Ideas for staying cool when the power goes out.

reply to post by kromaion


Funny thing is the news is not talking too much about it!

Now That is a conspiracy!

Originally posted by antar
reply to post by kromaion

 

Funny thing is the news is not talking too much about it!

Now That is a conspiracy!

Yes, exactly! That's what got me interested in the first place. Let's hope it doesn't get worst and ends up spreading around the world. Who knows?

Hook a generator up to your house.
Now that everything is cheap Chinese crap, theyr'e fairly cheap.
Or...
Take a shower or bath, wash, rinse, repeat.

Note: by the time the power comes back up, due to quality control or user error the generator should be damaged.
Return it and get a refund.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere

That's always who dies. The sick, the elderly and the infants.

And of course the poor dogs that idiots leave in their cars.

I wonder if any other species expends so much time, emotion and energy toward the protection of its sickest.

We jump through hoops to save every invalid and geriatric then bitch about overpopulation and medical costs so we institute boards and bureaucracies to deal with who gets what and even go so far as to regulate births.

Humans are a stupid lot. Like hyper emotional teenage girls who want everything the way they want it now and refuse to take even a moment to step back and think.

Who else would have embraced the science of eugenics while simultaneously fighting to prevent nature from ever taking its course? It's as if mankind wants to keep people alive just so there are more to kill with intent.

edit on 30-6-2012 by thisguyrighthere because: (no reason given)

That is all fine and dandy until it is your own parent or child who is sick and needs assistance. The day we as a society decide to stop caring for the weak and turn our backs on the elderly is the day we give up our humanity and become little more than animals. No thanks, I think we need to keep showing compassion. rendering aid to the weak not only alleviates their suffering but makes us better people in the process.

With regard to staying cool; When I was a kid living in Illinois the summers were incredibly hot. We had no air conditioning. I remember my mom telling us to go soak our heads when we got too hot,,,,instant relief. We also had amazing fun getting squirted with the hose. The swimming hole at the creek was always the best place to be when the heat was intolerable.

We just closed up the house after the sun rose and it stayed at least 10 degrees cooler inside than out.
In a real emergency you can take any compressed gas or even keyboard dusters and open them up - you'll notice how cold the can gets which you can then place on your wrists or hold between your legs to help lower body temperatures.
We lost power friday night and it's stayed cool in the basement while temps went over 100 degrees. Upstairs is unbearable but keep your basement shut tight and you can ride it out,

After having just lived through it in the DC area, some of the posted ideas are OK but not pertinent.

1. Yeah a basement is cooler but many do not have them.

2. Generators or kiddie pools are good but the stores were empty of them by Saturday morning.

3. Closing the house up works to a point. Trying to sleep in 95 degree heat with high humidity just plain sucks and a lot of old folks simply cannot tell how hot it is until it is too late.

Sure we can feel smug on the faux moral high ground and say most were not prepared. It's true, most were not. Surely the folks who got killed were not. But this does not change much. I am rather curious how such a big, weird storm pretty much flies under the MSM media. Half an acre burns in Malibu and it wall to wall coverage for days.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


LOL!!!
You gave me an idea, how about putting one of those dusters in a big room and shooting it with a good bb gun?
Of course you'd have to secure it from going all missile but all of that cold at once.
Or would it just gas the house?
Who knows.

reply to post by ABNARTY


If no generators are available surely one could get their hands on a power inverter.
I have 3 of them. good ones and a couple of lessers.
Put that in the subaru and voila!! instant 4 cyl genny.
Ok abit high on the fuel useage BUT, if it keeps my Granny from baking, well worth it.

One of the best tips is from working in restaurants. The cooks would take a towel and make a neckerchief/bandana out of it. before they folded it up, they would place ice cubes inside the folded up bandanna. Then you place it around your neck making sure the ice pockets rest on top of your Carotid arteries. The cooling effect would work wonders. Every so often you would have to put new ice in the bandanna.

you could also make bandanna variants for your femoral arteries in your legs, that way you are cooling some of the biggest flows of blood in your body.

www.industrialsafetygear.com... as.html?gclid=CJrv7rLb-bACFQFx4AodfBURcg

But this is your best bet:

where i live it is 100 degrees for at least 100 days a year. It is always hot. Miserable. Most Christmases I am outside in shorts running the bbq.

when the power goes out, lord help you. Just find a pool, and hope that the whole town didn't find the same one as you.

