Arizona Rite-of-Passage
May 21, 2012 11:59 AM Subscribe
Hot hacks. I'm in Arizona. It's supposed to be 108 degrees here today. Our a/c went out and won't be fixed for at least another 24-48 hours. Help us survive with dignity.
How can we make this a bearable and exciting adventure? Married, three children (11, 9, 5), a maltese (age 1) and a cat (4 years old). At our disposal are two large almost industrial-sized fans, ceiling fans in the family room and bedrooms, and 20 lbs of crushed ice.
How can we make this a bearable and exciting adventure? Married, three children (11, 9, 5), a maltese (age 1) and a cat (4 years old). At our disposal are two large almost industrial-sized fans, ceiling fans in the family room and bedrooms, and 20 lbs of crushed ice.
One simple, lo-tech thing you can do is fill some spray bottles with water (maybe ice water) and spritz each other with a fine mist. I've done this a couple times on hot NJ summer nights, though perhaps not quite 108 degrees hot. It's high maintenance as you have to keep doing it over and over again.
posted by jclovebrew at 12:04 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by jclovebrew at 12:04 PM on May 21, 2012
You'll need a lot more ice than that. Fortunately, it isn't very expensive (assuming you can find it). On hot days I usually buy 8 10-pound blocks. Store most of them in the bath tub. Put one or two at a time into a plastic tub in the kitchen, next to the sink, and set up a fan to blow over the ice. Occasionally dump excess meltwater into the sink; add new blocks as needed.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:07 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:07 PM on May 21, 2012
I'm in Phoenix too, and having endured a night or two sans A/C, I have to agree with the hotel room sentiment. Board the animals at the least- their tolerance for extreme heat isn't quite what ours is.
If a hotel isn't an option, get the heck out during the day. Go to the mall/library/pool/museum/etc. At night, dampen a sheet, point the fan at it, and sleep under it. When it dries (in 45 seconds), rewet it and start over. Use the ice to chill your beverages- you should be drinking pretty much non-stop (you knew this already- you are a Phonecian!). You might all want to hang in one room- the effort it takes to keep a single room cool enough to bear might be a full time job- a bunch of separate rooms too much to handle.
posted by LyndsayMW at 12:15 PM on May 21, 2012
If a hotel isn't an option, get the heck out during the day. Go to the mall/library/pool/museum/etc. At night, dampen a sheet, point the fan at it, and sleep under it. When it dries (in 45 seconds), rewet it and start over. Use the ice to chill your beverages- you should be drinking pretty much non-stop (you knew this already- you are a Phonecian!). You might all want to hang in one room- the effort it takes to keep a single room cool enough to bear might be a full time job- a bunch of separate rooms too much to handle.
posted by LyndsayMW at 12:15 PM on May 21, 2012
Soak some towels with water and hang them in front of a fan, creating a makeshift swamp cooler. You can keep the kids busy resoaking the towels.
posted by leapfrog at 12:16 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by leapfrog at 12:16 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Head up to Prescott for the night. Super animal friendly up there; most hotels and establishment allow pets. The Radisson Suites was excellent.
posted by phritosan at 12:16 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by phritosan at 12:16 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
When you're absolutely so hot and you can't endure it anymore without losing your mind: take baths/showers. not to wash, really.. just to get soaked. Then, go sit in front of the fans.
It should help cool you down tons.
Also close every window and blind/curtain. Make your house into a cave.
posted by royalsong at 12:17 PM on May 21, 2012
It should help cool you down tons.
Also close every window and blind/curtain. Make your house into a cave.
posted by royalsong at 12:17 PM on May 21, 2012
Swamp Cooler! You can build one yourself.
posted by TomMelee at 12:23 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by TomMelee at 12:23 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Insofar as enduring heat is mind over matter, a healthy dose of Gold Bond blue foot powder in your underpants is like sitting on a block of ice. For dudes. May not be as, uh, refreshing, for ladies?
posted by mindsound at 12:39 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by mindsound at 12:39 PM on May 21, 2012
If you absolutely cannot get a pet-friendly hotel room for the day: get some refreezable ice packs (or fill some plastic bottles halfway with water and freeze them) and wrap each one in a towel, put a few where your pets can snuggle up to them, and keep some for the humans to hold onto and apply as needed.
