Seniors, How Are You Keeping Your Home Cool in This Summer Heat?

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
What have you done or are you doing to keep your house or apartment cool in this summer heat? I was just watching a news segment about how older people have to take care not to get overheated in summer months. I don't care for the heat at all, and would prefer all my summers to be in the 70s. :D

Our house has trees surrounding it, some were planted by us when we bought the house around 40 years ago. So the trees definitely help keep it cooler in summer, just walking in through the front door after walking our furkid in the park, is a welcomed relief from the heat. Been in the 90s this week, waaay too hot for my liking.

Our house had old fashioned cheaper double pane windows, but a lot of the seals were broken, so there was a cloudy appearance in sections of the window....which drove me nuts, I like to look outdoors and get a clear view. Just a few minutes ago, there was a young doe grazing behind the back fence. Eventually, we upgraded to double pane vinyl windows which have helped a lot in not only keeping out the summer heat, but the winter cold and the noise outside.

We have a small house, ranch, one floor with finished basement. The basement always seems to be around ten degrees cooler than the main floor. In the bedroom we have a ceiling fan, and a small 5,000 BTU window air conditioner that we put up for around 3 months in summer. I have a stand up fan stored in the basement for when we need added air circulation in the living room, etc....but haven't had to use that yet this year.

What do you do to keep cool in summer when you're at home?
 

Where I live extreme heat for days on end is not a thing to worry about. The nights always cool off. What I do is exhaust the heat during the day and reverse it at night and bring in cool air.

No air conditioning needed.

Come to Canada. The whole country is air conditioned except for the southern part close to the United States.
 
Canada is very nice Camper, but I'll stick with where I am in the USA. Colorado is not bad at all and does cool off in the evenings and night, wouldn't want to live in Arizona or Florida though, toooo hot for me! My husband suggested the window air conditioner years ago, but honestly, if it was just me, I'd be content with the ceiling fan in summer months.
 

2 ceiling fans, full house air conditioner, plenty of ice cold water from my fridge door, cold cans of Orange Crush in the fridge.

That's all I can think of right now.

Oho, I forgot, an attic exhaust fan. (electric)
 
We use the main air conditioning unit in the living room of the RV during the day when it gets hot. Unfortunately, as seasonal lot renters, we have to pay our own electricity and it's pretty expensive. We're having unseasonably hot weather here, but still not as hot as it would be back in Florida.

Thank goodness, it gets cool at night, so a fan in the bedroom window does the trick and we don't have to use the 2nd air conditioning unit, which is vented through the ceiling right over the bed and blows right on us. Not comfortable.
 
Like Camper just stated, we have had an extreme heatwave. In Quebec alone 70 people died due to it.

We live on a forest lot so our house gets plenty of shade which is good because we don’t have central air.
We have a dehumidifier which runs 24/7. Except for 3 basement windows, all our windows are brand new, we have new insulation in our basement . Our doors are all new.
We close our curtains and windows during the day and open some at night.
We have 4 ceiling fans. If it gets too hot I go downstairs which is about 10 degrees cooler.
Our fridge has an ice maker and cold water which is COLD and we drink more than normal.
The furnace fan gets turned on and our house stays fairly cool.
Sometimes I have cool showers. That works.
 
Yes, cool showers help too Keesha, just came in from mowing the lawn and think I'll be taking one soon. :chores:
 
We don't build a fire of a morn, even when temps dip into the 30s, if the temps are gonna be in the 80s in the day
Just tough it out, and keep the cabin doors/windows shut

of which we just now opened things up for the evening
 
We keep our AC on 74 degrees. Luckily, we have fairly low electricity rates, so the bill isn't that bad. I keep a dehumidifier going in the basement, and it stays in the low 70's, even in this heat. We are seeing daytime heat indexes well over 100 degrees this time of year, with the high humidity. In the past month, we have equalled, or set, heat records on at least 8 days....and no real break in this weather in the forecast.
 
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This is Texas, so like most people, I have central air conditioning which I keep about 75 during the day and turn down cooler at night.
I also close the curtains on the sunny side of the house.
 
In my area, the worst part of the summer heat seems to be the panicked voices of the television announcers and the warning crawls along the bottom of the television screen.

We only get three or four blistering hot humid days then a cold front usually comes through and the humidity drops to reasonable levels. Even then it is only really hot a couple of hours in the late afternoon for a sedentary person like me. I do feel sorry for the folks that work outdoors in this type of heat and humidity, it must be brutal.

I make sure the ice bin is full and the refrigerator is stocked with plenty of cold tea, go out and take care of my errands in the early morning, shower a couple times a day and sleep with my fan blowing at night.

It will be snowing again before you know it!!!
 
Here in Houston I have central a/c like everybody else. A few years I had solar screens put on all the windows so that helps. I go out early for errands and always get early morning doctor appts if I need to go to one. Lots of cold water and no cooking except for the microwave. If I just HAVE to have some cornbread I will cook a pan early in the morning and freeze the leftovers in a zip lock. Boil up a dozen eggs, keep in fridge to add to a cold salad everyday. Mainly stay in unless I have to go somewhere in the early morning. I was put out today as I had a 9:00 appt. with doctor and I did not see him until 10:00. At least I had through there for a year.
 
New central a/c..
We are out in the boonies, cool nights (70's) and breezy..We have the thermostat set at 81 and have doors and windows open until the a/c clicks on (85 outside) then we close everything thing up..It works for us...
 
Cool breezes for me and then when and if it gets too warm, pull out the Dyson fans. Fortunate here, cools down quite a bit in the evening. God’s air conditioning.
 
I don't like A/C, I have 2 fans one in my living/dining room,the other in my bedroom.
The fan in the liv/din rm is on most days when its hot/humid,I turn my wooden blinds around noon,fan keeps me comfortable.
My bedroom faces SW,my 2 windows are always open during summer months. I leave the fan on low during the night.
I drink a lot of Poland Spring water,don't care for the city tap water Sue
 
We have central AC. The hubby hates it and is always cold. He turns it way down at night. I have a window AC in my daughters old room so I sleep in there and have it as cold as it will go. I like it so I can see my breath. I know it is expensive but it is one of my little splurges.Besides, in winter I like the heat almost off. It averages out.
 
I push the button on the thermostat that says "cool".

5 ceiling fans are a big asset.
 

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