I live with no AC. First thing, all windows get blocked with blackout curtains or whatever you can find. Wear loose cool clothes. I like to wear linen. At night and early morning/dusk, open the windows and doors (if applicable) to get the cool air flowing through your place. If you can, keep them open all night and seal them up once the sun comes up. Use a fan to blow directly on you. Even when it’s hot, that air flow is a life saver. Misting yourself and standing in a fan is a very effective way of keeping yourself cool. All your physical labor chores you’re going to want completed early in the day or after the sun goes down.
As for your laptop, maybe pointing a desk fan at the keyboard may help?
If AC isnt an option, the way Ive gotten through summers without is opening one window on one side of the building, then another one on the opposite side. Then point a box fan facing outward of one window, and do your best to seal the gaps with some cardboard or whatever you have. This will create negative pressure in the building, drawing in a bunch of air from the opposite window.
it's the same reason a breezy summer day feels cooler, the air is still cooler than your body temp and draws away heat better than sitting in still air, plus its more evaporation if you're sweating hot. also indoors without AC during summer is an insulated oven.
would be nice with a test for a sealed fan like I described. the problem with that setup is that the negative pressure will try to pull from both windows, competing with the fan trying to blow out and not getting as much flow
I live in the southern US, and my house basically has this built-in. There’s a big fan in the middle of the house that blows air into the attic, so if you open a few windows and flip the fan on it creates a breeze through the whole house.
Make sure your sewer traps haven’t dried up though. I turned it on with the house closed up one day and it sucked in air through the shower drain in the guest bathroom that hadn’t been used in a while…
Attic fans are great. We'd run it when the sun went down to draw in the cool night air. After that we shut everything up and drew the blinds. The house would stay very cool until late the next afternoon. On super hot days we might have run the AC for a few hours in the late afternoon or evening.
Yeah, a whole-house fan. You turn it on in the evening and it expels the hot attic air from the top while sucking in the cool fresh air through open windows. It actually works really well and is much more energy efficient than AC. When it gets super hot you still need AC though.
This stuff is unbearable, I can’t even play video games on my laptop, because it warms up very fast and the keyboard becomes uncomfortable for me to use.
There’s a lot of good advice in here but I haven’t seen anyone tell you to just reduce the amount of heat being generated in your home. Almost every plugged in electrical device in your home is generating some amount of heat. Esp. if they’re in use.
So my suggestion to you is to flip off the power-strip or unplug unnecessary devices, and find something else to occupy your time. The consoles, PCs, the tv itself, they’re all hungry devices that generate a lot of heat. Those fans people are telling you to use? They generate heat too… so while I’m not saying, “don’t use a fan to stay cool”, I am saying, “don’t fill your home with running fans in rooms you aren’t in”.
If you're out and about, I recommend light clothes, something to keep some sun off (EX: a hat or an umbrella or parasol), and a folding fan (even if the air is hot, the breeze is still somewhat nice)
Midwestern US here, it’s been getting hotter and some years our AC just stopped working. I keep my fan turned on almost 24/7 as I can’t breathe well without it on and recently I got blackout curtains with angled curtain rods. Keeps my room much cooler than a blanket over the window
I haven’t seen anyone recommend this yet but for your body itself, try using peppermint castille soap. There’s a brand here called dr.bronners, not sure if you have it in your area but you might be able to find it on Amazon. Really helps keep skin cool, sometimes I’ll just bathe my feet in it if I’ve already showered and just need to cool off a bit.
Also lose the socks and general clothing if you’re at home. A wet rag over a fan may help as well. Drink lots and lots of water. Horror movies also sometimes give me a bit of a chill! Good luck!
San Diegan here. Beach. That’s what we all do. Pool works too. And of course AC.
Get as much cold air inside overnight as possible then close all the doors and windows a little after sunrise. If your house is well insulated it’ll keep it relatively cool until after lunch. Also, keep the blinds closed on the side of the house actively getting sun.
Light weight or moisture wicking clothes.
Fans. Lots of them.
Damp washcloth on your neck or a spray bottle to mist yourself. If you want to step that up, put the washcloth in the freezer for a bit then wipe your face/neck down.
If it makes you feel better, so do I. I’m ALWAYS cold. I’m built for desert weather (except your stupid monsoon season. Fuck that noise).
Everyone’s going on and on about how hot it is this last week, and I’m like guys it’s barely been touched 90 like twice. I’ve been in heaven. I’m finally not cold all the time.
Not sure how relevant will this be to your question but the admin of the instance I’m on is quite transparent with the server performance etc. and perhaps it’ll provide some insight. Also quite interesting was the fact that storage itself is cheap but the bandwidth fees are not (from the comments).
I still haven’t figured out how to correctly link to posts on other instances so I’m pasting a direct link hoping a friendly bot finds it and updates it: lemmy.zip/post/509553
Mine’ll have to be Doctor Who and The Good Place. The Good Place is just a nice, comfy comedy show with a really good message and Doctor Who is my comfort show.
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