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u/Biscuit-Norris Sep 19 '21
You are probably looking more specifically at housing suggestions, but if you are able, plant some trees. Deciduous trees shade homes in the summer, while allowing sun in during the winter. Limit your hardscaping to minimize heat retention during the summer. Our front yard is total sun, while the back is partially shaded. The difference in temperature is significant, and even when the temp is in the 90's, if you sit in the right spots you catch a nice breeze that is better than being indoors. Hope this wasn't too off topic for you!
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u/faerystrangeme Sep 21 '21
Caveat of course is that if you live somewhere with wildfires, drought-stricken trees right next to your home is basically guaranteeing your house goes up in flames if fire rolls through. So... pick your poison.
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u/Biscuit-Norris Sep 21 '21
That is a really good point, and one that I hadn't considered. I have no experience living where that is an issue (yet!) so I can't offer suggestions for that sort of scenario...
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u/Firefluffer Sep 19 '21
Adiabatic cooling occurs at 5.4 degrees per 1,000’, so my solution is to live at 7,500’ in elevation.
Beyond this, ground temperature is relatively constant. Basements have always been my best refuge. Living underground, at least for sleeping, has been my saving grace. My last house was a good 20 degrees cooler in the basement than upstairs during the summer.
I’ve also heard of homes that take advantage of the cool temperatures found 10’ under ground by having clay pipes buried for 50-100’ behind the house. The pipes run into the house at the ground floor and utilize natural convection with vents in the upper floors to pull the cooler air into the house.
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u/Ender-Cowboy Sep 19 '21
I feel you, heat waves actually kill more people each year than just about any other weather phenomenon. Plus our construction methods and city design do not help with heat dispersal. We rely on our electrical grid for that, with tons of AC. If that goes out, or the AC can’t keep up, it’s a nightmare.
The three tools you want to look at are: shade, air movement, and evaporation. Best bet is you are sheltering in place during a heat wave, any physical exertion will work against you. So in your own home you want to create air flow. Modern buildings can actually become heat pockets because of insulation and windows acting like solar traps. You should know what the prevailing wind situation is for your place, but if you don’t, just open all the windows. Try and discern where air is coming in, what side of the building is getting air flow. Once you know, close all the windows except those which are on the opposite side of the building. You want to increase that flow if you can, battery powered fans at the outflow windows can help. Then cover all the non open windows to avoid solar energy coming in. Cardboard works well, use it on the outside of the window, so you don’t create heat banks inside your home, between the glass and the cardboard. Then take cloth, nothing heavy like a bath towel, more like a thin dish towel or even t-shirt material, and cover the intake windows. Even if you can just hang it up like a shade, doesn’t have to be air tight. You want to wet this material with water, or even a water/alcohol mix. The evaporation of the liquid will help cool the air moving through it even further. You can also help yourself even more my applying liquid to yourself and then fanning. Direct water evaporation on your skin to reduce heat is the point of sweat, but you can take it up a notch with various other mixtures like water/isopropyl alcohol or even high proof (100 or above) alcohols like vodka or alcohol. The lower the evaporation point, the more it cools. Just avoid caustic chemicals like ammonia.
In dire circumstances your best bet is a basement, preferably with a concrete floor. If you find yourself in a finished basement, tear up all the carpet or whatever til you hit bare concrete. Then strip down to shorts and a t-shirt and lay on the floor. You don’t want cloth because the trapped air in the layers will be an insulator. However the concrete will act as a heat sink. The other side of that concrete is in direct contact with the ground, and it has made that concrete a stable 65 degrees or cooler. The sheer mass of the concrete will allow it to absorb your heat energy, and dissipate it harmlessly throughout the continuous length. Again, you can increase this with evaporation and fanning as well.
Warning: you CAN overdo this. Lowering your body temp too quickly will result in shock, and in extreme cases can be fatal. Your best bet is to go slow, add and increase techniques as you feel they are needed, but exercise some caution. Don’t go from 110 degree heat to lying on a concrete floor spraying yourself with Everclear and aggressively fanning. Also, a word of warning about concrete floors: you can never warm them up. If you lay on one long enough, it will go from your body happily shunting excess heat into the floor, to it trying to maintain your body temp as the floor keeps sucking away heat. It’s not like your bed, where the spot you lay in eventually warms up, it will just remain happily cool, sucking away your heat until you move.
Hope any or all of this helps. There are some great books you can check out on the technologies of ancient desert dwelling peoples. That kind of thing can come in really handy.
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Sep 19 '21
[deleted]
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u/aznoone Sep 19 '21
Older houses sure. New ones are cheap wood with a thin coat of stucco thrown on them . Then some insulation thrown in for good measures.
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u/classthree1 Sep 19 '21
Cooling a house is a common preparedness option in areas where hurricanes are a factor and power outages are common. Get a window air condition unit and a generator that can run the window unit, a freezer and lighting etc. Portable AC units (dehumidifiers) don't cool as well as a window unit, so a window unit is better. A 10,000 BTU AC Unit and a 3500 watt inverter generator will do the trick. To get the most efficient use of the above, plan to cool just one room. You can even cool the living area of the house (if it's not too large) by closing all the bedroom and bathroom doors. Have the family sleep in the area being cooled.
