Trying to learn to live without air-conditioning...

[EnviroBat]

I never realized how spoiled I've become. When I was a kid I remember being in many places that didn't have A/C. Somehow we just "got along" without it. My outside compressor/evap unit took a shit a few nights ago, and it has been hell trying to sleep. I've got fans set up in strategic places in the house, but damn, when the humidity takes over, it's fucking miserable. The thing is, I've really enjoyed the windows being open the past few days. It feels "alive" like summer is supposed to feel. Anyone else out there suffering through the heat?

[SacredCow]

1. Afraid not....

In the deep South, it would be suicidal. But the offset is that I rarely run any heat during the winter.

[Shell Beau]

2. I feel like the AC is a necessity here in MS. I can't imagine not

having it. When it has gone out in the past, it was the most miserable feeling!

[EnviroBat]

3. Yeah, just sticky, and hard to breathe...

[jobycom]

14. Stayed in MS electricity free after Katrina.

They got the water hooked up before the electricity, so we took cold showers during the day. You learn to live with it, but not to love it.

Makes you understand why the South is slower, though. You moved slower, you relaxed more. You did the hardest work in the mornings and evenings.

[Bake]

23. Our elec was out for a week after Katrina

It was my wife's third week in MS; we had just moved her down from KY. It was hell. She ran tubs of cold water to stay cool. Slept for a bit in the car with the AC on. Awful.

And yet, when I was growing up in West Tennessee, all we had were two window units, and we survived.

Bake

[jobycom]

24. Yeah, now that you mention it...

the house I grew up only had a window unit, too. We propped fans in the windows to blow air into the rooms, which worked very well. It was hot, even unbearable at times, but mostly we didn't mind. Didn't stop us from enjoying the central AC when we moved, though.

After Katrina I drove back down there in my Prius. The Prius AC is electric, and the gas motor only runs when the batteries are wearing down. So we we'd sometimes sit in the car and run the AC, and the gas motor would only kick in for a short time, so we didn't burn much gas (as you know, it was scarce for a couple of weeks). I had forgotten that!

[Shell Beau]

29. I swear I think it is hotter than it used to be.

When I was in elementary, we didn't have AC at school. I don't remember it being miserable. But maybe it was because I was a kid and things like that were a lot easier to deal with. But I also don't remember getting overheated playing outside in the summer. :shrug:

[jobycom]

30. I don't know. I never sweat like I used to as a kid.

Back then, I'd play outside and I'd got red, hot, gaspy, and the sweat was like a syrup clinging to me. Now I get sweaty and hot, but nothing like that. I remember once standing in the sun talking to a friend and feeling like someone had slugged me with a bat right on top of my head. I swooned, and had to sit in the shade for a while. I imagine it was a minor form of heat stroke.

[Shell Beau]

34. Yep! You probably deserved a trip to the doc for that one!!!!!

[Bake]

32. I think you're right!

My elementary school wasn't air conditioned either (of course, it was in Tennessee and not Mississippi!) and we seemed to do OK. I remember it being a big deal getting to the high school that HAD AC!

Global warming!

Bake

[Shell Beau]

28. And I tell you the hottest it gets around here is in the delta.

I don't know if it is because it is flat or its because it is on the river, but the heat there is totally different than where I live now. Miserable!

I went without AC during Katrina for about 4 days. That was a long 4 days. Anything I could do to get out of my house, I did. Wasted lots of gas I am sure.

[unpossibles]

4. I've seldom had AC, and used to be a bread baker for years

so most of the time, the heat's not too bad, and when it is, I go somewhere cool - like the dollar theater or swimming. Or I eat a lot of Flavor-Ice.

Every now and then I try to put it in perspective. My house is 120 years old, and I try to imagine wearing a suit all day, and having no AC or even good fans.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. If you aren't doing so, make sure you close the windows in the morning

and close the shades/blinds/drapes. This should help keep the house cooler during the day.

Taking a quick cool shower right before going to bed helps too.

That's how I got through summers in Boston, where it wasn't always hot but when it was it was very sticky and miserable.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. Basements = your best friend.

[IndianaJones]

7. our lower floor is half underground, and its cool all the time. nt.

[ghostsofgiants]

15. Yeah, my apartment is a basement apartment, it is great.

[XemaSab]

8. Is your sig line about how you're feeling with no AC?

I'm not a big heat/ac person, but when the temperature's above about 85, sleep is not going to happen without some help. If I hadn't had a swamp cooler in South Carolina, I would have DIED I tell ya. Ditto for here in Redding.