Also: water, for humans and pets. Ice-cold water isn't good for pets, but have lots and lots of cool drinking water in several places for them. You humans drink plenty, too. And have some chilled sports drinks on hand so you can replace lost electrolytes.
Go get some inexpensive electric fans and have them going along with keeping the windows open. Plenty of moving air and cross-ventilation will make it seem cooler than it really is.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 12:44 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Also: water, for humans and pets. Ice-cold water isn't good for pets, but have lots and lots of cool drinking water in several places for them. You humans drink plenty, too. And have some chilled sports drinks on hand so you can replace lost electrolytes.
Go get some inexpensive electric fans and have them going along with keeping the windows open. Plenty of moving air and cross-ventilation will make it seem cooler than it really is.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 12:44 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
2nding an evaporative cooler of some sort. They work very well in dry climates.
It might also help to know where your pulse points are, which are the places on your body where your blood runs closest to the surface of the skin. Cooling those spots down can help you feel comfortable in spite of the room temp. My two favorites are the back of my neck and the insides of my wrists. Here is a lifehacker article that discusses others.
posted by Gilbert at 12:48 PM on May 21, 2012
It might also help to know where your pulse points are, which are the places on your body where your blood runs closest to the surface of the skin. Cooling those spots down can help you feel comfortable in spite of the room temp. My two favorites are the back of my neck and the insides of my wrists. Here is a lifehacker article that discusses others.
posted by Gilbert at 12:48 PM on May 21, 2012
Evaporative cooling is the way to go. You can either make a swamp cooler as some have mentioned, or you can have everyone dunk their cotton tshirts in cold water, put them back on, and then sit in front of the fans. Actually, long-sleeve cotton shirts work even better, and if you can fill up the bathtub with cold water, you could just have your kids climb into the tub with their (all-cotton) clothes on and get thoroughly soaked and then go sit in front of the fan. Repeat as many times as necessary. I used to work as a river guide in Utah, and substitute "river" for "bathtub" and that's what we basically did all summer. It was possible to get chilled with this method if there was any sort of breeze, despite the 100 degree heat.
posted by colfax at 1:07 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by colfax at 1:07 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Another Phoenician here. Seconding everything LyndsayMW just said. Also if your AC isn't fixed within 48 hours your landlord probably owes you some money back on your rent.
posted by entropyiswinning at 1:13 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by entropyiswinning at 1:13 PM on May 21, 2012
Speaking of pulse points, it helps a little bit to keep a bottle of baby oil in your refrigerator. Dab the chilled oil on your pulse points, especially after taking a cool shower.
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:14 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:14 PM on May 21, 2012
If there were some way of foretelling that it truly would be no more than 48h, then I'd say MAYBE tough it out. Considering it may in fact be longer, I say motel or calling in some favors from friends. I am from a place like Phoenix and I would let some pretty vague acquaintances crash for a while in an AC situation like that.
posted by skbw at 1:27 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by skbw at 1:27 PM on May 21, 2012
I spent one night .... just ONE NIGHT without AC here in the desert and it was the most unpleasant night of my life. Please consider an inexpensive motel. You will not sleep at all in the heat.
posted by nubianinthedesert at 1:32 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by nubianinthedesert at 1:32 PM on May 21, 2012
Occasionally dump excess meltwater into the sink
No, don't dump the ice water unless/until it is close to the ambient air temperature. It will keep the ice from melting as fast.
Good advice up above. The only thing I can add is to have a sense of humor. I taught my g-kids this song to sing when they were too hot:
Take off your clothes.
Take off your skin
and dance around in your bones.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:42 PM on May 21, 2012
No, don't dump the ice water unless/until it is close to the ambient air temperature. It will keep the ice from melting as fast.
Good advice up above. The only thing I can add is to have a sense of humor. I taught my g-kids this song to sing when they were too hot:
Take off your clothes.
Take off your skin
and dance around in your bones.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:42 PM on May 21, 2012
Water your roof and walls outside your house (creates evap and cooling) , costco 1 room amana 12000 btu air conditioner (399 bucks), Fans one blowing air in from wind direction; one blowing air out opposite the the other fan.
posted by couchdive at 1:48 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by couchdive at 1:48 PM on May 21, 2012
During the day go the mall, library and the movies. At night pick the bedroom with the most windows, set up the fans to blow in one window and out another. Keep lights out, put the just sheets on bed and spray bottles to spray on you and the sheets. A spray bottle is how I survived summers in my bedroom that was basically an attic with its windows painted shut. Oh yeah, and a bowl of water and ice that I soaked a face cloth in and put on my neck/body.