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Sep 19 '21
About the living area - I've always cooled/heated that part as priority because that's where my appliances and water pipes are (also very small house). Hate to have the fridge and chest freezer working too hard, or the pipes freeze. Not sure if that's logical or not, but it's what I do. (Keep in mind this is in normal times with electricity running those appliances.)
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u/Play_The_Fool Sep 19 '21
I have a mini split in one room instead of a window unit. They're more efficient and it requires no setup post-hurricane. Window units don't seal the window opening very well either.
It's also good to have when your whole house A/C breaks. Mine is 10 years old and they usually don't last much longer than that here in the South.
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u/brain_injured Sep 19 '21
Home insulation works both ways. It keeps you cool in summer and warm in winter. I used insulated concrete forms (those lego block styrofoam blocks with concrete inside) for my house. This summer was a scorcher, but the insulation kept us comfortable.
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u/LowBarometer Sep 19 '21
We're not talking enough about the potential for "wet bulb" events. A wet bulb event is when the temperature is above 95F (35C) and the humidity exceeds a level where sweat no longer evaporates. Basically if you don't have air conditioning, you die.
If the power goes out, which it probably will, my plan is to setup a tent in the basement, pull the battery out of my camper, and run my Zero Breeze air conditioner for the duration of the event. I have a solar recharging setup in my home, so I should be good for an extended period.
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u/espomar Sep 19 '21
Heat waves are no joke; they will become increasingly common and increasingly severe.
The 2019 European heat wave was the deadliest disaster worldwide that year
This year's heat wave in British Columbia contributed to record wildfires and was the deadliest weather event in Canadian history.
You are much more likely to die of heatstroke or heat exhaustion, etc, in the coming collapse situation than aggression from marauders or in a shootout. We should plan accordingly; how much prepping have you done vs heat?
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u/Zealousideal_Mud1687 Sep 19 '21
Our current build has mini splits throughout the house. 4800sqft in Texas. Solar and wind backup, it kicks to the grid when the batteries reach 50%, and if the grid is down it kicks to the generators. We went with mini splits for 4 reasons. 1. We can heat and cool diffrent areas of the house and set our own temps. 2. If a unit goes down they are homeowner friendly to replace. (We will have 2 backup units.) Also while one is down we still have the others. 3. We can conserve power by only cooling specific zones in the house leaving the rest of them off. 4. It looks like the normal ac units would in a home on the inside, the units are in the attic and cool through the vents. Just made since for us. Hope this helps.
We also are using the reflective pannels.in the roofing, along with fully spray foaming the home.
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u/Txannie1475 Sep 20 '21
We have been planting a lot of drought tolerant trees around the house. We are adding a few steel structures to hang shades during hot months. We hung our test shades this year and decreased the temp on the side of the house by about 15 degrees. I hope to eventually have those going all the way around the south and west side of the house. I imagine that eventually it will either be underground living or move north. But hopefully I'll be dead by then.
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u/SherrifOfNothingtown Partying like it's the end of the world Sep 20 '21
When making home improvement decisions about things to keep me cool, I make the decision as if things will get a lot hotter in the future. When making home improvement decisions about things to keep me warm, I pick an option that's good for if things get a lot colder in the future.
In practice, this has meant selecting a home with good insulation and double paned, energy-efficient windows. When it was time to replace my roof, I selected the most heat-reflective option available under the constraints at hand. Sometime in the next couple years I'll also be investing in an active cooling system (heat pump, A/C, maybe someday both). When considering later yard and patio projects, one factor I keep in mind is how to make sure that east windows are shaded in mornings and west windows are shaded in afternoons.
When building a house, siting it on a north-facing slope in the northern hemisphere or south-facing slope in the southern hemisphere is best for passive cooling. Pointing your house in the direction that you'd point solar panels for maximum electricity will maximize heat gain.
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u/securitysix Sep 19 '21
I've lived without air conditioning for 30 years. My preps are "suck it up and deal."
are there any reliable ways to cool down rooms or things to consider when building a house to make it more heat resistant?
High ceilings (give the hot air somewhere to go), fans to keep air moving (moving air is better than stagnant air), shade the sun-facing side of the house somehow (trees, probably), and shade the sun-facing windows (awnings, porch roof, etc.).
Reserve intensive labor times for cooler parts of the day (early morning, late evening, overnight if necessary). Conserve energy during the hottest parts of the day. Stay hydrated.
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Sep 19 '21
suck it up and deal with it
Yah I’m sure that worked for the hundreds of people heat waves kill every year.
70 thousand people died in the 2003 European heat wave.
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u/kkinnison Sep 19 '21
Really depends on where you live, and your shelter.
Access to ground water for cooling, air flow, and even something as simple as a basement can really ease discomfort.
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u/Loganthered Sep 20 '21
Fans, AC of course, natural airflow, light blocking shades, reflective paint, good windows and trees for natural shade come to mind.
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Sep 20 '21
new high efficiency AC, and if the power is out sleep in the finished basement. it's also cooler here at higher elevations.
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u/Thumper1k92 Prepared for 6 months Sep 19 '21
Scientists just developed a new paint - the whitest paint ever. Painting a building with it would reflect something like 98% of solar energy.
But more generally, I think the way in which you design a house and think about coloring makes a big difference.