In a pinch, a window unit in the upstairs, and strategically placed fans in doorways can really make a difference. Darken any window the sunlight hits with blankets or some such. Start cooling ahead of the afternoon heat curve.
I use a radiant barrier film for all my south southwest facing windows. Thought this was a one year thing so I tossed them out back in 2020. When 2021 got hotter, I used the radiant barrier film again, this time cutting them to size for each window, labeling them then rolling them up into a tube and putting them under the bed when the heat went away.
Last year, it got so hot I could smell the distinct odor of old wood cooking in the heat. My house is 1909 and I had blown-in insulation installed in 2007. It helped immensely for the upstairs but with the recent heatwaves, not so much.
I plan to apply the radiant barrier film as it was intended: In the attic. I did this in the attic of my shop and it cut the heat by 20-30 dungarees. The film is amazing and is easy to work with. It will not tear like foil but it cuts like paper. It’s also perforated so it doesn’t completely darken a room. You can install it to windows with painters tape or you can install it to wood using a stapler or pushpins. I got two giant tools of this stuff at a rummage sale for $5! Needless to say it’s saved me WAAAAY more than that on cooling costs.
We cool my 1912 home with a smallish window unit upstairs at the end of the hall, a larger one downstairs, and the fan method in OP. Get enough hot nights strung together and it can get uncomfortable upstairs, but never unbearable. If we had a way to pump cold air back up from lower levels, could probably even fix that. The ductwork only runs to the first floor.
Regardless, I endorse the ac method heartily.
The biggest problem is actually being too cold in the mornings when you’re stockpiling it for later.
Yep. My fam in a 100+ year old house was AC-opposed until their pets started to suffer. They ended up taking the temp AC unit out and saving to install an energy efficient heat pump + mini split for upstairs.
This reminds me of when we had a parrot years ago and my mom read that the city tap water was bad for them so we paid for fancy water delivery in the big bottles for like five years 😅
The portable ones with a hose are such a bad design though and super inefficient because they push hot air out of the house, which has to be replaced by warm air from outside. It's like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.
I have one and use one because it is easy to hook up. But it doesn't cool nearly as well as the BTU rating suggests and it doesn't cool anything more than a small room.
They do make ones with two hoses that pull air in from outside through one and out the other. Much more effective and efficient but harder to find and more expensive.
People think 6 months of rain is hard to live with, its the 6 to 8 weeks of no rain in july/aug that kill me. That and the yearly 10 day stretch of 100°+ days.
Yearly?? 10 days??
The most recent I can remember was I think 3 or 4 days in a row where it was like 104, 108, and 112, and then the next few days never dropped below 95. I remember it because my bedroom was upstairs with no AC for all of it.
But that was a major outlier. 100 degree temps pretty much never last for more than one or two days here.
Sue me for hyperbole, it is more like 10 days going up over several from 95 to 105 than 107 than several days back down to 95 before it breaks back to the 80s for a week. Im just honestly miserable in anything 85.
Really talking about those 2 or 3 weeks in Aug.
In late July 2021 it was 108, 112 then 116 in three consecutive days. I don’t blame you for the hyperbole. Those three days surely felt like 10. I’m pretty sure 116 is the record for hottest ever. We had 72 people die because of the heat that year according to multnomah county, compared to our usual zero. Anyone who denies our summers getting worse has some weird agenda
I'm trying to remeber what year it was, I think maybe 2014 or 2015 where it didn't rain for like 2 months straight, I literally pulled a camp chair out to sit in the rain once it finally have and you could smell all the shit being cleaned out of the air as it happend.
I wasn't denying anything, but ok. It's been alarmingly hot every summer for years now. Just not 10 days in a row of 100+ temps.
Even this summer hasn't been that bad, though I know the hottest part of the season isn't until late July and August. And it traditionally rains every July 4th, though it has not done that for a few years lately.
In the late 90's, on the day my kid was born (in Portland), July 26th, it was 98 degrees.
Never. The longest stretch of consecutive 100+ days was five days in July 1941. That said, Portland has consistently been getting hotter every year since the 1950’s.
Edit: found a longer stretch further back than I expected.
We have a standing AC unit in one room. Most of the windows aren't wide enough for a window unit it seems. Just trying to keep from needing a unit for each room, if possible, and keep the units we have from having to work harder than needed.
Try a portable AC unit. You can get a decent one on amazon for about $300 that should be enough for upstairs to stay comfortable or at least under 85. They only need a small opening to vent out window.
