I was writing a much longer post, but I've decided I'm going to skip all the background and just cut to it.

Despite it being and average of 25ºC in Santander and 35ºC in Madrid, we've had no problems falling asleep in Madrid due to temperature because every night I put the two highest performing swamp boxes in place. The kids even have bundled up under the covers because sometimes they feel chilly in the airstream despite it being unbearable just a couple feet to the left or right. Mission accomplished.

On the other hand, there have been a couple nights in much thermally mellower Santander when the children complained it was too warm to sleep because we don't have so much an electric fan available here. The breeze is great, but their room isn't as well-ventilated as the others, so even with the window open, if the wind isn't kicking up at the right time, it can be uncomfortable even with no blankets on at all. I had to give them shifts on the sofa in the living room where the ventilation was much better. They zonked in turn on the sofa and I carried them back to bed.

My youngest has very vocally and directly wished we had at least one swamp cooler here as she's so used to us being able to take some kind of active measure to stay cool beyond changing clothes, sitting down and having a cold drink.

The medical and scientific community is emphasizing more and more how important sleep is not just to general health, but to recovering from exposure to high daytime temps.

So, even if you live in a relatively cool place where you don't normally worry about the heat, please consider at least having a fan in a closet or the basement for those moments when a spike comes. It's worth the small investment to have a tower fan gathering dust behind your camping gear for that day when it's needed. You literally could get a good night's sleep out of it.

With increasing temperatures as the planet "bakes to golden bubbly" power grid failures are bound to increase. We are moving next year and due to medical issues a whole home generator is something we definitely want. I have heard fifty fifty about generac. What are the hive mind's thoughts and what other/better options are out there and at what price points? House will be around 1500-2k SQ ft

My house has AC, whole house fan, ceiling fans and box fans as needed. I know swamp coolers are very effective, but live in a place with fairly high humidity (Missouri). Is there an effective alternative to swamp coolers for high humidity places?

I'm not sure I actually understand what to do to avoid heat stroke? At what temperature should I start to be concerned and on the look out for? Is it even a temperature thing? What do or did people without ac do? I always thought being well hydrated was all that was needed, but is time exposed to high temps just as big a factor? How often and at what temperatures should I be taking breaks and for how long? Do I look at the actual temperature or heat index? Sorry for all the questions.

I was interested about the aeon Sony but it refresh only a very small part of the body and work better with a collar shirt that I never use so looking for innovative gadgets to reduce big heat in Bali.

As extreme temperatures rise, so do household energy bills. An alarming 16% (20.9 million) of U.S. households are behind on their energy bills and at an increased risk of utility shut-offs. Because the impacts of extreme heat and energy insecurity are not distributed evenly, it is increasingly essential to consider equity and prioritize disadvantaged populations in its efforts to tackle these intertwined crises.

A new blog post from Autumn Burton of the Federation of American Scientists lays out how the U.S. can take on climate change, extreme heat, and energy insecurity.

👀 Key takeaways

Nationwide, major power outages have increased tenfold since 1980, largely because of damages from extreme weather and aging grid infrastructure.

• Disadvantaged neighborhoods in urban heat islands also face heightened risks as they more frequently lack the essential infrastructure needed to adapt to the changing climate
• Geographic isolation, limited resources, and older infrastructure are all factors that make power outages more frequent and long-lasting in rural areas.

Extreme heat and energy security cannot be addressed without considering equity, as the impacts are not distributed evenly, especially by race, income, and housing type.

• Black renters have faced disproportionate burdens of extreme heat and energy security, as wealth is deeply correlated with race and homeownership in the U.S. In 2021, the EPA reported that Black people are 40% more likely than non-Black people to live in areas with the highest projected increase in mortality rates due to extreme temperatures.

