Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Beating the Heat

Here is a snippet from our weather forecast.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT.

AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL BE BETWEEN 95
AND 100 DEGREES ACROSS THE AREA.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY.

HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL ONCE AGAIN BE BETWEEN 95 AND 100 DEGREES ON
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.

THERE IS A CHANCE FOR STORMS WEDNESDAY NIGHT. A FEW OF THESE
STORMS ACROSS NORTHERN IL MAY REACH SEVERE LIMITS.

A CHANCE OF STORMS WILL LINGER ON THURSDAY...MAINLY IN THE
MORNING.

THERE IS A CHANCE FOR STORMS LATE FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY
NIGHT ACROSS THE OUTLOOK AREA. AT THIS TIME...THERE IS A SMALL
CHANCE FOR SEVERE WEATHER DURING THAT PERIOD

As you can see, it has been hot! Other than a slight soaking the other day (.37 of a inch) we haven't had rain in over a month. Yes, we have seen plenty of "forecasted" storms but they move south or north of us.  Meanwhile, we don't have ac except for in one room, the office. Bear's nighttime crate has been moved into it and frankly we spend frequent breaks in the office with the door closed to cool off.

How else are we beating the heat? Well with temperatures only cooling down to mid 70's at night, once dusk comes we close up the bedroom door, and put fans in the windows on high. Bear has been eating plenty of bowls of ice, even stopping to lay his head in the bowl on a bed of ice. He also has been spending time in his wading pool. (Need to get me my own since he hates to share it with me!)

Other things we have been doing are grilling outside to keep the temperature from going higher in the house, keeping lotion and body spray in the fridge for a quick cool off. I've found a quick cool shower before bed helps me to sleep faster in the heat.

Most of us rely on cooling to make our life's comfortable, what would you do without it if TSHTF?
Thankfully, I sold my beater truck last night and the money to fix the central air is now sitting on my desk (if they don't charge me a arm and a leg). If the company is too high on their estimate, several window units are getting bought for the house to help with cooling.

Here is hoping for some cooler weather!

5 comments:

  1. Hey, found your site through Standing Outside Looking In, and I like what you're doing here.

    - K @ planningandforesight.blogspot.com

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  2. I didn't do the math...but my smart neighbor did. He calculated that it was costing him over $8 per day to run his air conditioning unit. He went and bought a $500 swamp cooler from Home Depot and "plumbed it in" as it were through a window on the back of his house.

    His latest calculations, after running the cooler for a few days, was that his swamp cooler cost him around $0.16 per day. It made the air a little thicker (humidity) but it kept the house just as cool. We are in Phoenix, day temps here are now in the 110s.

    For full disclosure, he had to cut little hatches in the ceiling of some rooms to allow air to flow up into the attic via one-way spring-loaded trap doors. I am not construction minded so sorry if it doesn't make much sense.

    Anywho, just throwing some ideas out there for you on how some folks are keeping their cooling costs down.

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