Slashdot Asks: Beating the Summer Heat?

July is always one of the hottest months in the U.S., but this year the heat got an early start. Sustained hot weather has slammed huge parts of the country, and led to some serious consequences. All those AC units employed to bring some relief to homes have contributed to the extended post-storm power outage in the eastern part of the country; five days in, the count is still over a million customers in the dark. (I'm writing from Austin; this year Texas's famously warm weather is a little less impressive by comparison to the midwest, the Carolinas, and many other places; temperatures are expected to remain under 100 until Saturday.) If you're in one of the severely affected areas, how has it affected you? More importantly, what strategies have you used to beat the heat in the absence of (or simply unreliable) electricity? Details help. In particular, how are you keeping the human and animal members of your household safe from overheating? Read on below for an extended set of questions on dealing with the ongoing heat wave of 2012's early summer, and respond to any of them that make sense in your situation. Note, answers are of course encouraged from people who aren't in the worst-hit areas, too! Though you're free to respond however you'd like, it would be useful if you start with your location right at the top of (or in the title of) your comment, so others can scan them easily.

• How hot is hot for you, locally? What temperature extremes have you seen in your own dwelling or neighborhood in recent weeks? (Also, how are you measuring them, if in any way more specific than reading local weather reports? Do you have a home weather station, and is it hooked to an upstream data feed like The Weather Underground?)
• Have local power systems failed, and if so for how long? Do you have a generator, and do you have any advice for others who are considering one?
• Some people (especially kids) face greater risks than others in sustained heat, and some types of medicine require refrigeration. What are the consequences for you and your household of extreme heat?
• If air conditioning is part of your strategy for keeping cool, what do you do to maximize its effectiveness? (Insulate or cover windows? Run it at certain times of day? Raise the thermostat and rethink your idea of "room temperature"?)
• If your power goes out, how prepared are you for a one-hour blackout? What about a day, or a week? Have you taken any measures to keep your life sane if a storm (or just a glitch in the grid) robs your home of AC, TV, and PC? Even if your local summer weather hasn't been unusually hot thus far this year, are you keeping more water or other supplies on hand in case your area later gets gets the heat-and-darkness treatment?
• What advice would you give to others who want to maintain safety and sanity while under the broiler? (Especially useful are ideas for city dwellers, who don't generally have space for an extra freezer or a safe place for a generator.)
• Whether you're in one of the worst hit areas or not, are you taking any steps to protect electronics and data from outages or extreme heat? Have you seen any failures that you believe to be caused by temperature extremes?
• Finally, what are you doing to find some relief from this summer's heat, other than cranking up the AC? Are you spending more time at the local pool? Waking up early to enjoy morning temperatures? Scanning San Francisco real estate prices?

I hope your Independence Day is a good one, no matter the temperature.

Comments

Australia, it's winter here

[tqft]

and my biggest weather problem is keeping my coffee warm.

You know how a lot of people rag on the preppers who keep plenty of supplies & their own generating kit & stuff for end of of times. Guess who has power & food that isn't going to go off. Prepping isn't just for alien invasion scenarios.

Shemagh/Keffiyeh.

[0100010001010011]

I bought one on Amazon just to try it out. Who would have thought a bunch of people living in a desert would have figured out how to stay cool. Re-wet it depending on how hot it is. Wring it out and put it on. Keep water in the fridge and it works even better.

If I've come back from a long run nothing cools me down faster than 1 or 2L frozen water bottle applied directly to arteries.

No AC growing up, and we just layed in front of fans and drank water. Human body can take quite a bit if you give it adequate water.

Re:Shemagh/Keffiyeh.

[0100010001010011]

It just means you have to cycle the water more frequently. It's been rather humid lately and the water doesn't evaporate but it warms up. So you get new water.

AC is one of the least efficient ways of cooling someone. Just like in the winter you can save a ton on your heating bills if you get an electric blanket. One for the couch and one for the bed. The heat is applied directly to the skin and you're warmer. Cooling 1700 sqft of house for 3 people is horrible in efficient. Cooling 2 cups of water and putting it on your head to absorb heat from your body is much better.

Re:Shemagh/Keffiyeh.

[turkeydance]

AC lowers the humidity so my books don't mildew. AC lowers the temperature so my dogs don't die. AC is better in a lot of ways.

Re:Shemagh/Keffiyeh.

[evilviper]

The problem with heat is totally nude I get pretty uncomfortable above 80 degrees... so once I've taken everything off, what next?

1) Dump a bucket of water over your head. This will DRASTICALLY and almost instantly reduce your temperature considerably. Your head has more blood flow closer to the surface than any other body part, your hair will hold the water quite well improving evaporative effects, and your incoming water pipe maintains a much more steady and comfortable temperature than the air, thanks to the buried pipes (so this works without refrigeration). If people took this advice, there would probably never be another heat-related death, power-outage or not.

2) Reduce your physical activity level, and take much more frequent breaks if you must work. Core body temperature is ~99F degrees, so you shouldn't be uncomfortable at 80F degrees, unless doing a lot of work.