Add popsicles, cool lemonade and it sounds kind of fun.
posted by beccaj at 2:44 PM on May 21, 2012
Add popsicles, cool lemonade and it sounds kind of fun.
posted by beccaj at 2:44 PM on May 21, 2012
Soak some towels with water and hang them in front of a fan, creating a makeshift swamp cooler. You can keep the kids busy resoaking the towels.
This totally works. I have gotten through some very hot days at Burning Man like this.
Another thing that works well: get some dry ice and a bug sprayer (a clean one). Drop the chunk of dry ice in the bug sprayer and fill the rest up with water. Clamp or ziptie the sprayer's spray handle down, then screw the top back on.
If your bug sprayer is like mine, it will have a little clip to hold the sprayer pipe. Use it to hold the pipe vertically, then position the spray tip in front of a big box fan.
This is what will happen: the dry ice will chill the water and create CO2, which will pressurize the sprayer (so you don't have to keep pumping it), and the sprayer will produce a constant stream of fine, very cold water mist. This mist, sprayed into the hot dry air, will promptly evaporate, cooling off the air even more. And the box fan will deliver a torrent of DELICIOUSLY COLD AIR straight at you. Oh, the bliss.
You will have to keep refilling the sprayer with water, and occasionally with other bits of dry ice, but at least you won't have to keep pumping it up all the time.
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:58 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
This totally works. I have gotten through some very hot days at Burning Man like this.
Another thing that works well: get some dry ice and a bug sprayer (a clean one). Drop the chunk of dry ice in the bug sprayer and fill the rest up with water. Clamp or ziptie the sprayer's spray handle down, then screw the top back on.
If your bug sprayer is like mine, it will have a little clip to hold the sprayer pipe. Use it to hold the pipe vertically, then position the spray tip in front of a big box fan.
This is what will happen: the dry ice will chill the water and create CO2, which will pressurize the sprayer (so you don't have to keep pumping it), and the sprayer will produce a constant stream of fine, very cold water mist. This mist, sprayed into the hot dry air, will promptly evaporate, cooling off the air even more. And the box fan will deliver a torrent of DELICIOUSLY COLD AIR straight at you. Oh, the bliss.
You will have to keep refilling the sprayer with water, and occasionally with other bits of dry ice, but at least you won't have to keep pumping it up all the time.
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:58 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
...and by "bug sprayer" I mean something like this, the larger the better.
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:59 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:59 PM on May 21, 2012
I have found that keeping my feet in a bucket or pan of cold water can be helpful in keeping cool. Never tried it in that kind of heat though.
posted by triggerfinger at 4:23 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by triggerfinger at 4:23 PM on May 21, 2012
If it were just humans, I'd say a lot of these would be great suggestions, but I don't know if your pets can survive those temperatures with just swamp cooling and ice packs. You and your family can communicate when you're too hot and do something about it, but your pets can't, so just try to be extra-careful with keeping them cool as you figure out the solution which solution is going to work best for you.
posted by i feel possessed at 4:31 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by i feel possessed at 4:31 PM on May 21, 2012
All La Quinta hotels are pet-friendly without a charge, if there's one near you.
posted by kpetrich at 6:26 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by kpetrich at 6:26 PM on May 21, 2012
I'm surprised to hear the idea that the pets may have more trouble than humans. I live in Tucson, and there are many stray cats in our neighborhood. During the heat of the day they sit under cars and they only "hunt" at night. However, I don't know as much about dogs.
Anyway, on to the actual advice. On the days we've had the AC go out, we spend the day away from home, then sleep on the floor in the living room with fans blowing over us. It's miserable, but it's certainly do-able.
posted by lizjohn at 6:34 PM on May 21, 2012
Anyway, on to the actual advice. On the days we've had the AC go out, we spend the day away from home, then sleep on the floor in the living room with fans blowing over us. It's miserable, but it's certainly do-able.
posted by lizjohn at 6:34 PM on May 21, 2012
Note, the "swamp cooler" answer are exactly right assuming the relative humidity is below 20%. If the relative humidity is above 80%, the correct answer is to "move to Canada. Now."
