by Tricia
Yesterday was a pretty hot and humid day. Today was supposed to be more of the same, so last night and today we did a few things to help keep ourselves cooler today.
Put fans in the windows to bring in the cooler night air. Once the sun went down yesterday, we got some relief. Unfortunately, our house was still pretty hot. We put some fans in the windows and sucked in as much of that cool air as we could before going to bed.
In the morning, I shut all of the shades. It’s a little depressing to live in the dark during the day, but it worked wonders to keep our home cooler. Just one ray of sunlight coming through the window can really heat up things. We have good shades in the home we have now, but in that past we’ve hung blankets on windows to keep out the sun.
Throughout the day, I drank water. I recently purchased a large jug/water bottle to hold 8 glasses of water. It will help to make sure that I drink enough water in a day. When filled with ice water, it it really hit the spot to help keep me cool.
After work, we headed to the lake. Lake Superior (the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area) can be quite chilly for swimming. It’s so large that it takes a lot for the water to warm up in the summer. The minute I stepped into the lake, I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going because it felt so good. Before long, I was dunking myself and swimming around like an alligator (that’s what my son was calling me when I was chasing him around). Man, I love that lake.
I do have to confess that I did turn on the air conditioner for about twenty minutes around 3:30pm. My office gets the afternoon sun for about three hours before my trees start blocking it. My office is also upstairs, and all of the heat rises up there. I broke down and kicked on the air to help cool things down a little bit.
In all, it ended up being like a game for me to try to do what I could to prevent the need for the air conditioner. Making it a game where you are challenging yourself makes it fun. What Rob in Madrid discussed about fighting discouragement about debt applies here as well. I really wanted to see how much I could do.
This plan is so much smarter than mindlessly resorting to AC! So many people who want to get out of debt have high utility bills and act like its inevitable. But, they won’t trade a little sweat for lower AC bills or wear a sweatshirt or use an extra blanket rather than having high heating bills. This blog entry is a great way for people to reduce their AC use by 90%. And in addition to saving money, you can help save the environment!
I also enjoy finding game-like ways to spend money. It’s sort of fun to find new ways to use less electricity, heat, AC, etc.
As I read your entries, which I enjoy thoroughly and find very inspiring, I keep thinking to myself, “what if they would move, would this help their income/lifestyle/debt reduction?” I mentioned this to you before but I didn’t realize you lived near Lake Superior. It’s a beautiful area but as a child I found it was a playland for wealthy Chicago-ites to vacation at. Do you have interest in the Twin Cities? – they seem to get listed as one of the best places to live in the U.S. and the economy appears stable. Just a thought and my apology for not sticking to the topic of air conditioning.
It’s amazing the difference staying adequately hydrated can make!
Another way to beat the heat is to work in the basement if you have one; heat rises and being in the basement is a little bit cooler.
I’m not sure I could resist the temptation to run the A/C. I’ve held off buying one this year as it’s been unusually cool this year and we haven’t needed on. Once we get a return to the blistering hot summer I probably break down and buy one.
that aside what does really help is closing all the blinds, makes the house dark and you need to spend a touch extra on electricity as you need to run a few lights but much cheaper than running the A/C.
Great ideas! My comment to your post yesterday mentioned that our a/c bill got up to $730 one month last summer and that recently I’ve been leaving the a/c on 78, even at bedtime.
In college I challenged myself quite a bit to see HOW LOW I could keep my electric bill. In August, I got it down to $35 one month. Not bad for living in Texas!! I kept the a/c off and only ran fans. I need to re-challenge myself for the next month and see how much $$ I can save on electricity and apply it to our debt reduction. Thanks for the motivation!
You’ve inspired me to hold off on our own AC. We have ceiling fans and that helps a lot! I’ve been drinking lots of water AND sucking on frozen ice fruit juice bars. Also, no heavy work during the day (like cleaning). I do it at night.
Hi Tricia! As usual, you inspire me. 🙂
One bit of advice about using the fans; my husband is an expert at cooling the house w/o the ac. Before you turn those fans INWARD, turn them OUTWARD; they will suck the hot air OUT of your house until the sun goes down. Then, turn them around to bring the cooler air in. It works beautifully, and cools the house more than just pushing the cool air in.
