How do you beat the heat without AC?

Taking a cold shower about every hour, putting on thin cotton clothes while still wet. Or taking a cool shower with my clothes on. The dampness catches every little whisper of a breeze that comes through.

This town (not this region) is peculiar in that I don’t believe we will see 10 days a year of temperatures above 90 degrees, and never more than 2 days in a row of such temperatures. That may very well be changing. This is the first 4th of July week that I can remember where the rotisserie temperatures inland are absent. When the thermometer rises above 100 in Fresno & Stockton, the heat sucks air across the chilly ocean surface and we get fog so dense you can’t see across the street. And it’s a bone chilling fog. It can be 110 degrees 40 miles from here, while locals will turn on furnaces. Weird, but none of the older homes even have air conditioning. And on that occasional day when things are in the 80s-or God forbid 90’s- that’s my excuse to go to the movies. But I always wear a warm hoodie in the theater, and more often than not, enter the theater under blazing blue skies, and 2 hours later exit into pea soup fog colder by far than the movie house. Right now at 11:53 AM it 74 degrees under skies that should be blue, but there’s a slight haze. I think it’s from the Lake county fires.

Thanks for the picture @stanleybmanly . :D

I have a A/C. But I only use it if I am concerned about my fish tank getting to hot. (I am cheap)

I just put on wet t-shirts if it is hot. Luckily it isn’t humid here.

Keeping the house closed and shades drawn until it’s cooler outside, instead of letting the heat in.

Positioning some fans so they point at the ceiling to disperse the breeze.

Wearing cool colors, especially turquoise or aqua and white.

Keeping my hair up off my neck.

Spending some time searching online for images like this and this and putting them on my desktop.

Drinking cool beverages such as a blend of cranberry-pomegranate, orange juice, and crisp club soda with plenty of ice.

Not cooking.

Reading or watching stories set in cold places.

Trying not to move very much.

Yes. We have an attic fan and during the spring we run it all night and draw all that cool night air in. Then, when we get up, we turn the fans off and button up the house and stay perfect cool (as long as the door isn’t opening and closing with regularity) until about 6 p.m. It heats up then, but we just deal until it cools down, at about 9 and we turn the attic fan back on.

One time, when the kids were young teens, I came home from work, walked in the door and angrily demanded to know who had turned on the AC! No one had. It just stayed that cool in the house.

We also have a boat load of trees surrounding our house so that helps.

@Jeruba, good idea, I’ll watch Dr Zhivago, as well. Omar Sharif’s blue lips make it chillier…

It never occurred to me before, but that is one film where the severity of winter amounts to a virtual character in the plot.

lots of cold drinks. preferably with ice cubes.
I recommend reusable ones.

It is rarely uncomfortably hot here. If it feels too hot I open my patio doors at the front and a kitchen window at the back of my flat to let a cool breeze waft through. At night when it is warm, as it is just now, I sleep under a very thin quilt and leave my windows open.

Start with a cold shower, finish with a hot shower.
Chill.

Jump in the pool, take a cool shower, wash the house or the driveway but make sure I’m not careful about where the pressure washer sprays. Inside, sit in front of a fan with a spray bottle of water, occasionally misting myself.

Wow. He assumes we all have a pool!

No, I imagine he’s just talking about how he beats the heat.

You asked what my heat busters were. Could you go to the local YMCA to use their pool? We used to do that as well, before we had a pool.

@Dutchess_III
You can always build a pool using bushcraft

Fans, hand held…we have staff for that.

Open the windows when it’s cool at night, close them in the morning to retain the cool air. If it’s 80F+ at night I sleep with a pedestal fan pointed directly at me. Sleep on a beach towel.

Plus it’s light until 9pm this time of year. We spend time outside on the front porch and the back where it’s shaded after 6pm.

I would go to a public place that has ac. Like a mall or Library.

ACCLIMATE TO IT. I drink a lot of water and am outside as much as I can in the heat of summer. I love it. Once you can feel the water just flowing through you and your body seems to be completely cleaned out staying out in the heat is no big deal. Most people are walking around dehydrated all the time. It’s going to be 97 here tomorrow, I’m going mountain biking before fireworks.