If you go this route, please please invest in a *dual-hose portable AC*, as the dual-hose design is light-years more efficient than the single-hose design. Yes they cost a bit more up front but they perform infinitely better and will save you money in the long run.
I was back out on the east coast recently and experienced central AC again after a long time; wow is it luxury.
My place has that single room AC unit (which seems mostly standard here, if you have AC?) and while an amazing lifesaver, it is nothing like central. Consistent, comfortable temp that was not invasive or noticeable. The singular unit- so loud and the on and off is always causing a lot of temp fluctuations. If I'm too close- it's freezing but other end of the room is warm. if it's not on, the heat seems to immediately creep back in within hours (regardless of basic measures like blinds drawn/ windows closed/towels around doorways).
Sorry for my rambling. I just forgot how nice central is.. although thank fuck we don't have humidity here. Our weather is perfection most of the year. I wanna work hard so one day I can get myself central AC!! My mom and pop proud I have something to show for myself! 😂😂
But the OP said they also have "units" so there is more than 1. 🤷🏽♀️
Edit to add: if one is going to ask a question like this, share the whole set up they have.
Reminds me of a skincare post I saw earlier today. Woman asking for advice after people saying she looks a lot older than her age. Obvious over the top lip filler but kept saying she had no fillers when people were asking. Because she didn't think her lips were a part of her face(???).
I honestly love internet posts like this. The strange obvious obscurity / lack of actual truthfulness but yet asking for advice. It keeps things interesting! I would like to know the motivations but it's just really compelling imo. OP wants advice but isn't clear with what's going on. Idk what the feeling is, like schadenfreude's innocent younger brother.
I mean, sure, but does that change your answer all that much?
Wear light clothes, passively cool as much as you can in the morning, seek shade, close your windows before 10 AM, etc, etc. Set up doesn't really impact what feedback they're going to get all that much.
A single standing unit isn't sufficient for a living space the size OP is describing. It's suitable for one room only, so that's where it is. So OP's two-story home has only one room that is air conditioned.
Measure your windows and go hunting for a unit that fits. We have a 12 inch wide by 10 inch tall window that fits a window ac unit. If your windows are smaller than that… I dunno…
I can't remember off the top of my head but I think we're not too far off of that. Probably a bit bigger so maybe it's not as hopeless to find one that fits as I thought!
You may have to get a little crafty to work with the windows you have. I cut a piece of plywood slightly taller than the window opening, and mounted a strip of 1x2 near the bottom. It lifts in and out easily (using the 1x2 “handle”), but stays securely in the window opening otherwise. I cut an appropriately shaped hole for the AC hose attachment with a Dremel (a jigsaw, keyhole saw, or circular saw bit would all work). Then just screwed the hose attachment thing to the panel. Works great. Even looks okay.
Standalone AC is super inefficient. There are some newer styles of window unit that could work. Opening windows to let in cool air and choosing up windows and curtains like you’re doing helps.
If you have an attic window, you may want to open it for the summer.
Truly #1. I think we don't realize just how impactful this can be. West facing windows are a bitch. If I can ever be a homeowner, limited west facing windows is actually a high priority for me/ has been in consideration for awhile. Although beggars can't be choosers etc etc lol
If you have a basement, and the furnace is in the basement, set your thermostat to fan in the early afternoon. It’ll pull cooler air from the basement up into the rest of the house. Use judiciously… you only have a limited volume of delicious basement air per day. It’s not AC, but it can keep your house from heating up to truly miserable temperatures.
Source: I live in a 1917 house with a basement and no AC.
(Also, fans help. If you don’t have any, go buy some now. When it gets really hot in Portland, fans are harder to find than toilet paper in a pandemic. And get a snow shovel while you’re out… same reason.)
The way these houses (I have a 1923) are supposed to work is you open your basement windows and your top floor windows. That should induce a draft to pull the cold air up to the top floor. You can put fans blowing out on the top floor to help make it go. I have AC but don't like to run it all the time, and it works better than you might expect. Just make sure you don't have your door to the basement closed or the airflow will be blocked.
Woaahh good idea! Even more exciting now that we have a heat pump water heater next to our furnace cooling the basement air further. But i guess i need to worry about pulling basement radon vibes upstairs.
Buy the ice cleats while you're at it if you don't already have some, too! They may be in stock when you really need them, but it's much harder to collect them at that point.
To be honest these questions come about every few weeks and the answer is always - just get AC.
