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What are the best ways to stay cool in the summer without an air conditioner?
Easy Answer: Try water, shade and a little cave time.
As the mercury rises this summer, finding ways to stay cool that don't require a power-hungry air conditioner can help you save money and the environment. You could do what New York City officials did last week and threaten to fine people that leave their door open and let the cool out. But police enforcement isn't the only way to save energy during a heat wave.
For some Easy Answers on how to stay cool without an air conditioner, we turned to Stan Cox, a senior scientist with the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, and author of the book Losing Our Cool.
Cox is a guest on today's Marketplace for a segment about summer without AC and provided us with his list of six ways to stay cool without stressing the power grid.
1. Get a breeze going
Your body is constantly generating heat, in amounts comparable to what's put out by a 100-to-300-watt light bulb. You're uncomfortable in hot or humid weather because your body has a harder time ridding itself of that heat. That's when ceiling, window, or floor fans are useful. Why keep 25,000 cubic feet of living space refrigerated in order to keep two or three people cooled off? Air moving across your body is highly effective in helping you shed heat; some of the newer portable fans do an even better job than the traditional box fan. Attic or whole-house fans, when turned on in the evening after the outdoor temperature has dropped, replace hot air that has accumulated inside during the day with fresh, cooler air.
2. Unplug
Any household device that runs on energy in the form of electricity or gas also releases much of that energy as waste heat. The fewer things you have turned on, the less heat you have to deal with. There's a reason that around the world, kitchens traditionally have been separated from the main house. Cut back on boiling and baking especially. Keep any unneeded lights turned off. Energy-efficient light bulbs and refrigerators pump out less heat than conventional ones. Take tepid or cold, not hot, showers, to relieve the house of a big load of humidity (and remove a lot of heat from your own body). And use advanced solar technology--the clothesline--to dry the laundry.
3. Go back to the cave
If you have a basement, take advantage of it. The Flintstones' rock ranch house must have been a furnace in summer; our actual Stone Age ancestors would certainly have appreciated geothermal climate control as they took refuge in their caves. If the humidity gets uncomfortable down there, a fan or room air conditioner can take care of it at very little energy cost. If you don't have a basement, cool a one-room refuge with a small air-conditioner that can be turned on only when needed.
4. Get wet
If it's not feasible to hit the lake or local swimming pool, but if water supplies are sufficient and the garden is getting dry, set the sprinkler to overshoot a little and send the kids (or yourself) out to cool off in it. In drier regions where water may be scarce and air humidity is low, evaporative ("swamp") coolers are a highly effective use of available water.
5. Make shade
Vegetation cools twice, by shading and by evaporation. For the long run, plant trees, especially on the south and west. In the shorter run, or if trees won't work, put other types of tall plants--giant reed, sunflowers, or even corn--along the sunbaked sides of the house.
6. Workers of the world, thaw out!
In the workplace, we often have much less control over the indoor temperature than we do at home. The number-one summer complaint of people working in large offices is that it's too cold. If, instead of blowing on their hands or taking sweaters or space heaters to work, the nation's overchilled employees united to demand a less frigid summer work environment, there is no telling how many power plants could be closed down.
Buy Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer) by Stan Cox on Amazon.com
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While I certainly see the author’s point in advocating an A/C free life, I am not willing to do so living in Middle Tennessee with our humid summers. I currently use window units in my home and have them on timers, generally only running them during the day when the temps are the hottest. The house probably stays around 78 in the summer, which I find bearable. I used to feel that the house had to be around 70 to be comfortable, but since using the window units (my central air is broken and I do not have the money to replace it) I have found I do not need the house in iceberg mode to be comfortable. I also utilize my ceiling fans and floor fans when necessary. As a child, we did not have a/c and survived fine, though I do remember being pretty miserable trying to sleep in a hot, humid house with just a window fan to cool me. I am sure I could get used to the heat if necessary, however, I am not willing to go completely a/c free.
Kudos to the writer who lives in Kansas without A/C for most of the year! Our family of six lives in LaGrange, GA in a house without air conditioning. At first the lack of A/C was a matter of economics, however, 18 years later it has become a choice. If we can do it, anyone can! Granted, our house, which was built in the 1850’s, was situated to catch the cross breezes and is surrounded by trees that were full grown when my Daddy was born here in the 40’s. A tin roof, generous overhangs and wraparound porches also play a significant part in keeping the house cool. Even on days when the temperature and the humidity skyrockets, (currently it is in the mid-90’s) it stays relatively cool inside (it is 82 degrees in the kitchen – our hottest room on the west side of the house).
