years?
We don't have central in our old house. We do have a couple of 30 year old window units. Sadly they cost tons to run and don't make a dent in our house temps so they're not even tempting.
Summer temps get up around 100F and we are often blessed with high humidity.
I'll be cheering for you!
-
Thanks Rezdent. We are still going strong and just 4 days left to hit our goal. My wife actually said she thinks we can make it longer. We may never turn it on!
-
I'm in I guess, but similar to Rezdent I have no central AC and only one shitty window unit so it's pretty much by default (although I'd like to think I'd still go no-AC if it was an option).
We'll see how it goes... I need to work on my window management. It was 75 out today and the thermostat says my living room is 82!
-
My motto is No airconditioning until 2030.
-
We're going to make it, but I admit that there has been a fair amount of complainypants noise coming from me. It has been unseasonably warm here (and it's not exactly cold in the Southern California desert in the first place) this year, and I'll just say that warm weather and a certain change of life, without AC, don't mix without some whining!
-
I literally just joined this board today or would have joined the challenge sooner. The weather here's been fairly warm but hasn't crossed 90 yet. That said, this house (a rental) collects a fair amount of heat during the day. We've made it this far due to fans and being elsewhere during most of the hottest parts of the day, even with my other half being extremely sensitive to temps outside the 'official' comfort range. Luckily, only a few more days to go!
-
That's a cool goal but I can't sleep if it's too hot. Then it messes up my whole day. Not worth it for me.
It may have something to do with the fact that my dad used to make me sleep upstairs in our house where it was freaking hot as heck all summer long. Many restless nights. I'm still a bit mad about it if you couldn't tell.
-
I'm technically in this challenge. We bought a house in March and just discovered the A/C unit doesn't work. So until at least this Thursday when the repair guy gives us the dead/repair call, we are still going sans A/C.
-
Hi
Today's the last May Day. Checking in to see how's it going? Less than 24 hours to go!
For us, we were blessed with rain last week. Humidity is very high with temps in the mid 80s - but by August we'll be seeing triple digits so I'm really enjoying right now.
johnintaiwan
Think you might extend the challenge?
-
Damn, I didn't know this was a challenge but I was close. Wife wanted the AC on one day this month because my 2 year old son wasn't sleeping and covered in sweat. We just need to try with the window open, black out curtains make good insulators.
-
Way to go mindaugas!
30 out of 31 is great. It's tough when you have young kids. It's hard to live with a cranky toddler with heat rash who needs more sleep when you are also hot and cranky - especially if you could make it better just by by throwing a switch. If there was AC available...oh yeah, I've done it for the kids.
-
Thanks, I normally go as long as I can to avoid heat and AC. We at least only had the AC on one night. I also like the windows open, fresh air is better air
-
Success!
we made it to June 1st and see no reason to turn on the A/C yet. after midnight my wife was complaining she was hot and I told her we could turn on the A/C. She declined and redirected the fan. We may extend the challenge to July, or maybe never turn it on!
-
Woo Hoo! Such AWESOME badassity! ) If you can do this so can we.
THANK YOU for the challenge. GO GO GO
-
Way more success than I thought.
We went down the street to the in-laws for lunch today and they admitted they turned on the AC yesterday! We are still going strong. I am pretty proud we beat them (though they didnt know it was a competition). They were pretty impresses that the foreigner was able to last this long without AC
-
Well done man. I'm doing this as well, but I'm assuming it will be much easier for us in Jersey City.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
We've made it through here in Kansas. Just starting to hit the 90s regularly, but it cool at night still...and we have an attic fan to help pull the cool air in. We're now shooting for July!
-
I finally gave up. Turned it on today. 95 and high humidy. DW wasn't liking it while doing house work during the day
-
This winter was so brutal that I swear I will never turn on the AC and I promise never to complain. Of course it hasn't even been tempting to turn it on yet in the Philly suburbs. I probably will for a few days in August.
