[highnrg1]

My air conditioning is broken and I was already hot Would love to hear what others do to cool down.

[Yoda]

Drink plenty of cold fluids.

Maybe try something like this ----> Five Effective DIY Alternatives to Running an Air Conditioner

[highnrg1]

Oh my goodness, Yoda. Thanks so much for the resource! I just may have to create the makeshift AC. Very cool (pun intended).

[Angelique67]

Also, put your top in ice water and keep it wet from cool air.

[highnrg1]

Angelique… that will be a great way to cool off and I will likely find it enjoyable to wear a cool top as well. Going to try that now...

[splitimage]

Get a big floor fan. I don't have air conditioning. But I have this big box floor fan. I prop it up on baskets so it's level with my bed, and turn it on medium, and it keeps me quite cool.

splitimage

Close the shades and drapes. That will help cool the air.

If you have cans of pop or frozen vegitables place them on your wrists.

roll up hand towels, run them beneath cold water and lay over the back of your neck.

And face fans in an open door/window way AWAY from the center of the room (this will suck out the hot instead of just blowing it around)

[notz]

I keep a wet hand towel in the freezer for when I come in from the yard hot and sweaty. It's awesome! Face, neck, chest and back side of elbows and wrists are great spots for a cool off!

[seesaw]

Cold shower!!!!

[Mike_J]

Do you pay for your water? In college we didn't have AC, but didn't have to pay for water, I would run the shower on cold, open the window in the bathroom and put a fan in the doorway to push air through the water spray. It works best in areas with low humidity.

[Nammu]

Put your feet in a bucket of ice

[highnrg1]

I do pay for water. Was worried about taking a cold shower because then I would be even more alert and would have a harder time settling down…but then realized I wasn't settling down anyway, so… I ended up just laying a towel on my bed and rubbing ice cubes all over…and that felt absolutely incredible. Then, was worried I would be too alert from that but then a soft rain came in and both calmed me and cooled the air coming in through the windows and I was finally able to sleep.

The maintenance guys just came and fixed my AC here, but since I am going to my sister's and will stay upstairs in her house (where it is much hotter), I will still need all of these suggestions. Thanks so much! You all are amazing!!!

[nonightowl]

Originally Posted by notz

I keep a wet hand towel in the freezer for when I come in from the yard hot and sweaty. It's awesome! Face, neck, chest and back side of elbows and wrists are great spots for a cool off!

True! I like those reuseable ice packs that are for injuries but they also cool you down as well. Putting them on the back of my neck really helps, since I tend to be hot in the upper body way more, esp. my face and neck.

Run a fan if you can, oscillating but not directly towards you.

If you have an exhaust fan or one with that setting, you can put that by a window and suck the warm air out. Be sure to have just enough of an opening for the fan or it's a losing battle, LOL.

A cool shower or bath might help, plus drinking cool (not ice cold) water a lot.

Because it's so costly, I don't even use my a/c unless REALLY suffering.....And it's just a "room" a/c since it's a "box" thing on the wall which won't cool the whole apartment. It isn't powerful enough.

My next door neighbor seems to run his all the time. He must make a lot of money. I know he drives a late model car.

[IchbinkeinTeufel]

If this hasn't already been suggested, here's a tip: run the cold water tap until it's really cold, then put your wrists under the water. Your whole wrist, the vein side. What you're after is to cool the blood as it flows through. Great way to ease a headache, but cools down the body a bit too. Cold flannel or something on the back of your neck too; same idea. Mainly, the wrist thing. Also, avoid straining yourself. Drink cold liquids. That's all I can think of, I'm afraid.

[Persephone518]

How about running a cool (not cold) bath and relaxing in the tub the way you would in the pool? You could even put on some music and enjoy a cold beverage. Afterward, put on some loose lightweight clothing and use electric fans to circulate the air.

[lilcreecher]

I acclimate myself to the heat by wearing jeans and boots. Try a cool bandanna on your head and a box fan.

[TiredPilgrim]

Go for a drive.
Go to the local library, where you can hang out for free!!
Go to the mall. For us, that is a 35+ minute drive.

