<p>It’s been 90 here, yesterday and today and quite humid. First time I felt uncomfortable since last summer! We had a line of t’storms come through late this afternoon and it’s cooled down into the mid 70’s. </p>
<p>We have three room AC’s but I won’t put them in unless I hear we are going to get a string of 90-100 days. In the meantime, have a ceiling fan in family room, and a very lightweight and quiet window fan. We also have a whole house fan but H hasn’t gone up in the attic yet to uncover it (he throws blankets over it for winter so heat doesn’t escape into attic.) We only use that at night. It does a great job of sucking out the hot air and bringing cool air in at night. </p>
<p>I schlepped oscillating fan into our bedroom last night and was fine with only that. </p>
<p>I leave the blinds down during the day in our bedroom, but keep all the windows in my house open. I feel claustrophobic if windows are closed. </p>
<p>Have several very large trees in my yard which shade the house and that helps, too. My deck is almost always in the shade, except for very late in the afternoon, so I sit out a lot. I drink lots of water, too. </p>
<p>What we do: If it cools off and is less humid at night we open all the windows and set a window fan to suck the air out of the house then close in the morning. Invest in a window A/C for one room. They only cost $150 or so for a small one. It’s been in the 90s here for several days and until today the only A/C we’ve been using is the one in my office. It keeps the entire ground floor about 5 degrees cooler and much less humid. Today I turned the one in our bedroom on for the first time because it was like an oven in there at 6 pm. I also think it’s helpful to take a cool (not cold) shower right before going to bed.</p>
<p>We don’t need central air in Maine. We’re a little too warm a few days a year, but we know it will be cool again soon. We do have a window unit for our home office.</p>
<p>We don’t have enough heat here to have AC unless you really have extra money laying around - not worth it. Yesterday was record setting at 94 then we usually get one really hot week in late July.</p>
<p>I have window AC in each room, but so far I only need to have one on turned to 72 to keep the place cool. At night when I go to sleep, I have a fan on me. When I walk around NYC, I walk on the side of street which has shade, and when I get very hot from walking I’ll go into a store to cool off. Yesterday it was kind of unbearable so I got a frozen drink while I walked.</p>
<p>We have a ridge vent cut into our roof. We also had H and S install Mylar bubble wrap in the small attic/crawl space above the majority of the house. Those two measures lowered the house temp about 10 degrees! We had been contemplating A/C but no longer feel we need it and now rarely even use the portable room fans. </p>
<p>I was in Manhattan all last week and I could not stay indoors during the daytime without the A/C on. The humidity was getting to me. At night, I turned the bedroom A/C on before bedtime and turned it off when I sleep.
Really makes me appreciate the Bay Area.</p>
<p>We close things up during the day…and when it cools down at night…open things up. When we built this house, we had a whole house fan put it. It’s on now…sucking the hot air into the attic and the cool air info the open windows. We have gable and ridge vents so the hot air goes out.</p>
<p>We have ceiling fans in our bedroom, living area and screen porch. We keep out thermostat on 80, otherwise the A/C would run non-stop all summer!</p>
<p>My wife hates A/C so we have fans. I no longer use the ceiling fan in our room because my eyes dry out. I find that where we live it’s only uncomfortable for a few weeks at most. And if I point a fan at me, I’m fine. </p>
<p>I go to my job where’s there’s central air; hit the library, restaurants, stores with AC; turn on an upstairs bedroom window unit and hunker down there; keep the shades drawn and windows closed; sweat it out working in the garden; employ the study’s ceiling fan (<this is where I need that portable AC!); sit on the shaded, east-facing front porch after noontime; take a night-time, warm shower to rinse off the summer grime; drink iced tea and lattes; cook in Crockpot or microwave (forget the stove and oven) or eat out. If push comes to shove, I guess I could go down into the basement and create a little reading nook or something down there. Installing window awnings on all west-facing windows was miraculous. </p>