The only thing worse than your air conditioner dying, is not having air conditioning at all. While we have air conditioners in our home, a recent heatwave took down the power grid. This left us without cool air during one of the hottest summers on record.
Living in a house from the 1970s does not offer any help either. Clearly airflow was not something they thought about back then. No matter how many fans we had or windows/doors we opened – the heat was just stuck in the house.
Summers in Texas are rough enough with the heat and humidity. Those days when the air is not moving is tough. Having that air in the house was like living in oven – with wet towels on our hears.
Of course the AC guy was booked solid, clearly we were not the only family with no air.
When we realized we would need to spend a night or two without AC, we had to come up with a plan.
We spent a little more time at McDonald’s those days since they had air conditioning and Wi-fi. While at McDonald’s I was looking for alternative home cooling options that we could use in a pinch.
What I found was some clever people doing clever things. I took a bunch of the recommendations – tested a few and below is my “redneck air conditioner” which is the one idea that actually worked better than expected.
How to make a redneck air conditioner
Be prepared to be amazed at my creativity with this simple DIY redneck air conditioner tutorial.
- Get a bag of ice.
- Pour ice in a stainless steel bowl, the stainless steel will offer an additional cooling boost
- Get a fan – the stronger and larger the better
- Set the bowl of ice directly in front of fan
- Turn fan on high.
- Sit in front of fan and chill 😉
Really – it’s that easy.
The cold and moisture from the bowl is being blown by the fan to give you a great cooling feel. You might have to refill the bowl a few times, so store some extra in a cooler. But, it worked well for short periods and I highly recommend it in a pinch.
At bedtime, I make each kid take a cool shower so they went to bed wet. I had a redneck air conditioner setup in each of their rooms, and they all fell asleep pretty quickly and stayed a sleep. Without feeling the heat and humidity definitely helped the sleeping!
15 ways to stay cool in the heat
Below are a few more ideas for staying cool in heat, with or without air.
1. Drink lots of water. Stay away from alcohol and caffeinated drinks which really just deplete your body of water, making it that much harder to cool yourself.
2. Turn on those fans. Moving air helps cool your body which makes you feel cooler.
3. Use a mister or spray bottle to mist yourself during the day. Not only are you hydrating your skin, but you are adding moisture that is then cooled off by the air around you (evaporation), helping you cool down. A handy battery operated version can be useful to conserve energy.
4. Soak a handkerchief in water and tie around your neck. Again, this adds moisture to your skin that evaporates and cools you off, as it helps cool your blood and your head. This works around your wrists and other pulse points, too. There are neck wraps that can be stored in the fridge/freezer, too!
5. Wear appropriate clothing. Wearing natural, loosely woven, light, loose-fitting clothing can actually help protect you better. Plus having something covering your skin can help protect you from absorbing as much of the sun’s heat.
6. Adjust your air conditioning up. You’d think that having it really cold in your car or house would be a good thing (except for your wallet), and it might be if you spend all of your time there. But if you get your body used to the really cold conditions, when you have to transition to outdoor conditions, it can be a bit of a shocker for your body, making you feel all the heat all the more.
7. Get out of the sun. Seems pretty obvious, but working in the shade or working during the cooler parts of the day is infinitely easier on your body.
8. Eat cool stuff! Foods full of moisture are great at helping keep you hydrated which helps cool you down. You can make healthy ice pops to keep in the freezer.
9. Turn off the lights, shut the blinds. While most of us have made the switch to CFL or LED bulbs, if you’re still using incandescent lighting, that can generate heat which may be making you feel hotter. Shutting out the heat by closing the blinds helps create an insulating effect. But remember that you can open up those windows at night to let the cool breezes in (if you have them!)
10. Create a cross-breeze. If you don’t have AC, are without AC, creating a cross-breeze in your space is helpful to feel cooler (breeze blowing across your skin helping with the evaporation of moisture, i.e. sweat). You can set up a fan bringing in cool air from a shaded side of your house, and another fan blowing out the hot air of the house to the outside. Or you can use this fan in one room that works both ways – draws in cool air and forces out hot air.
11. Take a cool shower – or jump in the pool. Even just having a kiddie pool with water that you sit in a chair and soak your feet in can cool you off tremendously. (and it serves double duty as a water storage source should you need it one day!) Going to bed right after a shower is a great way to stay cool for the night too.
12. Take off your socks. If you’re tooling around and can go sockless, do it. It helps keep your feet from getting hot and sweaty which just makes you hot and sweaty. Be safe, though, and make sure to wear appropriate foot gear for where you are going.
13. Wet your head. It helps keep your whole body cooler as the heat of your body leaves through your head.
14. Add cotton sheets to fuzzy furniture. If your furniture is the kind that holds in heat, you can use cotton sheeting to help keep a cooler surface to give you a little more comfort. I know my couch is the hottest thing to sit on in the summer because it just seems to create hot pocket where ever you sit and radiate heat back to you.
15. Rice socks aren’t just for sore muscles, anymore! Create rice socks, buckwheat pillows or other grains encased in cool fabrics which can be stored in the freezer and used to as cooling pads on your body or in your bed. Using buckwheat pillows instead of fiber fill can help give you a cool space to lie your head at night.
If you want to ‘redneck it’ a little more permanently, try this idea for building your own air conditioner from a 5 gallon bucket!
While there are lots more tips that require house modifications to help keep you cool, what are some tricks and tips you have for keeping your cool in the summer heat?