Beating the heat while you sleep
Last night was the first night in I don’t know how long that it wasn’t beastly hot.
I’m one of those people–not all that rare in New England–who doesn’t have air conditioning, so believe me, these things get my attention.
I live in an area where it doesn’t get too hot too often. But every summer there are always a number of sweltering days and nights, although that number varies widely from year to year. My bedroom is distinguished by casement windows and something called awning windows (I had to look the term up to get it right), neither of which are particularly simpatico to the installment of an air conditioner. I’ve never gotten around to cutting a hole in the wall for one, either.
And really, most of the time there’s no need. I have windows on three sides of the bedroom, so I not only have cross-ventilation, I have double-cross ventilation, as well as a large ceiling fan. In fact, when the windows are open on all three sides and it’s a bit breezy outside, I find I don’t have to sweep the floor–the dust just piles up of its own accord in whatever corner the wind happens to be blowing towards. Better than a Roomba.
But this past week there was no breeze to be had, except for the steamy air, weakly stirred by the feeble ceiling fan. Sweating was continual, perpetual, and copious (yes, I know; too much information).
I hear it’s been that way throughout much of the country. So, for those of you who, like me, might be air conditioner-challenged, here are some tips for how to keep cool without AC on a hot summer night.
Absent among the suggestions is a traditional New England fixture, the sleeping porch. You can see them on big old houses here. They’re usually attached to the second floor and adjacent to the bedrooms there, screened on all sides to let in the cooler night air and keep out the ubiquitous mosquitoes. But, since most of us lack sleeping porches, the fan and the ice cubes and the wet sheet and the wet socks might just do the trick.
I hope you sleep well tonight, and every night.
Screened porches, wicker chairs, cots, a Flit sprayer that you pump, frosty pitchers of iced tea. Sounds like the Pasadena, California of my very young years. Particularly civilized when Grandma reads the requisite chapter of say, Treasure Island before lights out.
Humidity was usually not a problem, though we’ve had some in the past weeks. Some of the classic Craftsmen style homes had an inset screened porch on the second floor just for this pre-air conditioning not quite camping out.
Central air for me, hands down. No sex in the attic and no throwing hay bales, that’s the ticket….
It’s very important to drink cold water to make sure your body does not become dehydrated. Sips of cold water every few minutes lowers the core body temperature.
No sleeping porch? That’s how they used to do it.
New Englanders and the no central air always cracked me up. When we lived in Boston every year people were surprised that it was hot–again. “It’s not usually like this,” is the rallying cry. Every single year.
Of course here in Phoenix we’re always surprised when we have a cold spell (co-incidentally it usually happens the same time every year–might be a pattern in that!)
Lemonade with mint leaves is my recommendation for a hot summer night.
Cheers!
Home Depot (and probably any other local home improvement store that HD hasn’t driven out of business) has fairly inexpensive Chinese “portable air conditioners”. These are basically a box about18x18x40 inches standing on end, with a plastic air hose exhaust. You have to devise some way to make the exhaust discharge air outside the cooled area. This is much easier than a casement or awning window installation.
W.C.Fields on the sleeping porch. Ahhh, I remember it well!
Glad it’s cooled a tad. Here, it remains hot and steamy. Oh, well, that’s what I get for living in Florida.
Hmmm this is why my feet shake like wind shield wipers on hot nights — to circulate air — I know it’s nuts — but I alway wondered 🙂
If a sleeping porch will help, then the outside air is cooler and the heat you are suffering from is residual heat from a house heated during the day.
The cure is to bring in cool air from outside. Given three-sided ventilation, close off the middle portion. put an exhaust fan in one end and open the screened windows in the opposite side. As air leaves out the fan side it has to enter from the open opposite side. The cool air has to cross you (asleep) to get to the fan to exit. You’ll need blankets by 3 AM.
Another way, if the noise of the fan bothers you, is to put the exhaust fan in a window on the far side of the house. Close off all intermediate windows and open most or all of your three sides. Cool air must enter from your windows to get through the house to get to the fan to exit.
An exhaust fan works faster than pointing it the other way, but the end result would be similar. A window fan on the second floor is more secure than one on the first floor.
Any window fan must be sealed in, so that air doesn’t blow out the fan and come back in through the same open window. You have to close the window down on the fan. Or whatever.
Since the system depends on night air outside being cooler, it doesn’t help during the day.
Many people make the mistake of putting an in-blowing window fan in the window right next to their bed. The intense breeze of a full-on fan plus the noise keeps them awake. An exhaust fan can be located further away, produces the same flow, and is intrinsically quieter.
Let me know how it works.
I grew up in Buffalo sans central A/C and a family that really didn’t see the problem with sweating during the night. With 90% humidity plus day and night and temps in the 90’s for a month or two, it was pretty nasty to try and get real sleep.
Until I realized we did have a spare room in the basement. So I could get cool and dank and humid air… but it was *cool* air none the less. And actually get some sleep in July and August.
Of course I was the first in my family to have A/C in my car…. not only to cool in the summer, but get dry air for the winter defrosting as *nothing* works better than warm, dry air to get the fog off the windows.
If you have no basement, then you have my deepest sympathies for those nights the northeast decides to be set on *smother*.