We live in the south Texas desert. It's August.
Not cool when your A/C is broken!
Monday morning we woke up to no A/C. Over the next few hours we tried different things to troubleshoot the problem and eventually had a repair man come take a look at it: $45 service fee. He said we need to replace our air filter: $2-$3. (Apparently you're supposed to do that every few months...*blushing in embarrassment*.)
I did what I could that day to keep our house cool: close the blinds and curtains, leave lights and appliances off, turn on the ceiling fans, drink lots of water, etc. But we were still pretty uncomfortable. We never reached the point where we were miserable, but this experience definitely got me thinking about ways to stay cool without power.
When I first began putting together emergency preparedness supplies a few months ago, every blog that I researched focused on ways to stay warm. But we don't have to worry about that here in San Antonio. Even our winters are really mild. My concern was how to keep cool in the insanely hot summer months.
On Monday I was grateful to still have ceiling fans and an oscillating fan. But what if we were in an emergency situation without power? For days?
The best I have been able to find are battery-operated fans (rechargeable and D-cell batteries) and 12V fans (plug into your cigarette lighter in your car). I definitely want to include some small hand-held fans for our 72 hour kits. (These come on a lanyard to hang around your neck and blow the air up to your face!) The solar-powered fans did not get very good reviews.
Have you had any experiences with trying to stay cool without power?
What solutions did you find?
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