I set my bedroom up in my basement. It doesn't stay much cooler, though. And the humidity is miserable. So we run a small refrigerated air unit to keep the temp to something reasonable. The up side? I get about 5 gallons distilled water every day to use in mu flower bed. Since we are in a severe drought, it is about the only water they get.

reply to post by tovenar


Great vid (I'm going to try this someday!) but it needs to be converted to solar for the purpose of the thread.

When it got hot, I remember going skinny dipping with my siblings & cousins down at the creek when we were kids. We would spend the whole day jumping off an old abandoned train bridge into the creek. Those were good times. No worries, just innocent fun.

We were without power for about 2 weeks after a hurricane came though central Florida a few years ago. We were so used to having AC that it was truly miserable without it. Fortunately we have a pool int he backyard and live about 5 minutes from the beach so relieve was never too far away. The worst part was trying to sleep at night. The key was to not attempt to go to bed until you were absolutely too tired to stay awake. Then you were able to fall asleep no matter how hot it was.

Of course me and my wife also found other activities that resulted in sleep inducing exhaustion.

If the water still runs, fill the bath tub. In many areas, tap water is usually pretty cool. (Unless you're pretty far down south, then the water is sorta warm - but still often cooler than air temp.) Soak in the tub to cool down. Probably one of the best options if stuck in an apartment.

If you're by one of the oceans or Great Lakes, go to the beach. Throw up a tarp on posts to make some shade, and set up a chair and kick-back. Depending on the wind, it can be 10° to 15° cooler by a large body of water. Don't forget the bugspray and sunblock. This is what I did last year when the power went out in the Chicago 'burbs for about a week and a half. Sunblock is quite important though, I learned the hard way I didn't use quite enough - as the tree I was next too didn't shade my lower legs.

Staying in the basement is good if you have one. Although it can get a little dank and musty if you have no fans running to keep the air moving. But at least it's cooler than upstairs.

Staying under the trees in the shade is good, regardless. But you'll likely want bug spray.

Old houses sometimes have an advantage, as they were designed pre-A/C. They tend to air out more with multiple windows open and have better natural ventilation in general. Other airy spaces like a garage with the door left open can also be surprisingly cool, with natural airflow going in.

As long as the car has gas, it likely has A/C. But it's better to only use this in an emergency or when actually going somewhere cooler.

I suually just hit up one of the many lakes around my area, if power goes out and it's football season..I walk across the street to the hospital to watch the games...I'm sure this logic can be applied if it gets unbareably hot outside.

Before I had a.c., I used to close all my windows and curtains in the morning before I left for work on them scorching days, and leave the fans on high. When I got home in the evening the house was at least 15 degrees cooler than outside.

Also, as others have said, please take care of your pets! Don't leave them in the car or even outside for very long. Make sure they have plenty of cold water and definetly do NOT walk them in this extreme heat. I know that just seems like common sense, but you'd be suprised how many people just don't think of that and walk their dogs in this extreme heat. I saw two people just yesterday walking their dog, and both dogs were trailing behind and looked like they were ready to collapse.

my first apartment had no AC. I came home one hot summer day, and it felt worse inside than outside.

my solution was to keep the windows closed and blinds drawn during the day , and windows wide open with a fan sucking air in at night.

I would estimate a 10 degree difference

hey, 85 beats 95

I made lemonade a few weeks ago and was shivering cold in an 80F to 85F room.

Fresh sqeezed lemons - about 8 or 10 of them, a fresh squeezed lime, sugar to cut the "edge" off, a dash of salt. No water added, just a whole tray of ice. The glass was about 32 fluid ounces.

If anybody else tries this and gets chilled as well, please tell me so I know it wasn't just my weird body chemistry.

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Fans - but, those require electricity.

Jumping in the shower, clothes and all. Get out and don't dry off, work a half hour doing whatever you need to do. It lasts about 30 minutes before your clothes dry up completely and you have to do it all over again. If working in the garden, use the hose but be sure to feel the water as it starts out scalding hot.

Handfans - I didn't have any of those Asian-looking fans when our power went out in a heat wave. I made a fan out of the cardboard backing of a writing tablet. Just fold the whole cardboard into an accordian looking fan. Hold the bottom few inches and start fanning. I actually had to fan the cats mostly!

Swimming