-
It's on right now, we tried, maybe without kids ... :(
-
a nice heavy rain for two days has given us some help. Still going strong, but think if we have a week of hot weather its gonna turn on.
-
Also in Kansas and shooting for July. We made it last year, but really suffered the last week or so. The biggest challenge for me is heat in the kitchen. We cook dinner every night and even with the oven off, it still gets so hot from the heat of the pans.
-
I admit in Kaohsiung that I ran the AC pretty often. Well, I have to qualify that a little bit, I telecommuted and ran the window unit in the bedroom which was designated as my office. Somehow this attracted my wife to sleep in my office while I worked at night. Our trip to Taiwan in August last year was brutal to us, I'd lost my edge on taking the heat and ran the AC quite a bit while there.
Now that we are back in the Pacific Northwest we haven't rat the AC at home ever. The first two years we didn't even have an AC and now we have a house with central air and cooling. Our neighbors have started providing us with a constant drip of free water from their AC units while we still haven't had the need to even test if the thing works. So far we got up to maybe 76* inside and my wife finally switched from long sleeves to short sleeves. I fully expect to be able to make great use of our high temperature swing and the layout of our house.
-
Also in Kansas and shooting for July. We made it last year, but really suffered the last week or so. The biggest challenge for me is heat in the kitchen. We cook dinner every night and even with the oven off, it still gets so hot from the heat of the pans.
We definitely change our menus during summer. More crockpot meals, more stir fry, salads grilled dishes...I avoid turning the oven on if I can avoid it. I bought an electric roaster that works great for most oven stuff and ran an extension cord to the patio. The crockpot/ roaster combo doesn't seem to throw as much heat as our oven
-
Also in Kansas and shooting for July. We made it last year, but really suffered the last week or so. The biggest challenge for me is heat in the kitchen. We cook dinner every night and even with the oven off, it still gets so hot from the heat of the pans.
We definitely change our menus during summer. More crockpot meals, more stir fry, salads grilled dishes...I avoid turning the oven on if I can avoid it. I bought an electric roaster that works great for most oven stuff and ran an extension cord to the patio. The crockpot/ roaster combo doesn't seem to throw as much heat as our oven
We do the same (even though we wussed out already) and it's nice in the Evenings to enjoy hanging outside with friends and neighbors.
-
We are lucky that we live in a split level with a family room in the "basement" level where it is always about 15 degrees F cooler than the rest of the house. It has been kind of hot and humid over the past week, so I've just been spending all my time down there and leaving the AC off. We have also been leaving our blinds lowered over the past few days, because we have huge south facing windows that really heat up the house via the "greenhouse effect". Overnight, we've just been leaving all the windows open to create some air circulation and using ceiling fans.
-
We are lucky that we live in a split level with a family room in the "basement" level where it is always about 15 degrees F cooler than the rest of the house. It has been kind of hot and humid over the past week, so I've just been spending all my time down there and leaving the AC off. We have also been leaving our blinds lowered over the past few days, because we have huge south facing windows that really heat up the house via the "greenhouse effect". Overnight, we've just been leaving all the windows open to create some air circulation and using ceiling fans.
That's basically our plan too, just we aren't a split level, but just a two story house. With the new center table and coffee table it actually feels pretty comfortable to sit downstairs and read. Our houses here are fairly close together and run directly along latitudinal lines with our garage on the South side along with our master bedroom on the 2nd floor. I insulated the garage during the winter which made a huge difference for getting ready for riding my bike, garage stays around 55-60* with the heat put off by the central air furnace and water heater. Now that it is warming up I find that the garage still stays fairly cool, cooler than the 2nd floor by far.
We haven't had a very long hot streak yet so we haven't gotten to the point of testing out how to cool the house, this being our first year in it. But the layout is perfect I believe. The one night I did get to try out I had my office window, North side directly down the hall, open with a large window fan blowing OUT (push the heat out) and the window by my head in the bedroom open, no fan, and had a great breeze going from my window out to the office 50 ft away. I wanted to try this with having the office pushing out and the downstairs windows open, but not sure how effective it will be, but I'll have all summer to try it out.