[LadyShadow]

That ice pack idea sounds awesome! Or just have the fan blow on you. It was hot today and I just had the fan blowing on me and it was two feet away!

[nonightowl]

I forgot to say that if you have a range hood fan, you can run that to suck some hot air out of the kitchen area. Depending on how big your kitchen is, it might not work too well.

I have one of those "galley" kitchens with no counter space and no air circulation. There's no window in or near that area. I just have the range hood fan, and a table fan to blow on me but the heat gets trapped back there.

I use the range fan on "high" speed when using the oven and it seems to help somewhat...But when it's really hot I don't cook. I stay out of that HOT kitchen.

What a poor design of that apartment, esp. the kitchen. So the range hood just draws air out of that area since it's over the stove. The a/c box thing on the wall can be directed towards the kitchen but it's not that powerful.

All I can think of for now....

[highnrg1]

God, in His great mercy, dropped the temperature in my city down 20 degrees today! How COOL is that??? Prayer works!!!

[eskielover]

Your broken AC took my memories back to the late 1980's when I was married & we had just bought our 2nd brand NEW home. They had just finished construction & we closed escrow & moved in over 4th of julys weekend after living in an apartment for over 6 months with most of our furniture in storage. This nice 2500 sq foot home seemed like a castle.

The gotcha was that I had injured my knee playing racquetball 5 years before & it was getting so bad I could hardly walk let alone do stairs or Cary heavy boxes. I finally found a good orthopedic surgeon who informed me I needed knee reconstruction...scheduled the end of August.....oh yes, forgot to say...this new home was in the southern California desert where summers get into the 110F + temps. Not bad if you are inside an AC building.

Ok, had surgery on my left knee..before they did it arthroscopically so I had a huge full leg cast on & they had extra plaster to they made it even more bulky. I had crutches to get around on. Came home to what I thought would be a nice AC home....which it was for the first few days until this brand new central AC unit broke.

I was stuck in the house because I couldn't drive...my auto was stick shift & there was no way to drive it. I didn't know any of my neighbors but most of the houses were still being built so I didn't have many neighbors anyway. When I looked at the thermometer inside the house, it was over 100F. If I opened the windows it would get even hotter. On crutches I had a hard timee just getting around let alone trying to get anything to drink from the refrig & holding it while walking on crutches. I was home alone because my H was back at work while I was home on sick leave after the surgery. I was so miserable. I couldn't even stand in the shower to cool off because it was such a hassle to get up the stairs.....& then my leg where the incision was started to swell from all the heat.

I was trying to get the construction contractors to get the AC fixed but it was a bad compressor & for some reason, they couldn't get the part. LOL. I called the guy we bought the home from at the sales office & explained the problem....within a a few hours, they took the AC unit from the vacant house next door & got it installed in ours & by the end of that day, we had a working AC again after almost a week of 100F weather in the house.

I don't remember ever being so miserable in all my life as I was that week. Top it off, my H had to take me to the ortho surgeon because he wanted to make sure the incision wasn't infected. They opened the cast in that area, found it was ok, then poured bedadine on the incision & closed it back up....while I was still in the hot house. Several weeks later when they took the cast off to put on a lighter weight one for another 2 weeks....they found that the bedadine had burned my skin under the cast....no wonder why it was even more miserable than I had thought.

After surviving that....I feel like I could survive anything.....I don't usually use my AC, but this summer has already been in the 90's & where I live now, it's really humid.....so Im thinking I will probably break down & use my AC in spite of the higher electric bill using it....sometimes the need for comfort WINS.

You are right...God's mercy dropped the temp here this week also. Will see what next month brings. I use the ceiling fan over my bed. I have a window fan & have a storm door that has a screen opening when sliding down the glass so I can keep the front door open with the cooler night air. Small fan on the counter in the master bath & in my computer room after my ceiling fan in there broke. Have heard that sitting a bucket of ice cubes in front of a fan helps cool the air even more....but in reality there is NOTHING LIKE A WORKING AC.