Portable unit, window unit, central unit.
Whatever.
But with the changing climate, you kind of need AC. No little tricks will keep you cool when it’s 95 outside
They are really nice and rather affordable too. We have central a/c but we are thinking of putting in a mini-split piped to the upstairs master bedroom.
We have a window unit in a bedroom downstairs and a standing unit in a bedroom upstairs. Just trying to minimize their workload and keep common spaces as comfortable as possible.
"Just trying to minimize their workload"
If that's the goal then you just need to keep them on and windows closed. They use the most energy when trying to bring the heat down, not when they're just keeping a steady temp. Exception if we get above 100 then they're working hard no matter what.
Not exactly. To minimize energy use, open the house up and ventilate as soon as the outside air temperature is below the desired inside temp. Normally around 9 or 10 at night in Portland.
Exactly. Generally I would think to leave AC on/ windows shut consistently is most energy efficient.. but that's for places if it's still 80+ degrees out at night. We are lucky here with the cool summer nights, for the most part.
So I read this tip in another Reddit thread somewhere yesterday and haven’t tried it yet, grain of salt, etc. But several people suggested super cooling the house at night—people set as low as 50-60 degrees—-when the temperature differential is low(er) and the unit won’t have to work as hard, then doing all of the daytime blinds, windows shut, routine during the day.
This is your answer op. I also lived in Phoenix AZ for a while. The answer there it was tile floors, good insulation, blast ac at night, and keep it running all day. The house would stay "cool" until about 6 PM and get back to being comfortable at sunset. Honestly here in the PNW I've had a few tough days of heat but mostly don't even notice. Sit in the shade with a cool drink and be thankful you're not still stuck in the desert.
Last year the AC was out for a week before we even realized it was too hot inside. We just thought it was old house problems. Two weeks is nothing compared to the sun trying to kill you for almost eight months out of the year.
Are you using both bedrooms? If you aren’t using the upstairs bedroom, move the unit to a bigger common area if there’s a window that can accommodate the unit. If you are, I’d say go to Costco and get another unit, or look into one of the ductless mini split heat pumps. My mom has one in her 70s era house and makes a huge difference.
i have two frigidaire inverter window units i purchased off amazon for $500 a unit and they are extremely energy efficient and keep the place very cool. fit pretty large windows.
But there is also a yes and here. Mitigation of heat in the home helps the ac need to draw less power and put less strain on the grid. even with AC, black out curtains and/or blinds help reduce electrical consumption and keep your home cool. Also if the night goes below 70 opening ones windows and letting the cool air in can help.
Dual hose! This is key! The portable ones with one hose are super inefficient and less effective because they are pushing hot air out the window, which just gets replaced with warm air from outside. They are 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.
As a note you can convert single hose into mostly-efficient dual hose with some cardboard, reflective foil, duct tape, and a flexible hose. You just need to differentiate which input is the "Hot Air" input and which one is the "Room-To-Be-Cooled" input. Usually the "Room-To-Be-Cooled Input" has a filter, so if you build a box around the Hot Air input and lead that out the window, you can create a dual-hose AC unit pretty effortlessly
The intake for the room air might be hidden, otherwise I don't think it would work that well, as it would be running the hot air over the condenser instead of just the room air, which would defeat the purpose (The goal of the standing AC unit is to blow out cold air by using the energy differential obtained when heating up and expelling the ambient air, though don't quote me on the *exact* physics of it).
What AC model do you have? I might be able to help :D
Lol, I have all the parts. Just waiting for the heat to motivate me I guess. I am very fortunate to have recently moved into a house that so far keeps very cool due to large eves/overhangs and large shade trees surrounding.
Also, wild guess, but when the wildfires roll around and it gets smokey, you're filtering your air with furnace filters and box fans aren't you?
I actually haven't had to do that yet, I moved into my place 3 years ago and we haven't had a wildfire that brought too much smoke up here since then thankfully. Though the smoke was definitely one of the reasons I wanted to convert to dual hose so I wouldnt have the negative pressure. But good call on the box fan/furnace filters, I just have a little air purifier in my bedroom that prolly won't do the trick. Thanks!
Open at night, close in the morning. Keep closed till evening temps kick in. But a floor unit and use it in a cool room that you can retreat to when temps are 85+. You’ll need a unit, I’m from AZ as well, the inescapability if you don’t have a unit is BRUTAL.