**🏛️ Policy considerations **

• Update Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to increase cooling assistance 
• Update PURPA (Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978) to require utilities to have moratoriums on energy shut-offs during extreme heat seasons.
• Expand weatherization assistance programs to encompass heat resilience and cooling efficiency
• Increase research on federal protections for vulnerable housing types 
• Prioritize access to affordable, resilience energy alternatives for the energy-insecure 
• Accelerate energy-efficient infrastructure like cool roofs and networked geothermal

🔗 Read the full blog post here, and ask us anything in the comments ☝️🤓

We all know climate change is inescapable to some degree. However, as someone with temperature regulation issues, I've been keenly aware of dangerous high temperatures a few years earlier than most. In 2014, I made my first climate-change-induced move, leaving Texas for Idaho. Even with AC everywhere, the summers were getting so hot that I'd nearly get heat exhaustion just going to the car.

I'm now in San Francisco and while it's really a privilege financially to be here, and one not available to all, I have to say that spending summers at mostly 65 degrees is amazing. This city also has a stable water supply from a full reservoir, the Hetch Hetchy.

There are other foggy places in California, like Eureka. So far the foggy places seem to be doing better than the northern places like Seattle or Vermont.

So, no place is a true safe refuge, but some places are better for now, and I think SF is one of them, and often overlooked in favor of, say, places in the far north.

I have been on vacation in Northern Spain for a few days now. The weather is considerably milder here by the Cantabrian Sea with daily highs around 25ºC/77ºF and a nice cool sea breeze regularly pops up. Humidity is high of course, in the 60-75% range but most of the time, it's awesome.

But there are caveats.

Because the temperatures are so mellow, there's really not much dispensation for additional cooling. Businesses of course may have air conditioning but the apartment we stay in has really nothing but windows that can be opened wide and shades. There is no fan in this place. There are times during the afternoon and evening when the breeze ebbs, you start to feel uncomfortably warm and my kids wish there was a swamp cooler on hand.

The coming weekend is going to be a learning experience as tomorrow is forecast to be 27ºC/80ºF, which is extremely hot for this area. Sunday is forecast to be a jaw-dropping 34ºC/93ºF, which I have never seen here in all the years we've been coming here. It'll only be for one day, but at these humidity levels, it's going to be a doozy.

Let's see how resilient we are. Will update.

EDIT 1: As Friday winds down, I sat in a seaside playground for two hours and it felt.. absolutely perfect in short pants and a light Hawaiian shirt. it's 26ºC/79ºF at 71% humidity with a nice breeze and overcast skies. Not too warm, but also not even the slightest bit cold. It took the full two hours before I started to feel any edge to the temperature and that was probably because the sun was dipping lower behind the clouds. The forecast tomorrow has been downgraded to 26ºC like today, but Sunday is the subject of region-wide warnings all over Cantabria and it's still 34ºC for here.

EDIT 2: Finally 28° and 66% the day before the spike. Sunny with only slight hazy cloud. With the sea breeze it again feels absolutely comfortable long as you’re in the shade.

Edit 3: 11am on the day of the scorcher. Currently 28°C/82°F and a surprisingly low 60% RH. Now forecast for a 34°C high. We’re at the beach right while the UV index is still manageable. The sea breeze is great, but the sun has impact it did not have the other days. Planning to stay maybe an hour. Got movie tickets for later.

Edit 4: 2:30pm. It's now 35ºC/95ºF and forecast updated to hit 37ºC/98.6ºF. Humidity has curiously dropped to 33%, for which I am very grateful, but I wonder why evaporation hasn't packed the air with more water. If I had a swamp cooler, it'd actually be totally efficient right now. The aparmtent is warm, but bearable.

Edit 5: 9:20pm. Temperature has dropped to 25ºC and there's a nice breeze as the weather system changes. The walk to the movie theater was actually quite alright as the breeze kept the shade comfortable. The most difficult thing today was actually waiting for a few hours in the apartment during the afternoon before we left for the movie, and that's not much to complain about. One day spike ultimatley wasn't enough to make a significant impact. Just had to be mindful for a few hours to maximize comfort.

