Keeping Cool?

[kevin_standlee]

Temperatures are going back up, with today's high being 37°C, which (being body temperature) is one of those tipping points in trying to stay comfortable. Lisa has been sticking to the travel trailer which has an air conditioning unit and (because we built the roof over the carport) makes it feasible to keep cool. I have the swamp cooler, and so far it mostly works because the humidity is so low. But it takes work to keep the cool coming. Overnight lows are running around 15°C, so it's important to get all of the windows open at night and fans running to keep that relatively cool are in and vent whatever warm air has build up inside the house. As the day starts, I have to close the east-facing windows and curtains at sunrise, and as the day goes by, eventually close the west-facing windows (except for a small portion of one window I open to keep air flowing to make the evaporative cooling more efficient) and put up insulation plugs to try and keep the heat out. After mid-day, once the eastern windows are out of the sun, I can start opening them (and the front door).

I'm glad the days are starting to get shorter. Because of my work schedule, I often end up wanting to go to bed before sundown, but that means I can't open the western window in the bedroom, which means it gets stuffy. When I do manage to get to bed early, I generally end up waking up a few hours later after dark when I can open the windows and get the fans running.

We're doing all right so far, but this will be the first year since we moved here that we won't escape for several weeks of peak summer by going to Worldcon.