It would be wonderful if more builders would take these environmental concerns to heart when doing new construction. Building homes with numerous operable windows, attic fans, taller ceilings, deep overhangs and porches would go a long way in lowering one’s cooling costs without adding much to the construction bill. You know, there is a lot to be said about a detached kitchen connected to the house with a dog-trot!
It is an art to stay cool in the deep south without A/C. Drink lots, and I mean LOTS of water. Wear light colored, light weight clothing. Do your hardest work early in the morning while it is still cool and then go jump in the pool. (That is actually good advice for anyone, anywhere!) Do all of your cooking outside. I prefer the grill, but I also have an outdoor oven and cook top. On the hottest of days, during the “dog days†of summer, we have been known to sneak off and drink mint juleps while dangling our feet in the creek! Y’all come join us!
I find this story pretty silly . It is one thing to talk about making sure people do not waste energy with over air conditioning , etc. It is something else altogether to say 'oh lets get not have air conditioning at all' I for one appreciate that living in the south where summers are 95 + degrees and 80% humidity that having AC is a quality of life improvement. I do not feel nostalgia for an AC free time.
Since the mid 70's. I have not used the AC. I felt so strongly about the energy crisis and need to conserve. The biggest usage of power was the Ac, so I decided not to use it. My sons were raised without Ac. We lived in Tampa without Ac. I was born and raised in Tampa before AC as my father and his father. And, we never melted. To this day I only use the Ac when I have a guest.
Unfortunately the example was not carried on by my sons. They think this style of living austere and would rather be cool then save energy. I don't know where I went wrong in their up bringing.
I now live in St Augustine, Fl close to my sons and still do not use the Ac.
I always said if all the Acs in Fl were turned off all the transplants would leave. We would then live in "Old Florida" again.
It may seem that one person can't do much. But its like stopping littering, you do it one tissue at a time.
Evelyn F Thompson
My Aunt, Judy Walker, is in her late 60's and has lived in Tennessee without air conditioning for many years. She wrote an article on how she does it, called "Out the Window With Air Conditioning," which was published in the Christian Science Monitor in August of 2008. She is quite serious about preserving our resources and walks her talk. I have to admire anyone who has learned to live in Tennessee in the summer without air conditioning! She heard the program and asked that I comment that she seriously does this and it is quite possible.
We need to stop allowing towns to get so big because all that pavement for roads and sidewalks, plus new homes all amount to mass storage for heat. And smaller homes are a must. Here in my remote area of the Sierras we stay as cool as my ancestors did in 1860. Shade trees, opening windows at night, cooking outside. And dressing light.
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number-one summer complaint of people working in large offices is that it’s too cold. If, instead of
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If the boss controls the freaking thermostat, what happens when the boss is out of town? Could he be reminded to slow down the heat-pump before he leaves? In the army we have dress greens for winter with mickey-mouse boots but khaki for summer with ventilated boots or just fatigues with sleeves rolled up. Does boss need to post better dress code for energy conservation?
Of course the "little things mean a lot", but the big chunks of energy are in the hands of the engineers. With 69 degree year-round constant temperature dirt 69 feet underground just waiting for us to pump heat into or out of it, efficiency is merely free for the asking whenever we can get control of the designers who seem to be more interested in making money than in making a green Earth. Politicians like money even more. Politicians and engineers working against us will be a tough nut to crack. In the meantime, an individual's second largest energy savings will come from planning her/his vacation for her/his most unseasonable weather. But for top choice I like suggestion of :
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smaller homes are a must.
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~~MotherLodeBeth~
How apt that originally the letter B is merely an abbreviation for the word Beth which means
house
!
Believe it or not.
http://www.newsfrom1930.blogspot.com/
Don't you just hate people who tempt you with links?
But check out the comment on the icebergs from 1931.
I grew up in Hiroshima, which has a New Orleans-like summer climate. Very few people had an air conditioner back then (40 years ago), and when we walked into air-conditioned department stores, we began to feel ill because our bodies could not take the shock. I find it to be very curious that no American person seems to mention one big benefit of not having an AC. On hot humid days, you lose appetite. So you end up losing weight over the entire course of summer. It's a cost-free nature's weight loss program.
Two years ago I moved into my first house without central air. I lived the first summer without air conditioning. The second year, this year I could not survive without a window unit. I just about die when I have to leave the bedroom & go to other parts of the house. As people attest to the mold that grows from living in a very humid area, is not a trade off I want to make for simply living without air.
To all of the people who HAVE air conditioning but don't use it, why don't you get rid of your unit & give it to someone who actually wants to use it?
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