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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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Very well put, especially the "puddle of goo" remark. One other point, though. If the AC in the office is on too high, you can always put on a sweater or jacket to get warm (I always keep a spare sweater at my desk for such occasions) or, as an impromptu solution if you're actually shivering, you can put some Bubble Wrap around your shoulders and/or legs (it works, I promise, although you may be thought a little strange!). When the AC isn't on high enough, there's only so much clothing you can remove in the office without getting fired . . . or arrested!
During the interview yesterday, Mr. Cox talked about how people living in air-conditioned houses have contributed to a loss of street life and outdoor activity.
So true. I just figured this out on my own a week ago. Standing in my back yard, I looked up and down the block at the backs of the houses (where I could see and hear the AC units). I realized that I knew the names of all my neighbors who did NOT have AC, and that I had no idea what my neighbors WITH AC looked like.
This is not very suave, but it works: lay around in your underwear with the curtains closed and the lights off. Your neighbors will thank you if the curtains are closed.
Many years ago I picked up a small booklet in my library. it was published by a midwestern university or extension service, I believe. One of the tips for cooling off was to hold an ice cube behind your earlobe--it works!
It also described a way to keep cool at night in your bedroom: close all openings except two windows. Put a box fan blowing out one of the windows so that cool air is drawn from the other window across your bed.
We keep our A/C on 79 during the day and 81 at night (so that it doesn't come on). The air feels more tempered than chilled. But sometimes even 79 feels chilly, even in Mississippi!
They have the same problem in Japan, where summers are very hot and humid. For better or worse, stores there sell large desiccant packs (like those that come in vitamin bottles or shoe boxes to keep them dry). People put the packets in their closets so their bedding and clothing won't mold.
Thank you for this useful contribution that reminds us that there are alternative ways to stay comfortable. As we confront higher temperatures with more heat waves, it gets more challenging to balance between coping with heat and trying to reduce our energy use because of heat trapping emissions.
Yet another reason to turn off the AC is that if we allow ourselves the opportunity, our bodies will develop enzymes that allow us to feel more comfortable in heat.
Finally, I don't see Mr. Cox as advocating entirely giving up AC but using it judiciously. Certainly when health is at risk, I would argue that it makes to turn on the AC.
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