3) Drink plenty of cold water, and include an occasional sports drink, or modest amounts of salt and potassium. People are accustomed to living their lives being dehydrated most of time time, so they don't recognize that they're killing themselves when hot weather comes along, and that it becomes dangerous. Keep cold drinks with you at all times, and use them.

4) Toss your blankets out, so your body is cooler at night, while you sleep. 100% cotton bedsheets are recommended. You'll feel a little cold when going to sleep, but you'll find you'll be vastly more comfortable and able to tolerate high temperatures the next day. This also goes along with making sure you're getting enough sleep... In hot weather especially, failure to do so can become dangerous.

5) Wear the thinnest, lightest, loosest and most breathable cotton clothing you can. Your body is an evaporative cooler, so good clothing can keep you cooler than no clothes at all. Thin, white cotton T-Stirt and loose shorts are recommended. A light, breathable hat can help a lot, but a tight, suffocating hat can be a serious problem, so choose carefully, you may be better off without a hat, sunburn not withstanding.

6) Get as much airflow as you can... It won't help pets or animals that don't sweat (unless you dump some water over them first). but for humans, a ceiling fan or box fan can lower your body temperature by 10-20F degrees. Combine this with dumping lots of water over your head for a huge double-whammy improvement.

7) Make a conscious effort to stay in the shade. Trees are great, as are covered open-air porches. If you must work where there isn't any existing shade, portable canopies are available.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Sorry, but, WHAT?!?

[bill_mcgonigle]

QUIT CRYING, AND PLAN + INVEST $$$ BETTER.

As an accident of geography, my town has three power companies. In my corner, luckily, I have the power company that does preventative maintenance and when there's a bad ice storm, we lose power for usually a couple of hours, once nearly a day.

Seven miles away, they have two-week outages. The PUC sets the rates independently, so it's not a matter of funding. If anything, my part of town is lower profit (less dense).

Anybody Remember Swamp Coolers?

[Hugh Pickens writes]

Ponca City, Oklahoma

Back in the 1950s, we used "coolers" - huge metal boxes that cooled by evaporative cooling. The walls of the cooler were filled with porous wood shavings and a pump circulated water that dripped through the shavings while a 10 horsepower motor sucked air through the shavings and into the house. My bed was right in front of the blast of air from the cooler and I remember that it seemed to cool quite well - probably lowering the inside temperature 5 to 10 degrees and making it quite comfortable during the night. I found out years later that what we called "coolers" were called "swamp coolers" in other parts of the country and in my travels I saw swamp coolers still in use in desert climates in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

One reason that coolers worked so well back then was that during the drought, the humidity in Ponca City was about zero so water evaporated readily. It seems to me that up until about 1976, when Kaw Dam was built east of town, the humidity was a lot lower in Ponca City. My mother says that having Kaw Lake so close changed the weather patterns around Ponca City and that the humidity rose a lot since its construction. If someone tried to use a swamp cooler today, I doubt if it would work at all.

Every summer I would spend a month with my grandparents in Boswell, Oklahoma. Nobody thought anything about the heat - it was just how life was. But everybody looked forward to the cool of the evening, just when the sun got low in the sky and the shadows would lengthen and the fireflies would come out. The whole family would go out on the big front porch, sit in the swing, drink ice cold ice tea, and wait for our neighbors to come around and sit down with us to talk about the events of the day. Simpler days and better perhaps - at least in memory.

Re:Atlanta area...

[polar red]

Installed some thicker curtains to block more sunligh

shutters work fantastically. and insulation. Nothing can beat those 2 at ROI. (paybacktime sometimes estimated to be at 2 years !)

maryland here

[mapkinase]

Has been out of power 2 days. Having multilevel housing helps the temperature distribution vua wide vertical passage through the stairway. Spent it in the first level.

Most pressing was having cellphone powered. Did it in the mosque (only two buildings in the area were left powered: mosque and McDonalds), thanks to Allah, I go there for all five prayers.

Two of my friends (Virginia, Maryland) did not have it today. One of them got it today.

Small detail. Monday morning during commute hours noticed police car in the ambush at the unpowered intersection with major road/minor road scenario), checking for rollers. Really, police? Really?

I am originally from the steppe area of Russia, so we have derecho-shmerecho all the time, only it was called strong wind. Short after I left, there was the most serious hurricane that broke half of the trees in my parents town. The power was restored within few hours. That was 90s, the time of lawlessness and collapse in Russia, black years of Yeltsin, organized crime and disorganized government.

This country is going down.

Re:Sorry, but, WHAT?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

"I have the power company that does preventative maintenance and when there's a bad ice storm, we lose power for usually a couple of hours, once nearly a day."

My power company also does preventative things by BURYING THE FUCKING CABLES!
I had no outage for 19 years, the year the house was connected.

Re:White roofs help greatly.

[bmxeroh]

My understanding is that with the sun at a much lower angle during the winter, it really doesn't make much of a difference, even more so if you're somewhere where the roof is covered in snow. I'm sure there may be some exceptions depending on geography, but it seems like the benefit of a white/light roof in the summer far outweighs the slight reduction in solar heating in the winter.