-
We've had a couple 90+ days, but nothing in long succession and we have so far avoided turning on the A/C. With the forecast ahead, it looks like we could make it to July before we turn it on. Lots of days in the mid 80s with thunderstorms during the day and mid 60s overnight.
-
We made it until 6/15, which was my goal. Forecast is fairly good until it hits mid 90's next week. I think I'll set the thermostat to 80 to prevent the house from getting too warm during the day, and then try to keep doing the fans and open windows dance until I leave for my work trip on the 23rd.
I need to remember to get the fan exhausting hot air from the garage as soon as we get home at night. Two cars with hot engines really heats it up, and the two upstairs bedrooms are directly above the garage, so they warm up as a result. Should probably look into insulating the garage door to reduce the passive gain while we're gone during the day, too.
-
We have no A/C (which is true of most german homes), so this isn't really a challenge since I have no choice.
But last week we topped 100, and it was unpleasant, to say the least. I put in extra volunteer hours at the library since it is one of the few places that have A/C. But sleeping in our hot house was rough. We can't do a very successful heat chimney because the nly windows on the top floor are on a highly slanted ceiling/roof surface. So when they are open, they are *open*. Given the possibility for night thunderstorms, we can't do more than leave them slightly cracked.
-
We are still holding out. There was a storm that passed by the island over the weekend so we got some light rain and kept the temps down. Looks like we might make it to July. maybe I need to change the title of the thread.
-
I still haven't turned mine on. I still haven't really been tempted. Might be ninety today - if so it would be the first time this summer I think.
-
It's been cold here, we got maybe a week of hitting high 70's or 80 and then it's been struggling to reach 70 most days. I sure miss the heat :-(. At this rate we probably won't ever use our AC.
-
Okay. It's starting to get warm here, 90's all week. July - September we'll see 100+ days and I will be missing these 90's
It's much easier to go to work now. I work in an air conditioned office :).
I'm not even tempted to stay home during the day. By evening it's cooling off when I get home.
The downside is that I can't acclimate to the heat going back and forth so weekends are not as fun.
-
We're supposed to hit 90s with overnights in the 70s today, tomorrow and Wednesday and then drop back down to 80s and overnights 50s and 60s. I think we can make it to July! (Especially if I can convince our hot, sweaty 6yo to stop climbing in bed with us at 2am...that's more miserable than the actual heat!)
-
Still holding out but this week will be tough with highs in the mid 90's and humidity ranging up to 75%. It's actually not too bad downstairs but we like to spend time in the upstairs game room after dinner and the kids sleep upstairs. Told my wife she should run the AC during the day if it gets bad but she's hanging in there much better than I expected. We've also talked about changing cooking strategy. We had baked potatoes from the oven last night but they will probably go in the microwave next time.
-
We turned ours on for the first time on June 13 due to guests. Then, it cooled down so we turned it off and were able to do windows. Now, it's abut 90F at 0930 in the morning. We're in for a hot week, so we'll have the AC set high (about 80) and use ceiling fans. Hopefully, we can still save both energy and money by keeping the AC high.
Good luck to anyone else who still has not turned on the AC!
-
Seriously, it's been cold here in the Northwest, we had it easy during the winter but now we're paying for it. Last night I was seriously considering turning the heater back on. My wife has started wearing layers again and I have to plan on layers for work, already brought out the long sleeve reflector jacket for the bike ride. I keep seeing the weather report saying in two days it'll be in the mid 70's or 80's, then the next day it changes the forecast back to mid 60's. House ambient temperature has dropped to 64, we try to keep it at 65 during the day while it's winter.
Strangely though our neighbors have still provided us with buckets of water for our garden from their air conditioner.
-
It is pretty hot everyday here now, but we are still going strong. We almost turned it on last night, but my wife remembered we havent cleaned the A/C dust filters this year and was afraid it would all come out on top of us. So i guess our laziness/procrastination has helped us make it a little longer. Two weeks left, I think we can make it to July!