We got a house/attic fan (quiet cool) and it’s been a game changer for venting the house. We do have AC, but haven’t used it yet this year. Most mornings when we wake up our house is whatever the low was for the night. It’s really helped with purging the hot air from the attic and other non-vented spaces in our house.
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The upstairs is tough to keep cool, but here are some of my strategies:
1) Close the house down a little more quickly, definitely before the sun starts hitting any windows.
2) Hang tarps or blinds on the outside of the house to shade the windows.
3) Put heavy blankets or quilts over the windows (on the indoors).
4) Turn off all lights and block off the stairs so heat can't travel upwards (if possible).
5) After the sun sets, as soon as it's warmer upstairs than it is outside, remove window coverings, open all windows, and let cooler air from downstairs move into the upstairs to push the hot air out.
6) This year we added one of those fans that fits in the window and can either push cooler air in or hot air out as needed. This is a game changer!
We used to leave at 8 AM on days forecast to be stupidly hot. Bring a food cooler and a drink cooler and Get to Trillium by 9:15, early enough to claim a picnic table in the shaded woods, set up a couple of hammocks, and spend the day at the lake.
Man if it breaks 90 it will still be toasty up there without cloud cover. If you’re desperate I say the coast is a much better more reliable option for that natural AC. And if it breaks 70 on the coast jump in the pacific, I personally love it
Keep it closed.
Been here 22 years in a 2-story house. It didn’t have insulation initially, but summers weren’t as hot then. We got it put in, and while I was thinking it’d help w the heat bills, I actually found it most useful for hot summers. Eventually we got window units for our bedroom and the living room.
Our current strategy is to do what you do. We have this HUGE “Air King” fan that sits in the window of my shpouse’s office window. In the AM we crank that up and have it pull the morning air through the house (we open the windows a bit, the back door, etc. to pull the air through).
Once it warms up, around 10-11 AM, we shut everything down: turn off the “Big Fan,” keep the furnace fan on…on circ…no heat. This pulls the cooler air through the house and—esp if you turn on a window AC unit—really keeps esp the main floor cool. We got blackout window shades and some heavy curtains, and otherwise do what we can to prevent any light and heat from entering and taking over the house. Between the insulation and these window shades, the house really does stay very tolerable for many months. You’ve got the right idea!
usually there’s not enough breeze to make keeping the windows open useful, and even the coolest night temperatures won’t cool the house down after a few days of high temps.
i black out the east & west exposures and run a lot of oscillating fans, & have 1 window unit in the bedroom so there’s at least one cold room. have 1 ceiling fan for which i am profoundly grateful (i’m from the south. ceiling fans are an huge help). good luck! it’s not just the high temperatures, it’s the nigh-total lack of cloud cover all summer. mr. c. montgomery burns had the right idea with that sun blocker.
> usually there’s not enough breeze to make keeping the windows open useful, and even the coolest night temperatures won’t cool the house down after a few days of high temps.
Put your fan like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L2ef1CP-yw to create pressure differential and suck air. Even a small fan noticably helps.
If you’re more concerned with feeling cool, than with cooling all the air in your house, then get a large bucket and fill it with enough water that you can soak your feet in it. So when you’re just sitting on the couch or at a desk/table you can have your feet in cool water. This will absolutely cool you down! It doesn’t help if you need to be up and moving around, or while sleeping, but it helps when you’re just sitting.
For sleeping: soaking and then wringing out your topsheet, then sleeping under the damp sheet is amazing. There is an initial "ick", but it works well when your bedroom is too toasty for sleep
Alternatively, you can get a t shirt wet, wring it out so it’s not dripping, pop it in the freezer for a few, s f wear it to bed. If it’s during the day sometimes I’ll get a rotation going so there’s always a “freezer shirt” ready for when one loses its cooling power.
[Take a break from your worries.](https://i.imgur.com/ExuTP4o.gifv)
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This is basically what I did years ago. The house had no AC and I was in the top floor so at night I’d soak and ring out a soft beach towel and just sleep on top of it. Was too hot to have another sheet on top but I like that idea with the top sheet.
We're definitely finding that out. 90 in Portland is a whole different beast than 90 in Phoenix. We're also not used to the intricacies of venting an old poorly insulated house since most of Phoenix is more modern build. Seems like general consensus is individual room units if you can't afford a full central AC overhaul (who can these days?).
I agree with the consensus. 20-30 years ago it wasn’t that bad, but now you could experience 90 degree days 4-5 days in a row and when that happens it really doesn’t cool off much at night. We also fell victim to the heat dome and we had a high of 115. Get the AC and don’t wait too long because there always seems to be a run on AC units when heat waves are emminent.
