
The Bureau’s got us down for 37 degrees today and 39 tomorrow.
What are your tips for surviving hot weather?
No real respite in sight until thursday when it gets down to a chilly 29 degrees. Summer is here.
Photo by NaturEscapes Photography CC BY 2.0
Innovation – that was on low which is the setting we use all of the time anyway as it gives a cool gentle breeze and is not very noisy. Coming from Queensland I must say the evap coolers are wonderful compared to aircon!
bigfeet said :
It was good and bad, while it reduced the temperature it also dumped about 3m of rain and hail that flooded my pergola and ruined all my chillies that had not matured on my chilly plants.
How nice was that cool change that came through this afternoon?
I sat out in my pergola with a bottle of wine, a cuban cigar and some relaxing tunes and just kicked back.
aronde said :
Ta. Was that flat chat or at reduced speed? I presume it makes a difference as well as does the size of the unit.
Gungahlin Al said :
I know! Luckily for us, we built under the OwnPlace scheme, but you don’t get a lot of choices. At least we don’t rent anymore and now have shade on our western windows, insulated slab, solar HWS, northern orientation, and now, cooling 😀
When paying off the mortgage raising children and the home facing north with the 30’s – 40 temps, airconditioning could not be afforded for ten years by the time it was put in vehicles for the kids and other major costs.
So, for those with little ones at home with no airconditioning, I suggest purchasing a Bonaire walk a round cooler, put iceblocks into it (yes those work), close the blinds, purchase a little pool for under the entertaining area and pop iceblocks into it, to give the kids a dip throughout the day. A bucket of water for pets with iceblocks out of the sun, hydralite or gastrolyte for kids who are active perhaps once a day, to re-hydrate them, tap water not bottled water, watermelon, a cool bath during the afternoon (half filled) and if feeling the heat, drive the kids to a shopping centre for a break or to the movies for airconditioning (if it works properly)!
Thumper said :
Come on thumper… Video of the cat under the sprinkler please 🙂
Innovation said :
We worked out ours uses 30 litres an hour. Not sure if that is good or bad by modern standards as ours is a pretty old model.
Thumper said :
Strong ladder…
I live in a double brick home slabs on both storeys. Last night I had to run the aircon for almost a whole hour!
Growling Ferret said :
+1 for that.
Oh, and four words. Cerveza Sierra Nevada fria.
Growling Ferret said :
We have it too and leave the fan/no water on low overnight to keep the airflow going and cool the thermal mass back down again. But I think that I remember reading somewhere recently that the water consumption on these things can be excessive (up to around 90 litres per hour). Does anyone know how much these things use (and I’ll ignore posts to look at my meter because the more modern ones refill intermittently and I’m not interested in waiting in front of the meter in the middle of the day)?
Gungahlin Al said :
Good stuff indeed!
We moan about our increasing need for energy, but one of the most significant things we could do to mitigate it would cost nothing: legislate that all houses have to be north-facing with properly-designed eaves.
Holditz said :
This cat….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q5xyaHBdhs
Gungahlin Al said :
Sadly for the renters of Canberra, making substantial changes to the house isn’t really an option.
One thing I recently discovered is that you can use space blankets (the silvery mylar ones you use for camping/emergencies) as a type of reflective window treatment to keep the heat out. At a couple of dollars off ebay, they’re way cheaper than real window tinting, and surprisingly, work like a one way mirror, you can see out from inside, but they’re like a mirror on the outside. If you mist the glass lightly before applying them and rub out the wrinkles, they stick by themselves, and I’ve found them to be extremely effective for the price.