-
Still holding out with no A/C here in Boston. Things got dicey the other night as temps climbed, but the only one panting was our hound, so I think we can tough it out longer. I'd love to make it to... July. August? We shall see. It's still pretty temperate here, but our resolve may melt as we have more 90 degree days.
-
Still holding out with no A/C here in Boston. Things got dicey the other night as temps climbed, but the only one panting was our hound, so I think we can tough it out longer. I'd love to make it to... July. August? We shall see. It's still pretty temperate here, but our resolve may melt as we have more 90 degree days.
Gotta love Boston. At the end of May, we went from wanting the AC on (we resisted) to wanting the heat on (we resisted), and yes, in that order of events. I'm hoping to keep the AC off all summer long, or if we must, just put up our unit AC in the bedroom rather than use the whole house AC. We got a beautifully cool finished basement.
-
We finally cracked. The wife wanted ac on last night. We made it to June 19th, 19 days past our goal. I am pretty happy about that, but was really hoping we could make it to july. We were so close! Always next year I guess.
-
OH NO!!
We had a water leak today! I'm not even hot, but turned on the A/C to try and help dehumidify the house. FAILURE.
-
Still holding out with no A/C here in Boston. Things got dicey the other night as temps climbed, but the only one panting was our hound, so I think we can tough it out longer. I'd love to make it to... July. August? We shall see. It's still pretty temperate here, but our resolve may melt as we have more 90 degree days.
Gotta love Boston. At the end of May, we went from wanting the AC on (we resisted) to wanting the heat on (we resisted), and yes, in that order of events. I'm hoping to keep the AC off all summer long, or if we must, just put up our unit AC in the bedroom rather than use the whole house AC. We got a beautifully cool finished basement.
Oooo all summer! I like it. We only have window units--no central air--but so far life's good with just a fan and open windows in the evenings and early mornings. Fingers crossed we can stay the course! You have a good point about the basement...ours is nice and cool. Sadly no beds down there, but I 'spose we could get creative on a really hot night.
-
Forecast doesnt exceed low 90s. Gonna shoot for keeping it off until we get back from California July 6.
-
Still holding out with no A/C here in Boston. Things got dicey the other night as temps climbed, but the only one panting was our hound, so I think we can tough it out longer. I'd love to make it to... July. August? We shall see. It's still pretty temperate here, but our resolve may melt as we have more 90 degree days.
Gotta love Boston. At the end of May, we went from wanting the AC on (we resisted) to wanting the heat on (we resisted), and yes, in that order of events. I'm hoping to keep the AC off all summer long, or if we must, just put up our unit AC in the bedroom rather than use the whole house AC. We got a beautifully cool finished basement.
Oooo all summer! I like it. We only have window units--no central air--but so far life's good with just a fan and open windows in the evenings and early mornings. Fingers crossed we can stay the course! You have a good point about the basement...ours is nice and cool. Sadly no beds down there, but I 'spose we could get creative on a really hot night.
We have an air mattress, so I'm planning to propose we sleep down there on the really hot nights. I don't know if DH will agree. I think he's more likely to agree on a non-work night.
-
Ugh! Working from home today. It's currently 83 degrees in the house. I've got fans going...but the humidity is crazy! Not giving in though! We'll be back down to the lower 70s maybe upper 60s tonight. So I'm telling myself just a few more hours!
One benefit of the office job is them paying for the air... Nah!
-
Finally made it into the 70's today, but was a bit chilly on the ride to work. Forecast keeps teasing me with predictions of 80+ that never come to fruition. At this rate should make it through summer just fine.
Congratulations, John, on making it this far. My sister-in-law has been blowing theirs since last month I think. Although they are a bit more funny about it. When I visited last year the routine was basically:
Turn on 30 minutes before going to bed but set the timer for 1 hour
Wake up in middle of the night sweating and uncomfortable, turn the timer back on for an hour
Wake up again two hours later and turn it back on for an hour
Not sure how much they save over just having it on all night.