@callmejay why a beach towel?

Buy a baby pool, fill with ice. Blow a fan over the ice towards you.

And, of course, taking a chill pill, simmering down, and playing it cool . . .

why a beach towel?

It’s big enough for everything but my legs. It feels cooler than the cotton sheets.

Keep all the blinds on the windows closed.

Take a cool shower 2–3 hours before bed time.

You could get one of those cool thingies that do around your neck, or anywhere. You wring it out with cold water, and it stays cold for a long while.

Light foods like salads and fruit.

If none of that works, buy a portable air conditioner or make one. They aren’t that difficult to make. You need a cooler (or styrofoam container) a small battery fan, a short piece of plastic pipe, and ice. It works well. You cut out part of the top so the fan can face down into the cooler. Then you cut out a space on the top for the pipe. Fill with ice and turn on the fan. Cold air will come out of the pipe.

I went 8 days in the summer in Florida without air conditioning, and it really wasn’t terrible. Every window was covered with hurricane shutters. Makes a huge difference.

AC has been around for only a little over a hundred years or so. Humans and human ancestors more than a million. We don’t need AC, it’s optional for healthy people.
I have made several evaporative coolers though when my wife and I were less financially well off and she was miserable in the heat. Pretty easy, just need a fan, circulator pump, a cooler, ice, water, copper tubing, towel and some zip ties and various fittings.

Get a fan. Then wet a T-shirt, and put it on. When the T-shirt gets dry, soak it again.

Popsicles and ice cream. Wetting my head with cold water.

Keep in mind. Any temperature of water below your normal temperature, will lower your core temperature, if submerged in it.

Laying in a small bath/pool with even warm water, will cool you down.

I shave my head more often than in the winter. If outside, I douse my head with water.

When I used to run bikini contests, in the summer, I would put ice water in my hat. Summer days dressed in all black SUCK, in Charleston….

Wet yourself.

I haven’t wet myself since I was a small child. Except that one time when I was really drunk…

I peed myself trying Ambien… I was like 26…

I know girls/women who do it when drunk.

Guys, can we go back to “heat busters” and move away from from peeing oneself? (As titillating as that seems to be for some)

It is relevant…

Have we mentioned rectal core cooling? When clean water is unavailable, you can give water enemas. They will cool the patient down quickly, hydrate , and the water doesn’t have to be potable…

Sorry, @canidmajor. The conversation took a quick left and I went along for the ride. My bad.

That bush pool is SO cool! I’ve seen it before!

I actually kicked around the idea of getting an above ground pool…but eventually decided it just wasn’t worth the time or the trouble or the cost.

I would not go to a public pool any more, except to watch the kids.

You can always build a pool using bushcraft

I would like to buy those guys a couple of shovels and a hose. That makes me crazy watching people slogging through a project when they could do it in much less time with preparation.

Yes, I see the title “Primitive Survival Tool” so I guess that’s the point.

The tile making, on the other hand, was really nifty. That I admire.

So satisfying when he dives in!

Have not yet read the other answers. Will do so after posting.

I have often picked up an iced coffee at Starbucks, then took a book to the ice rink and read and watched the skaters. It’s best to being a tushy cushion.

We have some lovely libraries, and I can sit in there for hours, reading or looking at stuff on my phone.

I have lingered an hour or so in the Ikea cafe, after having bought lunch, or a cup of coffee, and read.

I like to go to Costco, grab a cart to hold my purse, then meander slowly through the aisles, especially on sample days. The best place to be in Costco is the milk cooler. I almost always get a slice if pizza at Costco, before or after my meandering.

I would go down on a heat-wave for a slice of Costco pizza right now.

Just heard this on TV. Freeze your sheets and put them on your bed before you go to bed for the night.
I don’t think so.

Hahaha, @chyna, we’re watching the same thing!

And yeah, no. Not freezing my sheets.

Well, when my Dad’s wife comes, normally she sleeps upstairs in the guest room. However, she normally comes in June, not in the middle of July. I went upstairs to say something to Rick, and OMG. I about had a heat stroke. Even with the AC set on 76 it was like an oven up there. So, she gets to sleep in the camper. :D