Living AC Free
In my part of the world, we’re experiencing a very early season heatwave–both yesterday and today have brought near record temperatures (right now my computer is showing 91 for my town of Newton, MA. Temperatures like this are more typical for late July and August, not May.
Granted it’s only been two days of the extreme heat, but I’m happy to report that–at least so far–we’ve been living AC free. Here’s how:
- During the day we shut our windows and put down our shades to keep the sun from heating up the house.
- When the temperature begins to fall in the evening we open windows to introduce as much cool air as possible.
We use our grill for cooking and our microwave for reheating. Mostly we eat cold food like salads & sandwiches.
- We take cool showers before bed.
- We use powerful but fairly quiet window fans that fit snugly into the window, minimizing light infiltration.
Once summer kicks into high gear living AC free can become a lot more challenging, especially as high nighttime temperatures make it hard to maintain comfortable indoor temps.
Last year we did pretty well and kept our use of our central air conditioning system to a minimum (maybe 7-10 days the whole summer). But last year we didn’t consistently close our windows and shades during the day, so our house was probably hotter and more humid than it (hopefully) will be this summer. Stay tuned for updates…
4 Comments
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Very interesting, I have not come across anyone with such a lofty goal as getting rid of AC use altogether, but these are some great tips to accomplish this goal. One thing you did not mention is that ceiling fans use much less energy than the AC and could help with this goal.
Comment by Jonathan — June 6, 2010 @ 8:11 pm
Thanks for bringing up ceiling fans. I neglected to mention that I have also have a ceiling fan in my bedroom and I have found it to greatly improve our comfort during hot summer nights.
Comment by Rachel White — June 7, 2010 @ 7:00 am
No AC at all in our house, we’ve never had it. Here’s a little understood fact: the human body acclimatizes with the changes of the seasons. I don’t know the precise enzyme physiology, but this ability is found in all kind of creatures, it makes sense we can do it too. So in the modern world we don’t give our bodies this message, and we stay behind the seasons. What I mean: if you go from an AC house to an AC car drive to an AC office to an AC car drive back to an AC house, from spring on into summer, when you finally do take your summer vacation and try to go for a hike in the August woods you are not going to be so happy. Best to ride those seasons, and signal the body that its time to change. I think the elderly cannot do this so well, as a rule, as can young people — I would never advise an elderly person to do without AC.
To cool the house and make sleeping easy, we use the evening window fan approach too, its dramatic what an hour of that can do to cool a room before going to bed. Then when writing or reading in the house, or working on housework, we have floor fans. We don’t mess around with indirect air movement, its best to aim a fan right at you. The directed floor fan is the summer equivalent of the zipper cardigan plus long underwear in winter. Try it!
Comment by Eric Olson — May 17, 2011 @ 11:05 pm
On the hottest days of summer, I soak a wash cloth with cool water and put it on my neck. It makes a big difference.
Comment by Dan Ruben — May 15, 2012 @ 9:53 am