-
Finally made it into the 70's today, but was a bit chilly on the ride to work. Forecast keeps teasing me with predictions of 80+ that never come to fruition. At this rate should make it through summer just fine.
Congratulations, John, on making it this far. My sister-in-law has been blowing theirs since last month I think. Although they are a bit more funny about it. When I visited last year the routine was basically:
Turn on 30 minutes before going to bed but set the timer for 1 hour
Wake up in middle of the night sweating and uncomfortable, turn the timer back on for an hour
Wake up again two hours later and turn it back on for an hour
Not sure how much they save over just having it on all night.
We had to do that last night. I woke up to ice chunks getting spat out on me and turned it off. As you probably know there is no central ac here, it is basically all window type units. We try to set ours for a few hours and let it just turn off. It usually stays cool until morning. I think it probably saves quite a bit of money only having it on in one room for a few hours a day.
-
We caved last night - I was trying to make it to July, but hadn't been sleeping well this week and thought the heat might be a contributor. Slept. Like. A. Rock. :)
-
We're gonna make it to July! Cool evenings and the attic fan are our saving grace. We've really only had one or two days that were rough. The weather here lately has been very helpful to our cause! :)
-
RMD: The Kansas weather has been very agreeable for no air conditioning. We still haven't turned ours on or even felt that it was necessary. Our fans are always on and windows open. We have a small unit that we can put upstairs if it gets too hot. Our second floor is always significantly hotter than the first.
-
I'm really impressed by ya'll in hotter climes! We're still holding strong here in Boston, but it hasn't crested the 80s/90s much yet... CommonCents, how're you doing? :)
-
We've had two 89F days, and lots of really humid days, but still no AC for me. Odds are it'll go on in July, but if it never breaks 90, then it may stay off all year. Unlikely, as we typically have 2-3 days over 100.
-
I'm finding the humidity the more difficult part to deal with. My carpets felt damp the other day! We've had a few days here lately without rain and with some nice breezes so it's been more bearable. Sunday and Monday are probably going to be a little rough...90s and rain. Blah!
My husband did just say that when we do cave and turn it on we should probably not be surprised if it doesn't work. That's just our luck. It is around 18 years old...and we will probably need to replace it at some point in the not so distant future. Hoping we can eek out one more summer.
-
A couple days ago, it finally hit mid-90s, so we were forced to turn on the AC. Unfortunately, the new furnace we installed last year had the central air unit attached improperly and we had water in the basement. Luckily, everything was covered under warranty but we had no AC during a couple a really, really hot days. I had to sleep downstairs with several fans turned on to get any shuteye at all.
-
I'm really impressed by ya'll in hotter climes! We're still holding strong here in Boston, but it hasn't crested the 80s/90s much yet... CommonCents, how're you doing? :)
No AC, though we've turned on the window fan. (The fan was broken for a while, and then when I tested it before we moved, it was working again miraculously. Odd, but I'll accept it.) I've been having trouble sleeping this week though and waking up a lot. My husband far prefers the fan on over AC, but I have a much harder time with it. Grew up with AC, not noisy fans. Don't like the air blowing over me, I get cold from it more easily, hard falling asleep when my hair keeps moving on my face and it also means we hear so much street noise, as we live on a somewhat busy street.
Due to a rip in a screen in the window over his side of the bed that lets in mosquitos, we've got the fan blowing on my side. I think I'm going to see if we can fix the rip this weekend and move it to his side and see if that helps any. If it doesn't, I think I'm going to have to persuade him we use the whole house fan to cool down the apartment for an hour or two in the evening - and then we turn off all fans.
I just have to remind myself that my first year living in Boston I didn't have AC at all, and then again back in 2007-2009 I had no AC (until my now MIL decided to surprise us and buy a very small window unit for me and another for DH) and no fans of any type, including window, standing, whole house.
