How do you stay cool in the heat?

[AbbysMom]

It's supposed to be in the 90's today and it may hit 100 tomorrow. With the humidity it is supposed to be feeling even warmer. So what do you do to stay cool?

My husband and I put the three window air conditioners in last night and I will be staying indoors as much as possible.


Oh and if anyone is looking for some tips on how to keep your cats cool, you can find some here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/keeping-cats-cool

 

[rosiemac]

We don't do air con in the UK apart from restaurants, pubs and shops.

Today is very warm, and i'll be home at 2.p.m. The livingroom windows will only be open slightly on the safety catch so the cats can't get out, but the full sun is at the back of the house at this time of day, and my bedrooms at the back, so i'll open them up wide and close the door.

The conservatory which is mainly all glass is the hottest room. I came home late yesterday after meeting up with friends for lunch, and the thermometer read 35!! 

 I'll open those windows and put a fan on, then i'll take the kids a bowl of iced water in and me a cold drink  

 

[AbbysMom]

The conservatory which is mainly all glass is the hottest room. I came home late yesterday after meeting up with friends for lunch, and the thermometer read 35!! 

I just did the celcius/fahrenheit conversion and that is what it supposed to be here today and tomorrow even higher.

 

[rosiemac]

I just did the celcius/fahrenheit conversion and that is what it supposed to be here today and tomorrow even higher.

Oh my life!. London is the hottest at the moment at 23. Were only 18 but it's hot enough!.

 

[luvmyparker]

Its 15ºc (59ºf) right now. Calling for 25c (77f) today and tomorrow...Then the rest of the week is suppose to be 17-19c (63-66f). The nights have been very cool, just a few degrees above freezing in some cases. I don't want to jinx it though! lol...I like the semi warmish days and the cold nights. I think I might cry when we get our first heat wave. 

The bedrooms in my place are all on the basement level though and my room is in the corner, so I have two cement walls. My room stays fairly cool, even on the hotter days, especially if I have my ceiling fan on so I veg here when I am home, at least and its really hot. Parker pretty much lives in my room, so he doesn't usually get too warm.

 

[pushylady]

A hot week here for us. This morning it was 33 already on the balcony at 9am. We have two window fans and five other fans plus a ceiling fan. We close the blinds on days like this too and keep all the windows open to get as much air flow as possible.

 

[Draco]

It's already in the 90s now. I am at work and its rather chilly in here with the central air.

I have an AC in my living room, and one in the bedroom in my apartment. I usually have the AC on in the bedroom when I go to bed. The living room I usually leave it off, unless I am working out or playing on my Wii. I usually have a little fan going.

after work, I am planning on hitting the community pool for a dip!

 

[Winchester]

The house is air-conditioned now, largely for the cats. Both Rick and I can take a lot of heat and humidity, but the cats (especially BooBoo and Mollipop) can't handle it. We tend to keep the drapes closed to help keep things cool. My car has air conditioning, but I hardly ever use it (although I probably will when I go home this afternoon and temp is in the mid-90s).

If I'm outside working and I can't take it anymore, I'll jump in the pool to cool down. Swim around a bit, then get back out and work for awhile again. Very icy drinks help, too.

Before the AC, when Boo needed a cooldown, we would rub him down with a cool, wet washcloth. He hated it at first, but when he realized that as he dried, he was cooler, he would actually come to us and meow...we think he wanted the washcloth. Sometimes after being rubbed down, he'd lay on the kitchen table and let the ceiling fan cool him down.

 

[nebula]

We have several "safeguards" against the heat.

Living in Texas, you have two seasons: hot and hotter. We are in the hotter and this year seems to have skipped winter & spring and went straight to summer, been 100+ already

We put a dimmer on the lights in the living room (less light = cooler)

We put heavy drapery over all the windows (no light or heat gets in-- cats hate it lol)

And we keep the AC at about 72.

We also keep as many lights as possible turned off and we avoid using the clothes  dryer during the day as much as possible.

Tiny apartment, even keeping the air about 70-72 our electric bill only runs about 70

 

[jcat]

It's been in the 80s here this week, but extremely muggy. We don't have air conditioning, but three big oscillating fans and shutters on almost all of the windows/balcony doors. We usually open everything up in the early morning to let the cooler air in, then close the windows and shutters for the rest of the day. That normally keeps it bearable inside. The front of our cellar is half underground, so Jamie goes down there if it's really hot.