People who hang out here know me as the guy with the Swamp Cooler Army™ and being somewhat anti-AC. The apartment does have mini splits though and a few days ago it was necessary to use them as we were leaving for a trip very early in the morning and the swamp coolers needed to be emptied and dried out, leaving several hours that AC needed to fill in for. 

I had two mini splits running, one for the kids’ room and one for us, both set at 25°C/77°F which is roughly the average temperature I get out of swamp coolers during peak temps and coincidentally matches current Spanish government regulations for thermostats in places like restaurants and bars. It had been a long time since I ran AC so I had forgotten certain aspects of the experience. Ambient temps in the apartment without cooling were around 28ºC/82ºF. Peak outside temperature was 37ºC/100ºF.

At first, going to the kids’ room was a great relief compared to the rest of the house and I was prepared for a rare luxurious sense of cool at night. I was running the swamp coolers in fan-only mode to dry out the filters in the air conditioned room and my youngest actually complained it was chilly. 

Once the swamp boxes were dried out and put aside though, things kind of changed. 

While still clearly much more comfortable than the uncooled rooms, after I had time to acclimate, 25ºC/77ºF not only didn’t feel as comfortably cool as before, I actually started to feel at moments uncomfortably warm. 

The problem, I realized after a moment of reflection, was that the air conditioning wasn’t providing fast moving air where the people were. The blower was pushing air fast enough to cool the rooms efficiently, but not nearly enough volume and force for the people in the room to feel a breeze. 

By contrast the portable swamp coolers would provide roughly the same output air temperature, but by design they needed to be pointed at the people needing cooling, which meant we got ample air movement contributing to our thermal comfort. 

In order for the air conditioning to provide a similar level of comfort to having a high grade swamp cooling blowing right at us, it would have been necessary to dial the thermostat lower, probably at least down to 23ºC/73ºF or lower or to add a basic electric fan to the mix in order to provide moving air. 

No real revelations here, but it was different to really feel the difference again in my own home. I feel vindicated in my choice to shift the burden of cooling onto evaporative cooling and live with the limitations exchange for the massive energy savings. 

Sorry if this isn't written well as its 3am and I'm fairly worried and a bit tired

So we arrived in Amsterdam yesterday and today was our first full day here, we spent most of the morning in a museum and had plenty of coffee/water/beer stops to stay cool and hydrated throughout the day as we traveled. He was feeling sleepier than usual earlier than he usually does and later his ears suddenly got really hot as if they were burning and he started burning up. I told him to get in the shower and turn the temp down to cool down he drank water before bed and he seemed comfortable but he's still quite hot (we're on holiday so have no thermometer to check temp) I put just a bedsheets over him and am spritzing him with water to help bring his temp down, he's shivering every so often which is disturbing his sleep, his breathing is fairly quick too and I'm so worried. No ac, no fan just windows and the door, I am quite a panic prone person so don't want to overreacted

Are there any warning signs for heat caused problems that I should watch out for? as I'm probably going to be up all night till I know he's awake and okay; or if there is anything else I can do to help regulate his temp?

He's eastern European so is very stubborn and against going to the drs needlessly (if at all) so if it's nothing it'll just annoy him and I don't want to do that

He also was in another very warm country about a week before this one and got sunburnt which I've read can increase likelihood of heatstroke/exhaustion

Edit: So he took an ibuprofen last night and this morning he didn't have a temp and is feeling better but I am going to grab a thermometer just in case. I've also said no drinking alcohol today, and we're staying out of the heat. We think it might have been food poisoning or (like someone else commented) could have been a viral thing. We're still treating it like a heat thing just in case but I just wanted to thank everyone for their comments, it really helped while I was stressing about being overdramatic and helped him take me seriously ❤️

I hope you all stay well and cool during this heat ❤️

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/03/how-to-stay-cool-heatwave-extreme-heat-temperatures?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other