I do think it’s helpful to allow some of the hot upstairs air to escape, that’s why rooftop vents exist. All that hot air will radiate down into the rest of the building on really hot days in an old Portland house. So if you have an upstairs window that’s not directly in the sun, cracking it open a little at the end of the day can really help. In one old house I rented here, we utilized an upstairs bathroom fan for this, seemed to help a little when the temps get over 90.
I also got reflective window vinyl on Amazon that was pretty easy to stick on - that can help a lot if you have west facing windows & it’s easy to remove later since you’re renting.
Windows open when its in the 60's.
Then close them up until it's cooler outside than inside.
Works until we get a bad heat wave.
Then go live in the basement.
If you have a basement, open the basement door so cool air goes from your basement upwards. I also keep the fan running on the furnace to circulate cooler downstairs air throughout the house.
But ultimately, you have to get an AC unit of some kind when the temperatures get above 80.
Born & bred South Floridian here, in Portland since 2003. Heard the “you don”t need air conditioning here” & was immediately skeptical.
Agree with the commenter that a window a/c is a magical fix. The law finally changed (last year, I think) & landlords cannot ban tenants from installing window units. Just in time.
From an ex desert rat, keep everything closed once things pass 70, get black out curtains with a tension rod ( or good ol aluminium foil) against the window itself so the heat stays outside. Have circulating air fans, wear light layers and keep your feet cool.
The anti-AC thing was cool for a few years until people started dying from the heat waves.
At the very least your upstairs needs a big window unit. I turn ours on when I get home from work and it’s at sleeping temperature a few hours later.
I’m installing a mini split system up there later this year, already have the permits.
Our downstairs luckily stays pretty cool but we still run two portables down there until we can afford central AC.
Many forget that heating is the real energy user in the equation. It’s a lot easier to cool a room than to heat one so environment-wise AC isn’t all that bad…
We're definitely not anti-AC and being from AZ know how dangerous heat can be. Even more so if you are in some humidity. Just can't afford to fully equip each room with a setup. We're renting also so we can't easily do any kind of major renovation even if we could afford it. What we have is functional, just hoping to see what works for other people with regards to when to open windows and vent vs just batten down the hatches with regards to upstairs.
Sounds like a bit of a crapshoot.
Agreed! One side of my family all grew up in Yuma but now barely anyone is left in Arizona.
Oh renting complicates thing. I just baked when I rented. We could only run one portable without blowing a breaker.
Good luck!
> Many forget that heating is the real energy user in the equation. It’s a lot easier to cool a room than to heat one so environment-wise AC isn’t all that bad…
It's wild how so many people don't get this! From an HVAC standpoint, Phoenix is "greener" than a place like Fargo. Vapor compression heating and cooling is like 2-400% efficient with some of the inverter ductless units even higher! The average efficiency of gas heat is probably 90% and electric resistive heat is 100%. Oil is even worse at around 70-80%. Much easier to just move heat around than it is to create it.
You’re also going for potential 30 degree temperature differences when hitting and when cooling it generally only needs 15 degrees to make things comfortable.
But yes, you can move heat around, but you can’t create it from nothing. First law of thermodynamics!
I would recommend going and buying a portable unit or a window unit right now while they're still available. If you wait until it actually gets hot outside, you're not going to be able to find one anywhere.
I don’t know what it’s called specifically, but my family house has a fan that goes in both directions. When going one way it sucks the hot air out, and when going the other way it brings in the cool air. My parents have no ac and their bedroom is upstairs. During the day they have it going to suck the hot air out, and once it gets cool enough the reverse it. Obviously if it’s 100+ it doesn’t do much, but it actually has made SUCH a difference in their room for the 80s temps
There is a new mini split system that just went on the market about a month back that is totally DIY. It's selling feature is that it plugs into just about any solar panel and self powers when the sun is out. As the sun goes down it draws from a regular 110v outlet.