 

[catspaw66]

Two words - Central Air.  And a ceiling fan to stir the air.  I keep it about 78 or so.  Curtains on all windows and only one 15 watt CF light.  The catflap is available, so if they want to go lay in the sun they can.

 

[gloriajh]

Living in the Southern CA Desert - heat is dry - so this helps.  The temp is showing 100 degrees right now, on its way to 110 degrees.

I'm not as concerned about staying cool - we have a good cooling system and the house is well insulated.  

However I am concerned about the cats living outside - and have established our garage as their shelter.  Our garage is insulated - even the roof has a special coating and the temps in the garage are usually about 10 degrees cooler than the outside, sometimes more.

I have a fan set up to blow air on them, and I rotate bottles of frozen water for them to get around if they want. 

Here's a pic of one of them taking advantage of the frozen water - well, it's mostly just cool right now because it's been sitting out for about 8 hours:



The kittens all looked alike so we just call them all 3 of the males "Sandee", except for the only female of the 4 and we've named her "Sadie". She has been the only one that I was successful in TNR'ing - glad I got the female.  When it turns cooler, will try to take care of the boys, too.  

 

[gemlady]

Yep, all hail Mr. Carrier and the modern air conditioning unit.

I have central air and with the humidity that we get it is practically a necessity. Currently it is set just below 80F and I have been comfortable. Ari has been napping in the shower or next to the bathroom vent and Topaz has claimed the top of a plastic storage container - next to the vent in the bedroom. :lol3:

 

[catlover19]

It's 5:30pm and it's 31 feels like 37C (88 feels like 99F). It originally was supposed to get to 42 today with the humidity, but it only got to 38. We have a window a/c in our bedroom and probably going to buy one for the living room too. The main level of my house is so hot it's disgusting. We have been bringing our laptops upstairs and sitting on the bed with the a/c on set at 72. We set it at 74 and close the door while we are sleeping and it gets nice and cold. Also, we have lots of freezies. I love the Dr. Pepper ones. 

 

[natalie_ca]

No heat here, it's been cool and rain.

But when it is hot here I stay inside with air conditioning.  I also invested in a small desk fan for work. I can't stand feeling hot and clammy, especially at work. At least at home I can roam around nude and take a dozen showers if I feel like it, which I do sometimes on my days off in the summer if it's really warm outside. Well, maybe not a dozen, but 3 or 4 anyway.
 

 

[pollyanna]

I wish I had some heat!  I also wish  I could go somewhere whitout a jacket on, without  freezing.  I wish the summer would look at the  calendar and realize it´s supposed to be here...NOW!!! 

 

[catsallaround]

ac in bedroom and one for main part of house.  When its real bad I take many rinse showers where i wash just my face and wet down my hair.  Also will take a pillowcase and soak it and lightly wring it out and use it as a "blanket" 

 

[feralvr]

Stay indoors in the a/c... cool shower..... eat lots of ice chips :lol3: and wear practically nothing

 

[spudsmom]

We have a/c that we pre-program to go on about 10:00 am. When we get home we turn on an occsilating (sp) floor fan. At night we run a fan on the nightstand. We both have a/c in our vehicles. My mail truck does not have a/c and it's a super-hot tin can, just has a fan on the dash to blow the hot air around. I had to climb into the back yesterday to get my key off the floor (DOH!) and it was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. I focus on getting to the a/c in my car and a cool shower when I walk in my door! I do NOT like hot weather!
 

 

[margecat]

We're having an excessive heat warning for today and tomorrow. It felt 100-104F today, with the same tomorrow. Fun.

Our house stays pretty cool downstairs; upstairs is much, much warmer. We have central air, but I seldom use it; today I did, for my 9 cats' benefit while I was at work.  We don't use it at night.  We have a window unit in the master bedroom, as the central A/C doesn't work well there at all. I also have ceiling fans upstairs, and use box fans when not using the A/C--they work suprisingly well, and the noise lulls me to sleep.

I wear cheap cotton dresses /skirts (Wal-Mart, Ross, etc.) around the house.  I find trousers too hot in really hot weather; skirts are much cooler.  I wash them by hand in cold water (they will shrink otherwise), and hang them to dry--rayon is good, too, and needs less ironing.  They have short sleeves, and loose skirts. I can dress them up or down, and add a jacket for air conditioning in stores, work, etc. when I go out.

My car's A/C started leaking last summer, and it was BRUTAL.  Since my car is very old, I don't want to invest in repairing the A/C, so I've been topping it up with canned Freon every month in hot weather. My cheap cotton dresses came in handy today!  Getting into the car is like climbing into a kiln.