Staying cool in rural areas

[meadowlarkponds]

I wouldn't want to do it but...if one did without A/C and naturally conditioned themselves starting in the spring...I'm convinced we could tolerate the Texas heat much better...but I wouldn't want to try it or have to prove it either.

 

[texasjohn]

Am wondering if anybody is using mist sprayers around their house/work area.? I am most interested in an area where humidity is 40% to 55% or less... I know higher is not very efficient at cooling... and lower is significantly increased.

I'm working on setting a trial mist system in my new metal building workshop... getting a few of the cheapest parts for trial set-up from Home Depot... cost about $25 so far for 5 spray nozzles, a filter and automic drain setup when turned off. Very hard water here in central texas. What I have learned so far is that the nozzles need to be high up in the building or my low pressure (60 psi) system doesn't evaporate before hitting the floor... am planning on raising height... am unsure if it is worth experimenting to raise pressure...cost of pressure pump looks very pricey!

 

[Bird]

I wouldn't want to do it but...if one did without A/C and naturally conditioned themselves starting in the spring...I'm convinced we could tolerate the Texas heat much better...but I wouldn't want to try it or have to prove it either.

I'm not sure whether we tolerated it any better or not; just that we used to have to tolerate it. I never lived in a home with air-conditioning until I was 19. And we didn't have air-conditioning in the service station or auto parts store.

And I started to work on the police department in '64 when we had black police sedans with no air-conditioning. We got our first air-conditioned cars in 1968.

So we were "accustomed" to it, and we tolerated it, simply because we had no choice.

 

[JimR]

Bird, Those were the good ole days when you would put the windows down and snap the side vents backwards to get a good blast of air. Nowadays I do that in my truck and the wife complains about getting her hair messed up.

 

[ByronBob]

Hi Don,

Boy up here in WNY when we get above 90 it's a big deal. I'm almost ashamed to say that to you. But when it's 10 below here you must think the same thing.

Do you have a water hole to keep cool down there? We have the wally world blue blow up pool. Cheap but effective....Because by Labor Day you have to close it up.

 

[dmccarty]

I wouldn't want to do it but...if one did without A/C and naturally conditioned themselves starting in the spring...I'm convinced we could tolerate the Texas heat much better...but I wouldn't want to try it or have to prove it either.

I think you are right. When I moved to NC from FL I was taken aback when people up here complained how hot it was when the temps where in the mid 80's. That is cool. If you are from FL. The first couple of years up here I was freezing. I would wear long johns tops and bottoms to work. In a building. I would also have on a heavy shirt and a heavy wool sweater. Sometimes I would wear a coat to meetings. I was simply used to the FL heat not the cold. After I had been in NC for a few years I went back to FL. Dang near died in the heat. In FL and even here in NC you see people from up Nawth wearing shorts when its 60-70 degrees outside. In FL that was jacket weather for me.

The company sent us to a baseball game yesterday. Triple A team I think. We got there at noonish and it was 90. I thought it was not bad at 90. Two hours later it was 95. Hot, humid and misrable. I noticed that most of the people around me where sweating pretty good. I was not. My guess is that since I work outside and really push it even when its hot my body is more acclimated to the heat than others. We keep the AC at 82. I know some of the people who where sweating the most keep there AC in the mid 70s.

We got lucky in that a Tstorm went by to our south. The temps dropped 20 degrees to 75 in 30 minutes or so. Made things very nice.

Later,
Dan

 

[txdon]

Am wondering if anybody is using mist sprayers around their house/work area.? I am most interested in an area where humidity is 40% to 55% or less... I know higher is not very efficient at cooling... and lower is significantly increased.

TexasJohn, I got a mist fan from Walmart ($84, with 4 extra nozzles=8) that I use in my outside work area. it has 4 mist nozzles in the front of the fan and a hose connection for the water. I checked the temperature yesterday was 102, in the area in front of the fan it was 79. After it runs a while the ground in front is damp. I have it so it does not blow on the tools. I also have a misting system on my porch with the nozzles connected with PVC. The porch does get damp even on low humidity days. From my experience with misters they are great outside when it is hot, but I would not want to them indoors and get my tools or shop floor damp/wet.

 

[meadowlarkponds]

Another example of "conditioning"...I was in the Bahamas in February on a fishing trip and the temps dropped all the way down to 68 degrees....the locals were absolutely freezing....myself, on the other hand, was loving it.

 

[HomeBrew2]

I wouldn't want to do it but...if one did without A/C and naturally conditioned themselves starting in the spring...I'm convinced we could tolerate the Texas heat much better...but I wouldn't want to try it or have to prove it either.

I never use A/C in the car or house. No swamp cooler either. I use fans everywhere though. It's been running over 105 in the San Joaquin valley where I work and right about 100 at home in the hills. No big deal, it does it every year so no big surprise.

 

[Unclebuck257]

I have a real hard time with the triple digit heat, so I only do outside work until about 11AM. The rest of the time I'm inside something, somewhere where the A/C is on!! This latest heat wave has cost me big time in my electric bill. It's doubled to $750.00 this month!! I almost had a stroke from that alone. I keep the house at 76 though and with our severe drought, I'm running water directly from our well into my stock tank 24/7.