Surviving The Summer When Your AC Goes Out

sweatingSummer is here, and it is hot and humid! Of course, you probably have your AC’s on full blast. Unfortunately, your air conditioning is more likely to quit on you during the hot summer days when you most need it than it is during our brief Florida winters.

But, here’s the real kicker: not all HVAC repair services are available 24/7, and even those that are will find themselves overbooked during the summer because so many AC’s give out –frequently something that could have been prevented through better maintenance or a pre-summer inspection, but that is a discussion for another time.

Today, we’re here to give you a few tips on how to stay alive until your air conditioner is repaired:

Try the Fan + Ice Combination

This has been used since time immemorial. All you have to do is place bowls of ice in front of standing or table fans and they’ll circulate the coolness of the ice around the house. Works like magic every time.

Be Smart About Your Attire

It’s the summer. Get rid of those darker colored clothes and switch to white, cotton blends that reflect light and heat as well as keep you cool during the day.

If you have to go to work, choose white shirt, place your suit on a hanger at the back of your vehicle – or on your arms if you’re commuting via public transport – and wear it only when you’re in the office where it’s cool.

Chill Your Bedspreads

This may not provide you with prolonged comfort, but it’s enough to help lull you to sleep and keep you a tad more comfy than your regular sheets. Wrap them in a bigger Ziploc bag and refrigerate them so they’re cold and place them on the bed right before you go to bed.

If you’ve got panel or tile flooring, you could even just try roughing it – with a pillow and spread, of course.

Cold Water Baths and Showers

You don’t really need to take the complete plunge, but at least switching to cold water at the end of your bathing ritual can be very refreshing after a hot day, as well as exhilarating before the morning commute. We especially recommend it before bed if you know that you’ll have to go a night without your faithful air conditioning unit.

Try the Egyptian Sleep Method

You see this sort of thing if you live or work in hot climates, and it is routinely used by folks living in the sort of climates from which this method takes its name.

All you have to do is soak a towel or cover cloth in cold water, squeeze it and either cover yourself or lay on it at night. In the desert parts of Africa where this originated from, the wet cover clothes are usually dry by the early morning.

If you want to try this, you should place some dry cloth or tarpaulin underneath you or the wet cloth.

Close the Blinds During the Day

While your appliances generate heat just by working, much of the heat in your home is coming from the outside, as you would expect. Window treatments and covers can be used during the hotter hours to keep your home a little cooler, to your benefit whether your AC is running or not. Brighter colors would be even better as white reflects heat and light.

Swimming Pools and Water Parks

Most people do this anyway, so why not just do it? If you have a pool, install a pool canopy.

This will provide excellent shade and keep you cool while you either spend time in the pool or just sit at the edge with your legs in the pool. Either way, this will do a fantastic job of keeping you cool. The same applies to water parks too.

Change Your Lighting

This is a no-brainer as we assume that most people would have switched from conventional light bulbs to CFLs or energy saving bulbs. If you haven’t, now is the time to get some energy saver bulbs and install them. These newer bulbs don’t just save you money, they also run cooler, again helping you out whether you have a working AC unit or not.

Dehydration is the Enemy

Drink lots and lots of cold water during the summer. For those who love alcohol, we understand the craving, but we would recommend that you limit your daily intake to one or two at the most. This is because it’s easy to binge on chilled beer. But the consumption of alcohol and dehydration go hand-in-hand.

The more alcohol you drink, the higher your chances of becoming dehydrated, so stick to water since you’re already going to be sweating the heat.

Finally, a portable air conditioner will be able to provide relief, although the size and efficiency of the unit you choose will determine the size of the space it will be able to cool, just as it does with your whole-home air conditioning unit. But armed with these tips, you can be prepared in case this summer is the last for your current HVAC system. Stay calm, stay cool, and the experts will have your AC up and running in no time!

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