Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. If you’re a northerner, you might be welcoming the heat since it’s been so cold for the last few months. But, when the weather warms up, guess what also spikes? You got it – your electric bill because of your air conditioning unit.
I was born and brought up in India where we grew up without AC. AC was luxury for us. Naturally summer months were not pleasant at all. Perhaps readers from Arizona, Texas or Nevada can understand how it feels like to be without AC at 110 F temperature. In India, that heat was not just a passing wave but, it was a way of life, it still is.
Only I moved to this country where I am constantly in air conditioned environment – at home, at work and even while travelling.
(Related – 15 Ways to Reduce Summer Energy Consumption)
I was first exposed to prolonged air-conditioned environment when I was taking computer courses in my college. It was in the computer lab.
So, I can definitely tell you more if you are really interested in knowing how to live without AC.
One disclaimer though, at our home (we live in South Florida), these days, we use AC everyday but, not for the entire day. We keep thermostat set at 77 F and use a fan. The picture above is from my study. I switched the fan off for taking the picture. Since we set the limit at 77 F, the AC unit doesn’t always run, especially during the night when outside temperature drops. We use fan, so the breeze from the fan lets us to sound sleep.
During the day SMB opens up the windows. That air flow, coupled with the fans keep us cooler. We don’t really start our AC before noon (we shut it down after waking up).
The picture shows that I don’t write for the sake of it, I do practice the techniques I write in this blog. So, you can trust me and have faith!
Let’s first describe how it was back in India, 20 years ago.
We were living in single family home with wide garden and backyards. Houses were made of bricks and cement, they used to have ventilators to keep warm air out and at least two windows to keep the air flow on. Every room had a big ceiling fan at the center of the roof.
During the summer months, they blew nothing but hot air at us. naturally, sleeping outside in the garden or in the backyard in the night was much preferred option. There were mosquitoes too. So, sleeping without mosquito net was unthinkable. That net used to create serious obstruction to the air flow. life was not easy during those days.
To sum up, these are the ways we kept our-self cooler from the insane heat without AC.
For more information, if you’re interested, on how people beat the heat in India you can refer to this article.
- Taking shower several times a day, especially just before going to bed
- We drank a lot of water to keep our body hydrated
- We used to soak clothes in water and hung it back the table top fan. It produced cooler air.
- We used a lot of talcum powder to control sweating.
- Cucumbers, salad, plain yogurt and lime water (Nimbu Paani) were part of everyday diet, to keep our body cool.
- People in multi-storied buildings slept on the roof top to get the breeze.
- Even while sleeping outside, due to mosquito net, we always had hand-held fans.
- Our meals in the summer were less spicy.
- We used to hang wet clothes, bed sheets, etc. by the window during the day.
- I remember wearing white vests and white shorts to get less sweaty.
Now I am not saying you follow the above. That was a third world country 20-25 years back. Now people, even in India, have air conditioners. The purpose of this article is to make you consume less AC and hence, save some money in terms of reduced electricity bill.
(Related – 101 ways to save energy)
How to Cool your Home at Lower Cost
As I said before, we all like to be comfortable (and not sweat) in our homes, so we can’t simply just turn off the air conditioning, but what could we possibly do so that our bills stay low and skin stays cool?
Let’s explore some unique ideas.
1) Increase Your Shading – Did you know that most of your heat in your house is caused by direct sunlight through the window? Have you ever stood in front of the window that had sunshine pouring in? It’s hot! The best way to solve this is with a shade that blocks the sunlight. Or, if you need to update your landscaping anyway, perhaps a few trees could do the trick.
2) Bust Out the Fans – Your A/C unit works hard to cool your house, which means that you’re paying more dollars for every degree lower that you set your thermostat. Instead of just bearing the heat, use a couple of fans to move the air. With this air movement, your skin will be less prone to sweat, which means that you’ll ultimately feel cooler.
3) Install a Programmable Thermostat – I was in the store the other day and took a look at the programmable thermostats. I half-expected them to be $100 or more, but there were some high quality ones for only $35! By using a programmable thermostat, you could keep your home cool while you’re there, but if you’re gone all day on a consistent basis you could schedule it to be warmer and thereby save money! I suspect that it would only take a couple of months to recoup the costs of this unit.
4) Make Friends with Your Basement – If you have a basement, I would suggest using it this summer. My friends do this every summer. They have a main level, a basement, and an upstairs (where all of their bedrooms are). On the extremely hot days, they don’t try to battle the heat upstairs by turning the thermostat way down; in fact, they turn it up! Instead of heading upstairs for the night, they decide to head downstairs and sleep comfortably without much effort. I imaging that they save a ton of money by doing this!
