The summer is coming soon to the Northern Hemisphere. How do you plan to combat the heat? I live in a regular apartment without air conditioning, and installing a full-scale system is not an option. I wonder what my options are, and how other people are planning to deal with the issue.
First line of defense: blocking out sunlight in all windows during the day
Second line of defense: highly active drafting, creating a cross-breeze when the outdoor temperature is lower than the indoor temperature
Third line of defense: Fan, reduces perceived temperature significantly
Fourth line of defense: Acclimatization, warm showers before bed (supposedly helps)
Fifth line of defense, in case everything else fails - basically a heatwave: portable AC
Basically keeping all the windows open through the night and closing them in the morning. I also sleep upstairs directly below the roof during the colder months, but move to the ground floor in summer, where it gets much less hot.
Things will creep in at night, I mean spiders not Nosferatu. Although maybe Nosferatu. You don’t often hear a monster work the word enmity into a sentence.
Funny you’d say that, as we actually get what we call “Nosferatu spiders” in Germany quite often in our house. I don’t really mind them though, the occasional mosquito is much more annoying. We have nets on some of the windows though.
“Nosferatu spiders” in Germany
Apparently they’re called Fox Spiders in other places. It looks like a ‘wolf’ spider from here, but that’s apparently a common mis-identification. The two species love to hang out in wood piles and in corners and chase prey.
It looked like a few of the formerly-Tenegeria spiders we have here - Domesticus, Agrestis and Gigantica - which now all have new groupings I don’t care to learn. Thankfully none of those jump. But, then again, the jumpers are the only cool ones (eg Salticus scenicus and other spider-bros).
I didn’t mean for Pyotr to be my roommate but it just kind of happened. He’s pretty chill though. My place used to be pretty messy but he cleans it while I sleep. He’s totally silent too so I don’t even wake up! Really the only downside is the anemia but I’m taking iron supplements now and that might help a bit.
Fan.
Get a portable window air conditioner and do your best to insulate the room its in.
If you have a roof, you can put a sprinkler on it and spray water with a tap timer. Just enough to wet it, so that the water can evaporate and cool the roof.
If you have windows facing the sun, get blockout curtains and close them before the sun hits them.
If your front door has a window, get an expanding shower rail and hang a blockout curtain.
If you have internal doors, keep them closed.
Wear clothes made from natural fibres.
Drink extra water.
Move slower.
Eat cold meals, like salads, rather than cooked meals that heat up your home.
Install a ceiling fan and keep the air moving.
When the sun is off a window, open it to encourage ventilation.
Keep air moving at night.
Put a thin cover on your bed.
Have cold showers.
Source: I live in a hot climate.