I play the same game at my house but for a different reason.
We work out of the house and my dh’s office is in the basement. As is my ds’s bedroom. Our home is superbly insulated but needs more ventilation in the attic. As a result, in the summer the attic area gets really hot and the heat radiates through the ceiling into the bedroom level.
The upstairs is normally 20+ degrees hotter than the basement when the a/c is running. The best I can achieve with the a/c on is 61 in the basement, 76 on the main floor and 82 in the bedroom.
If I don’t run the a/c, the bedroom will be 88 (and humid) but I can’t justify the bills and the pain (literally, my dh is freezing while he works, it hurts to touch his skin because it is so cold after working in the basement for a few hours) in order to get only a few degree gain for sleeping. On the other hand, we can’t sleep in the basement (no room for an inflatable bed in the office or ds’s room) so we suffer at night.
I do everything you suggest plus:
1. if you have forced air heating, run the fan because it cycles the cooler air from the basement through the house
2. run the bathroom fans upstairs and block the cold air returns on the bedroom level. This exhausts the hot air and sucks the coolish air coming through the heat vents up to body level (and stops the coolish air from falling back into the basement through the cold air return.
Ideally we would just have a room a/c unit in our bedroom since that is the only spot on the house that really needs a/c but we just put in really great windows (our room faces north-west in Canada therefore heat loss is the number one issue for that room) and the windows can’t take an a/c unit.
My score on the game so far this year? Only 6 days.
Oh, and a warning for those without a/c in their car (ours is broken). I have the worst burn of my life on my arm after driving for 2 hours with the window down yesterday. Remember to at least cover up that one arm while driving.
Hi Tricia,
You’ve done great at keeping your electric bill low.
Here are some of the tricks our family uses. First, a bit of background. We are in the Houston (Texas) area and I work from home on the computer all day. My tower system really puts out a lot of heat and it can feel pretty miserable. During the day I keep the a/c turned up to 85°F and higher. At night, when the kids go to bed, we drop the temp to around 78. We have an all electric house with no shading in the back yard. The morning sun comes in through the front of the house (kitchen). The afternoon sun comes through the back of the house (living room, family room, and master bedroom). Add 97% humity and, like I said, the heat can get pretty miserable.
Yes, water helps. Cold watermelon or cantaloupe (either juiced or in chunks) reduce your internal temp as well. For us, keeping the blinds closed until the sun is no longer a factor (afternoon in the front, morning in the back) is a must.
Okay, here’s the weird one — but it works. Wet a washcloth and wet your face, arms, legs, back of the neck and sit where a fan can reach you. As the water evaporates your skin temperature drops. When I’m really hot I go up to faucet wet my arms and face until they practically drip and go stand by a fan — it quickly evaporates.
We schedule errands/appointments for mid-afternoon so we can use other people’s a/c for the hottest part of the day.
Crockpots help us keep the kitchen cooler. We have the kind where the base and the ceramic dish are not attached. In other words, it’s not one piece as some older models are. I fill the ceramic liner with food and then set it up outside using an outdoor rated extension cord. Add a salad, veggies, and a grain and dinner is done.
There are several other tips. I tried to hit the ones that we find pay off the fastest. One last thing I’d like to mention, and it almost goes without saying. I find I stay coolest in the summer in sleeveless shirts and shorts.
Hope the tips help. We really appreciate both your blogs.
Thank you everyone for the tips!
I love the cooking outside idea for dinner. We were getting sick of having sandwiches for dinner, so my husband took our electric griddle outside and made some dinner on that. It sure beats heating up the house!
Since we live in Las Vegas hot summer days are a norm. I keep the air at 78/80 degrees and have shutters, which remain closed almost all day. Another trick which really works is swimming/showering and keeping on the damp clothes. I just jump in the pool, do a little yard work and wander into the house. The shower works well too. Also damp sheets make the beds very cool at night.
And ice…..ice packs…..ice really makes life nice.