-
I'm about 1 hr SW of Philly and we still haven't turned on A/C. The kids' bedroom will be the first to get a window unit when we finally decide it's time. (no central air, which I now prefer. Grew up with it, thought it was nearly barbaric not to have it, but now prefer it for efficiency. Just climate control the smaller spaces you are using, not the whole house.)
-
I'm really impressed by ya'll in hotter climes! We're still holding strong here in Boston, but it hasn't crested the 80s/90s much yet... CommonCents, how're you doing? :)
No AC, though we've turned on the window fan. (The fan was broken for a while, and then when I tested it before we moved, it was working again miraculously. Odd, but I'll accept it.) I've been having trouble sleeping this week though and waking up a lot. My husband far prefers the fan on over AC, but I have a much harder time with it. Grew up with AC, not noisy fans. Don't like the air blowing over me, I get cold from it more easily, hard falling asleep when my hair keeps moving on my face and it also means we hear so much street noise, as we live on a somewhat busy street.
Due to a rip in a screen in the window over his side of the bed that lets in mosquitos, we've got the fan blowing on my side. I think I'm going to see if we can fix the rip this weekend and move it to his side and see if that helps any. If it doesn't, I think I'm going to have to persuade him we use the whole house fan to cool down the apartment for an hour or two in the evening - and then we turn off all fans.
I just have to remind myself that my first year living in Boston I didn't have AC at all, and then again back in 2007-2009 I had no AC (until my now MIL decided to surprise us and buy a very small window unit for me and another for DH) and no fans of any type, including window, standing, whole house.
I also don't like the fan blowing on me at night and it's on my side of the bed too! Our solution is to open all doors & windows and run the window fan in the early mornings and all evening. We turn the fan off when we go to sleep and close the windows. We also live on a fairly busy street, so we don't want the noise or possible intruders. It does heat up overnight, but we're able to fall asleep before it gets too warm. Good luck!
-
I caved today. I have been able to cool the house down at night, but it was 23 this morning in the house, and it is going to 29 this afternoon with full sun. If I can get the house down to 20, now I can turn off the AC in a few hours and go back to warm days/cool nights. I am actually OK with the house heating to 25/26, but the dog (long heavy coat even in summer, this is as cool as her coat gets and she cannot be clipped) can only take so much. If I am home in the afternoon she can go outside and find someplace cool, but I will be out this afternoon and she will be stuck in the house. The things we do for our pets ;-)
The good side is that it is Sunday, so lowest Hydro rates all day.
Usually I can get by with about 10 days total running the AC, but every so often the house is hot and everything in it is hot, and I need to run it. Usually those are also the most humid times, and I need to get the humidity down in the house as well.
-
I think I will cave soon. It has been really humid. Like someone else said, my floors are sweating and everything just feels wet. Luckily, this week won't be too hot so I think we can survive until July.
-
Have kept mine AC off thus far. Recently installed a ceiling fan in the bedroom so that should keep us going even further. It is supposed to hit 90's this week, so we'll see how long this will last.
-
I think I will cave soon. It has been really humid. Like someone else said, my floors are sweating and everything just feels wet. Luckily, this week won't be too hot so I think we can survive until July.
Yes...everything feels damp. Last night was warm but there was a breeze, so not too bad. It's supposed to be cooler for the rest of this week, but DH is not handling the humidity well at all...and if I'm honest, I'm not handling HIM not handling the humbidity well. ;)
-
July 1st. DH couldn't handle the humidity and turned on the a/c this morning. I didn't check to see what he has it set to...
-
I regret to announce that we had to turn one AC unit on yesterday during the day because our poor little greyhound was panting and hot. Can't in good conscience leave her alone all day in a hot house while we're at our air-conditioned jobs. We did set it at 79 and turned it off and opened all the doors and windows as soon as we got home last night. However, all three of us woke up multiple times during the night because of the heat...grrrr, we might have to turn it on at night now too. Turns out, 85-90 degrees inside the house is not conducive to sleeping well :)
-
Still going strong...though I did change my wallpaper to a winter photo :) And DH even turned on the whole house fan, despite his persistent frustration it doesn't cool the house "immediately" as he thinks it ought.