[highnrg1]

Originally Posted by eskielover

Your broken AC took my memories back to the late 1980's when I was married & we had just bought our 2nd brand NEW home. They had just finished construction & we closed escrow & moved in over 4th of julys weekend after living in an apartment for over 6 months with most of our furniture in storage. This nice 2500 sq foot home seemed like a castle.

The gotcha was that I had injured my knee playing racquetball 5 years before & it was getting so bad I could hardly walk let alone do stairs or Cary heavy boxes. I finally found a good orthopedic surgeon who informed me I needed knee reconstruction...scheduled the end of August.....oh yes, forgot to say...this new home was in the southern California desert where summers get into the 110F + temps. Not bad if you are inside an AC building.

Ok, had surgery on my left knee..before they did it arthroscopically so I had a huge full leg cast on & they had extra plaster to they made it even more bulky. I had crutches to get around on. Came home to what I thought would be a nice AC home....which it was for the first few days until this brand new central AC unit broke.

I was stuck in the house because I couldn't drive...my auto was stick shift & there was no way to drive it. I didn't know any of my neighbors but most of the houses were still being built so I didn't have many neighbors anyway. When I looked at the thermometer inside the house, it was over 100F. If I opened the windows it would get even hotter. On crutches I had a hard timee just getting around let alone trying to get anything to drink from the refrig & holding it while walking on crutches. I was home alone because my H was back at work while I was home on sick leave after the surgery. I was so miserable. I couldn't even stand in the shower to cool off because it was such a hassle to get up the stairs.....& then my leg where the incision was started to swell from all the heat.

I was trying to get the construction contractors to get the AC fixed but it was a bad compressor & for some reason, they couldn't get the part. LOL. I called the guy we bought the home from at the sales office & explained the problem....within a a few hours, they took the AC unit from the vacant house next door & got it installed in ours & by the end of that day, we had a working AC again after almost a week of 100F weather in the house.

I don't remember ever being so miserable in all my life as I was that week. Top it off, my H had to take me to the ortho surgeon because he wanted to make sure the incision wasn't infected. They opened the cast in that area, found it was ok, then poured bedadine on the incision & closed it back up....while I was still in the hot house. Several weeks later when they took the cast off to put on a lighter weight one for another 2 weeks....they found that the bedadine had burned my skin under the cast....no wonder why it was even more miserable than I had thought.

After surviving that....I feel like I could survive anything.....I don't usually use my AC, but this summer has already been in the 90's & where I live now, it's really humid.....so Im thinking I will probably break down & use my AC in spite of the higher electric bill using it....sometimes the need for comfort WINS.

You are right...God's mercy dropped the temp here this week also. Will see what next month brings. I use the ceiling fan over my bed. I have a window fan & have a storm door that has a screen opening when sliding down the glass so I can keep the front door open with the cooler night air. Small fan on the counter in the master bath & in my computer room after my ceiling fan in there broke. Have heard that sitting a bucket of ice cubes in front of a fan helps cool the air even more....but in reality there is NOTHING LIKE A WORKING AC.

This was such a great story and made me smile. Thanks so much for sharing! I do know that when we have to go through times when we seem miserable, we really appreciate what we take for granted on a daily basis. And having survived it, sometimes we even alter our behaviors for the good (I love how this experience allowed you to decide that you don't need to use your AC nearly as much). Everyone has shared such good ideas that when I get back home to my working AC, I am not going to just automatically turn down the dial. There are plenty of things I can do to get cool that don't involve the expense of running the AC all day. Thanks, everyone!

[Burnt_Out]

Originally Posted by highnrg1

My air conditioning is broken and I was already hot Would love to hear what others do to cool down.

Go to my mom's place until the A/C is fixed. Keep in mind I live in Arizona and the A/C not working is rather unbearable.

[BlueEyedMama]

Retreat to the coolest room with two fans, ice water, multiple ice packs to but on my body, minimal clothes.

[Artchic528]

Have a fan blowing on some ice helps to act sort of like an air conditioner. Not the same, I know, but it helps. Taking a shower and leaving my hair to air dry also helps cool me down when I'm particularly hot and sweaty. Or perhaps just dunking your head in some water and letting your hair get wet could have the same effect.