Indeed, if I lived in that sort of really stupidly high temps with really low humidity, a swamp cooler is exactly what I'd have -- vastly cheaper to run, and it will increase the humidity, not decrease it.
posted by eriko at 7:59 PM on May 21, 2012
Indeed, if I lived in that sort of really stupidly high temps with really low humidity, a swamp cooler is exactly what I'd have -- vastly cheaper to run, and it will increase the humidity, not decrease it.
posted by eriko at 7:59 PM on May 21, 2012
Response by poster: We got an evap cooler - and have had it running for over two hours. It now feels like 100 degrees in here with 100% humidity. It's ridiculous.
Will try the towels over the fans. Will sleep with damp sheets. I like the dry ice and bug sprayer idea. The good news is that the a/c parts came in and it should be fixed by noon tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Until then we'll tough it out with some of these great ideas. Thanks!
posted by Sassyfras at 8:24 PM on May 21, 2012
Will try the towels over the fans. Will sleep with damp sheets. I like the dry ice and bug sprayer idea. The good news is that the a/c parts came in and it should be fixed by noon tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Until then we'll tough it out with some of these great ideas. Thanks!
posted by Sassyfras at 8:24 PM on May 21, 2012
We got an evap cooler
Weird, I lived in AZ for many years with only swamp coolers. Maybe it’s not working right, or venting well. You still need an open window and air moving through, it’s not like AC were you close everything up.
posted by bongo_x at 10:28 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Weird, I lived in AZ for many years with only swamp coolers. Maybe it’s not working right, or venting well. You still need an open window and air moving through, it’s not like AC were you close everything up.
posted by bongo_x at 10:28 PM on May 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
While not entirely the same situation, a previous question of mine may help you.
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:15 AM on May 22, 2012
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:15 AM on May 22, 2012
When our power went out one time in Tucson (while I was out of town, no less!) my husband packed the cats up in the truck and took them for a drive with blessedly cool A/C running.
You'll do your pets a great service by asking a friend to keep them for a day ro boarding them somewhere (the PetSmart/PetCo places are cheap, if all are vaccinated), as they can't stand the heat as well. Keep icewater available for them to drink and watch out for signs of heat problems.
posted by bookdragoness at 6:38 AM on May 22, 2012
You'll do your pets a great service by asking a friend to keep them for a day ro boarding them somewhere (the PetSmart/PetCo places are cheap, if all are vaccinated), as they can't stand the heat as well. Keep icewater available for them to drink and watch out for signs of heat problems.
posted by bookdragoness at 6:38 AM on May 22, 2012
By now your crisis has probably passed but you should learn to love your swamp cooler! They're highly effective and massively more efficient and cheaper to run than air conditioning.
bongo_x is right, unless it's already super-humid, and it's too early for the monsoon, isn't it? Get on the roof and check to see if the swamp cooler is working. They are simple mechanical devices: a water nozzle at the top and four coir pads, one on each side of the box. A big fan in the center should suck outside air through the pads and down into the house. Like bongo_x said, crack one window in each room a couple of inches to ensure airflow.
If your swamp cooler is working properly you will find (a) water dripping from the nozzle(s) at the top, (b) damp coir pads on the walls of the cooler box, (c) a working fan inside. That's all there is to them and they work REALLY well in dry climates.
Arizona alumna GO WILDCATS!
posted by workerant at 11:06 AM on May 22, 2012
bongo_x is right, unless it's already super-humid, and it's too early for the monsoon, isn't it? Get on the roof and check to see if the swamp cooler is working. They are simple mechanical devices: a water nozzle at the top and four coir pads, one on each side of the box. A big fan in the center should suck outside air through the pads and down into the house. Like bongo_x said, crack one window in each room a couple of inches to ensure airflow.
If your swamp cooler is working properly you will find (a) water dripping from the nozzle(s) at the top, (b) damp coir pads on the walls of the cooler box, (c) a working fan inside. That's all there is to them and they work REALLY well in dry climates.
Arizona alumna GO WILDCATS!
posted by workerant at 11:06 AM on May 22, 2012
Response by poster: It was a portable evap cooler that we bought at The Home Depot.
And yes! A/C repairguy just left and crisis is over. I found out that heat makes us all very grumpy.
posted by Sassyfras at 12:36 PM on May 22, 2012
And yes! A/C repairguy just left and crisis is over. I found out that heat makes us all very grumpy.
posted by Sassyfras at 12:36 PM on May 22, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:03 PM on May 21, 2012 [9 favorites]