How do I stay cool?

Question

Where I live, it is 120 degrees... we live in the desert. Our air conditioning doesn't really work that well in this heat. How do I keep myself cooler?

Answer 1

It's 112F here, so I feel your heat!
I'm wearing very loose clothes and drinking lots of water, not doing to much exercise either.

My AC is working but it's working overtime....

A cool wet washcloth every hour helps and my dogs love the new doggie ice cream I got them ( and some for me too).

I read about this thing called the STAcool Vest;
http://www.stacoolvest.com , the link can explain it better, but it a vest you wear that has an insulated frozen interior. Maybe a good inVESTment (pun..lol), for a desert dweller.

Good luck to you.....fellow heatwave victim.

Answer 2

blue bermuda shorts
some eagle eye glasses
a baseball cap
and nikes
and dont forget to grin
that looks pretty cool

also hang some wet cloth in front of the windows
as the air passe it cools down a lot

make sure there is an opening in the highest part of the roof ,
And have some openings on the lowest part of the coolest side of the house
This will created a coldish draft going through the house

i live in 45 degrees celcius everyday of the year myself
But i build a really cool garden
by having trees all around the house ,vines up the walls .and ramadas from passion fruit all around you create shade all around the house
so the air is already cooler before it gets into the house

the bigger the leaves the more condensarion you get in the early morning
this also cools the place a lot
so plant lots of big leafed plants all around
plants with red leaves absorb the most heat

check
Permaculture
for dryland strategies many more ideas for cooling houses down in ther dessert
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ai6ECrNJzhVQNaZQGofN9nLty6IX?qid=20070621234541AAcarVJ

Answer 3

do good, look good, feel good....that will make you cool,man!
another, consider what you eat or drink, avoid high calories, sodas,red meat, fried foods.coffee is also "heating".
Take substantial amount of salt, drink tea without sweeteners,eat fruits that are in season high in water content.
Your dwelling, insulate them inside, grow trees for the long term, meanwhile, put insulating materials about 2 feet about or beside your roofs or walls outside where the temperature is hottest.Then close all those windows in the hot sides.
you live in the desert? Built dwellings below the ground surface, just about 1 foot from ground level makes a lot of difference, so go deeper. I know desert survival.
Do what the ancient desert dwellers do, when they thrift on water, they do most of their physical activities at night or during the cooler time of the day.If they need to exert, do it slowly, like walking lazily or leisurely,clothes should be loose, covering all skin as possible, cotton or wool with air that can maintain body temperature inside ,put on head cover or parasol, never forget to wear uv 400 protection eyewear, wide as possible, contacts is minimal,even on cloudy days when outdoors form 9 am to 4 pm, prolong exposure leads to blindness.
Who needs aircon anyway, the more you are adapted to it, the more you will feel uncomfortable without it, it;s contrast.

Answer 4

You could build a fly - roof... you know the fly over your tent.. well you just build a fly roof over your house.. that shades it entirely.. air moves freely between your fly roof and the house roof... and your roof stays cooler.. so your house does too. Less strain on your air conditioning. Of course, you cold just wear wet undergarments and have naked people fan you.. my personal preference... but then I have some other ideas...


See.. the thing is it is probably cool at night in the desert (of course that is not always so.. it depends what you are calling desert) ....

So if it is cool at night.. what you do is trap that cold air in a courtyard (the courtyard is protected from the sun and wind during the day) and also trap cold air inside the dwelling in "day rooms"... which means you only warm up "night rooms" ... these night rooms are perhaps the ones that face the sun most of the day...

The other thing you do is you have small windows and very highly thermally insulated walls so that heat doesn't transfer in and out of the building easily.

The next thing you need is a tremendous amount of thermal mass to help regulate the internal room temperature. Thermal mass is, for example. a large water tank inside the home.. or a large stone structure protected from the external heat and cold... you try to kept those walls at a comfortable room temperature so that they act like a large cave ... remote from the external environment....

Your Courtyard could have water in it... moving water is very good at cooling things in the desert because of evaporation... you can induce a breeze using a fan or (naked female slaves waving ostrich feathers is my personal preference) to pass over the water to generate a form of evaporative cooling towards internal spaces. As a matter of interest, if the internal thermal mass is a large water tank you could have that cycling water across its external surface (an internal water feature ~ a fountain ~ more Venus de Milo... whatever) ....

Your floor surfaces need to be a large thermal mass too.. that is protected as much as possible from the influence of the external environment.

Your roof must be exceptionally well insulated to restrict the transfer of heat and cool. You could ventilate the roof space during the day, drawing air up from an underground source.. a subfloor perhaps... and you could reverse that air movement at night so that the cool night air was directed to teh subfloor "cool air storage" area.

And..shade... you must shade those walls.... all of them with external devices... by careful placement of garden walls.. by a row of giant cactus... whatever...

Of course all this air movement can be generated using simple solar powered devices.. they work during the day because of the sun and they naturally stop at night when there is none. Solar power can be used to make air holes open and close... for natural convection... it really isnt that difficult.

Pity you werent starting from scratch.. but these basic principles canbe applied to existing homes somehow... you just need to get in tune with that environment .. that is, I mean.. theone that is right at your home and work with nature .. check out what the animals in your neighbourhood are doing to keep comfortable... and use your imagination.

Answer 5

That sounds like Hell If you have central it shouldn't be that bad.
I had a simular situation once,and I took tin foil and covered the windows especialy the ones that are in the sun the most.
It reflects the heat away from your windows a lot of heat gets through the windows. That made a real difference.

Answer 6

Put a tank top and a pair of shorts on and soak yourself with cold water and then sit by the fan. Or you can get yourself one of those Intex pools, they work very well to keep you cool. Otherwise get your air conditioner charged up. Its probably low on Freon.

Answer 7

Well: you can use "Electric Fans it's the best way to stay
cool indoors & yes that will save Energy also would be alot cheaper or just drink some Iced Tea "

Answer 8

i am not sure where you live but is there spring or any water natural source water hole near you if not dig a pond and not buy a pool it might use alot of water. or unfortunate one other way which uses little less water. there is always cold shower every time you r hot.

Answer 9

Taking a lot of water will also help the body to remain cool.And taking fruits with large water content can also help.

Answer 10

You should drink more water and see if you can find shades. You could also try a pool(unheated) or use ur tub as a pool and put cold water in it. Or if you have a hose....