5) Stop Cooking Your Meals in Oven – I’m obviously not suggesting that you go out to eat all the time, but if you can get by without using your stove or oven, your house will remain so much cooler! If you really do want a hot meal, just pop your meal in the microwave instead. It might not taste as wonderful, but at least you don’t have to slave over your meal with that heatbox!
Tips to keep your body cooler
1) Take Shower Twice – I take shower once, before going to work. But, whenever I take shower after coming back, I don’t fight with SMB to lower AC temperature, never. Taking shower in the evening has other biological good effects on our body. If you take an evening shower, make it a cold shower.
2) Drink more Water – I know the direct benefit of it out of my experience. As stated earlier, water prevents dehydration and make our body cooler. You feel less warm when you are enough hydrated. If possible, drink lemon water or fruit juices every day.
Here’s one comprehensive and helpful article that covers 15 ways to stay cooler without AC. But, that’s without AC, not everyone can stay without that. Even with my upbringing in that kind of environment I can’t think of living without AC these days. So, the ideas above were to make you less dependent on AC.
Readers, how do you plan to beat the heat this summer?
Using the crockpot for cooking or grilling outside are other ways of cooking that don’t heat up the house. Leftovers can be heated in the microwave . Also some people make sun tea which requires no heating of water. Save your recipes that use the oven for times of the year that you want more heat in the house. If you have several children, make batches of cookies before the heat hits and freeze them. Portion them out to the children as needed all summer long. Jello desserts and also egg salad, tuna salad or bologna salad sandwiches are cool foods for lunch. Bologna salad is just bologna ground up with a boiled egg thrown in and some pickle relish and whatever else you want combined with mayo type salad dressing.
We were too broke when I was a kid to turn on the AC until mid-June. It stank.
But if we’re talking about cost….
A swamp cooler is a great alternative to A/C in the right climate.
If all the stars and rebates align right and you have a really big house, geothermal can be cheaper than a traditional central A/C unit.
Cooling only part of the house with a window unit is cheaper than cooling the whole house.
For most people, though, the best savings comes from increasing the insulation of their house. 🙂
Since our house has an undersized A/C unit, we just purchased a window unit just for our bedroom in order for us to stay cool at night. I have a hard time sleeping when it is hot, so this was a great way to save. We saved a lot of money compared to trying to cool the whole house.
Fans tend to be very inefficient; they circulate the air instead of cooling it if not placed against an open window, and generate a good bit of heat.
Such great ideas! Wow you have been through it. We are so blessed in this country! I have been able to go without air conditioning much more now than when I was a kid. I remember begging my parents to turn on the a/c. Now that I am paying my own bills, I see why they did what they did!
Nice tips! Don’t think I would try the wet clothes on the fan though. For the most part we have no trouble keeping the home cool at a low cost its everyone agreeing on the right temperature. usually someone is freezing and someone is dying from heat.
I like the tip about the basement. My current house does not have one, but I remember as a kid, I stayed in the basement a lot and it was much cooler. It might have also had something to do with the fact that the video games were down there as well.
This is bringing back some seriously bad memories of what happen to my house last summer. The blower fan went out on the A/C unit and we had to save up $750 to get it fixed. We used to hang blankets over the windows and had about 10 fans on all over the house. I used to do the wet shirt and shorts thing while standing in front of the fans to cool off during the day.
None of these tricks could save us while sleeping at night though. It was rough sleeping through those hot Texas nights without A/C.
“Did you know that most of your heat in your house is caused by direct sunlight through the window?”
I live on an apartment and I was very unfortunate that the windows of my room are being hit by the sunlight at the very hot time of the day. I feel like I am in the oven during day time. At night, it is still hot as hell. I tried blocking the sunlight with aluminum foil but it didn’t help.
I have the same issue. I purchase a solar shade which cost around $80 depending on the size; mine is quite big. It can be placed inside or outside and pulled down when needed. Mine in outside and I use it everyday starting around noon. It works wonders for keeping the room cooler during the afternoon sun yet it lets light into the room. I’m in Central Florida, so it does get very hot.
With the summer coming, we usually head to basement or outside most of the time. We even eat outside under the shade of trees. We also prepare coolers like shake to keep us cooled down.
Definitely drink lots and lots of water helps. Also, if you have a pool, use as often as possible, and make part of your routine taking a dip right before bed time. And spending more time in the basement also provides some relief.
I couldn’t agree more with all the tips you detailed here. For me, drinking cold water is the most easiest and effective way to keep you cool during this desperate time. The air conditioner is somehow effective, but really worth your money. Meanwhile these alternatives are definitely helpful. Thanks for sharing!
Apart from drinking cold water, you can also take shower multiple times a day. In our childhood in India without AC, we used to keep cool by bathing 4 -5 times a day.