We go away on vacation on Thursday, so I'm just hoping we can get through the heat until then.
-
We made it to July with only a few days I even wanted to have it on. One of the best things about not turning on the AC is that it encourages us to get outside. Since it isn't nicer inside, there is no encouragement to stay in there. This week is a nice weather week so we still don't need it yet. I would love to not turn it on at all this year, but we will see what the weather does.
-
July has picked up on the hot weather, 98* yesterday but the house only got to 77* by 6pm, and 80* by 9pm. We ran fans in the windows creating a breeze and managed to cool downstairs to 74* by morning. Probably could do better with 1 more fan and no train. Because of the train my wife doesn't like leaving the bedroom window open all night. This morning I opened our window and put the fan back in while I went to work. After checking my cell phone I had my wife close the windows around 10am which is when it got back up to 68. I expect that the house will remain cool like yesterday, if not even more so since the high is only 85* today.
We hope to cruise through the entire summer this way.
-
We made it to about the middle of June. My wife is 7 months pregnant and we have a 2 year old. Not exactly the best situation to sweat it out. Besides I would rather not sweat it out myself. Spent two tours in Iraq sweating enough to last a life time.
That being said we have a fairly large home 3 floors not including the basement 5 bedroom 1.5 bath. I open 2 windows in the 3rd floor with screens to allow the hot air to escape. Would like to do a fan vent of some sort but do not have an attic so not sure how that would work.
On the 2nd floor I placed a new 15,000 BTU unit that has a good energy efficiency rating. Utilizing a floor fan and ceiling fans to circulate it around. On the first floor we have a 10,500 BTU unit also good brand and slightly older so not as energy efficient but still highly rated when bought. Also utilizing ceiling fans to circulate. We use it simply to knock down the humidity and keep it bearable. The basement as usual keeps pretty cool. Even if our cost increase 50/month for 6 months it's an annual cost of $300. In my mind $300.00 for comfortable living is not too much to pay. Granted not very Mustachian of me but to each their own.
-
Still going strong through the middle of July. We've had two weeks of 90+ temps, but the cool night swings down to upper 50's low 60's. With some creative management and an extra window fan we have kept inside below 80 before the evening starts to cool off. With our success so far I believe we'll be able to make it through to September with no trouble.
-
We are turning it on today. It is supposed to hit 100. I am happy we lasted this long.
-
We turned our air conditioning on once to make sure we knew how it worked. (We just moved.) Then we turned it off because we didn't need it. I'm not sure we'll use it at all. It's just not that hot in Chicago. (Other Chicagoans? Is this year unusually cool?)
-
Made it until yesterday. Outside temp was over 90, which means my living space would have hit 95. Still hot today, but tomorrow it goes back down into 70s.
-
I also cracked yesterday. 90+ with high humidity. Oddly enough I was working outside most of the day. At least the dog got to enjoy the AC :)
-
Ok we turned it back off last weekend, so can we re-enter the competition :)? With a deduction or two for weakness of course.
-
We turned our air conditioning on once to make sure we knew how it worked. (We just moved.) Then we turned it off because we didn't need it. I'm not sure we'll use it at all. It's just not that hot in Chicago. (Other Chicagoans? Is this year unusually cool?)
We also just moved into this house in December, still haven't turned it on yet, but have thought about it to see how it works. I imagine it will work like the heater did. We've hit a cool spot for now, mid 70's and some light rain. Might try once next week when we get back into the upper 80's. So far though our night time cooling has done the trick and we gain only about 5* during the day.
I'd say you're still in the contest for no A/C all summer.
-
Just finishing up this week of cool weather and rain, about to run into another streak of 90F+ temps. I started a new thread with a more appropriate title if we care to move the conversation over there. No A/C All Summer (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/no-ac-all-summer/).