[EnviroBat]

10. Pretty much,,, It may get fixed tomorrow.

Funny thing is, some mornings about 3:30am, the outside world cools off pretty nice, and I wake up with the fans blowing on me, and it's almost freezing!

[hobbit709]

9. Don't even think about here in Austin.

Way too hot here.

[trof]

11. Granny would put the sheets in the fridge.

If you flipped 'em out on the bed REAL quick you'd get about 7.3 seconds of blessed coolness.

[pokerfan]

12. It's not the heat, it's the humidity

Just two weeks ago it hit 36% here! It was horrible. Today it's 79° and and a much more tolerable 25%.

[ghostsofgiants]

16. 36%?

It's 45% here and it feels like a normal summer day. (74°C)

It was 70-something % here a few days ago. Now THAT is shitty.

[pokerfan]

18. 45%! That's terrible! n/t

[ghostsofgiants]

21. Like I said, it's a normal day here, doesn't bother me at all.

[LSK]

13. this happened a year ago for a weekend to me

The A/C went out on a Saturday and nobody came out until next Tuesday. It was in the low 90s that weekend. Lots of fans and late nights praying for the temps to drop.

[yellowcanine]

17. A small exhaust fan in the attic helps an amazing amount - even with working AC.

And you can put a bunch of exhaust fans in upper bedroom windows to pull cooler air from basement. Keep one fan to blow on you when. Take lots of cold showers.

[yellowdogintexas]

19. ok at night, put the breeze box blowing OUT in the bedroom window

When the sun goes down, close off that room, fix the fan, and start pulling the air through that room. When you are ready to go to bed, you can just let that breeze pull over you. You will get cold before morning.

Now if you don't have 2 windows in that room, you put your breeze box in another room, close all the other windows in the house except the bedroom and the one the fan is in and let it pull the air through the bedroom ..you can open a window in each bedroom if you are doing it this way. Again, kick the fan on at sundown to start the process and when you go to bed, just close the windows all over the house except the bedroom windows.

[Arugula Latte]

20. We don't have AC, but we're in Portland, so we have mucho shade trees and dry heat

Even when it's 90, it's warm upstairs, and slightly uncomfortable, but not too bad. Our downstairs stays cool.

When it's 100, that's a different story, but we rarely get that kind of heat. 80 or 82 degrees of dry heat is a typical summer temp. here. Veddy nice. B-)

[Kali]

22. I don't have anything but fans (130 year old adobe, 4,500 feet SE AZ)

it sometimes gets up to 100 inside in late june, but we do like the old timers did and take siestas. and until last year I had an above ground cheapo pool - being damp for the month of June caused mildewy hair but comfortable body temp B-)

July and August bring monsoon rains and cooler temps, and fans work great blowing that damp air around.

On the other hand, modern buildings aren't built to maximize natural conditions and can be useless without their artificial air. It is amazing in this house the temperature diffences between the original adobe rooms and the basically uninsulated, framed, add-on rooms.

[PassingFair]

25. We have a window unit in the "studio" where the computers are.

The rest of the house is SWEAT CITY.

We manage.....

[Midlodemocrat]

26. Could never do it. Even when I lived in CT I had A/C in

my apartment.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

27. I grew up without AC in the house.

My dad hated AC on principle, he found it too confining, so we lived with fans (ceiling, window and attic) and open windows. And I guess it never bothered me too much, perhaps because I never lived with AC so I adapted to live without it. Of course, now I have AC and use it, but I think my experience growing up without AC has conditioned me so that heat and humidity don't bother me that much (not anything close to how cold bothers me.)

[Roon]

31. Some tweaker stole the copper off of my swamp cooler

So I haven't had it in the past two summers. But, it isn't so bad. I live on the north side of the house and we have foliage that grows out of control sometimes.We also live underneath a couple of big trees. We open the windows at night and then seal the house up during the day. Works out pretty good. There has been times when it was a little unbearable, then me and my roomie just strip down to our undies.

[bigwillq]

33. We got Central Air last year

we had window units before then..we usually set the Central A/C to 72 degrees.
Last summer our electric bills were cheaper than when we had the window units. Not sure how the bills will pan out this year b/c the electric company raised their rates so much.

I am not sure I want to live without A/C. Call me selfish. I get really irritated when I am hot, and I also cannot breathe as well.