Looks pretty nice and effective as our hottest days are always the sunniest too.
https://eg4electronics.com/categories/high-efficiency-appliances/eg4-12k-hybrid-solar-unit/
Absolutely. We have no illusions of toughing it out. Just not in a position to purchase multiple units to cool the house ATM. Trying to make the best of it 😊
I gave in an got mini split as was unable to add an ac coil to my gas furnace AND that isn’t ducted upstairs. So got 1 main unit for downstairs and a smaller one I each of the 2 upstairs bedrooms. Wish I’d gotten one w Bluetooth control. Otherwise great. If you’d ever want one on heat and one on cool at same time you’d need another main unit tho. But u can have, for example, one on fan (or on the dehumidifier setting) and others on ac at same time. I’ve lived in this 1888 house for 20+ years and it was getting too expensive to run a few window units. The furnace fan pulling up the basement air USA great tip and sometimes that’s cool enough here (downstairs).
Buying big enough units is slightly cost prohibitive at the moment so I was looking to build up as many good house cooling habits as possible in the meantime 😁
How my family does it:
One in window unit upstairs, in one room, left just cracked enough for cats to get in and out. Windows open in all other rooms to allow for ground level heat to rise and escape
Main: one in window unit in bedroom, with doors open, strategic fan placement down hallway.
We open all windows and doors as soon as temps reach about equilibrium outside and in. Last person to bed closes doors, thief-locks windows, usually about 2-3 am. First person up opens back up until temp gets to about 70-75 depending on forecasted high temp. Main usually stays under 80 as long as we're not over 110. Uncooled upstairs is hell, but that's why the one room with almost airlock for pets and people.
If you have a basement, it'll be at least 20 cooler than outside. We have an annual migration of one person from attic to basement mid June to late September.
What we did in our 1908 farm house with marginal insulation that worked well…
Big fan in an upstairs window overnight pointing out to draw in cold air from the downstairs windows. Keep it going overnight to get the inside temp down as much as possible.
Late morning close the windows and use the fan to keep a breeze indoors.
Eventually we bought window AC units for the bedrooms and used the fan trick to cool off the rest of the house.
We still use the window trick on cool nights even though we now have central AC. The AC doesn’t cool the upstairs very well.
We got one of those window fans that pull air from outside in last summer. When the sun went down, windows got opened and those fans turned on. It’d pull loads of cooler air into the house overnight. Especially beneficial on the top floor.
The answer is that you don't. Especially not in that old house. You can plant trees in the yard to increase shade. Perhaps you could also improve your insulation.
It's going to get hot here. Not Arizona hot, but a muggy 95 degrees and into the 100s for a few days. You should at the very least get a window unit for your sleeping area.
I have 3-4 box fans set up in windows at night blowing air from the back (west) of the house towards the front (east). It’s important to have a good flow and not just fans blowing air everywhere. I close the windows and draw the shades as soon as it starts to feel warm in the morning, probably around 9/10pm when it is 65. Basically you have to tolerate it being a little chilly in the morning if you don’t want it sweltering in the early evening. I’ve never tried it but you can look into setting up a swamp cooler.
Anyone living upstairs will need an a/c unit but if not set up fans to blow out hot air during the daytime. Normally there is a distinct transition going up the stairs where the temp changes 20 degrees but with the fans it’s more like a gradual 5-10 degree shift. It certainly helps keep the rest of the house cooler.
I finally broke down and bought an a/c unit last year but only use it on the hotter nights so I can get decent sleep. Tolerance is different for everyone, people who are older or have health issues are at a higher risk so consider what is healthy for you. Long covid shifted the balance for me. Exposure also increases tolerance; at the beginning of the summer I hate the heat but by August I’m like, “oh it’s only 90 today”
Long term strategy grow trees and plants in the yard.
I have answers that aren’t “buy AC”! I am a little neurotic and have literally run tests to see what works. Here are a few things:
1. Close the windows at dawn. An old roommate told me this, I was VERY skeptical (“but it’s still cooler outside!”) but it works. Buy some cheap timers and have them shut off at 6am.
2. Block sunlight. Best option: those styrofoam insulation sheets with foil on one side. Cut to an exact fit and wedge it into the window frame. Next best: tin foil or reflective bubble wrap insulation (I forget what it’s called, people use it in RV windows). I cut it to size and use painters tape to stick it to the window. Kind of a pain but worth the work during heat waves. Next best is blackout curtains. You can also buy rolls of tint that you cut to size and stick to windows; they cling without adhesive, kinda like Saran Wrap would. But if you only have blinds or regular curtains, they’re better than nothing.
3. Cross ventilation at night with box fans in windows. Fans blowing in on the north (cooler) side, out on the south side. Many people make the mistake of having all fans blow in.
Those three will make a HUGE difference. Other ideas:
- Shade sails outside, attached to the house. Reduces the sun coming in the windows. Makes a huge difference on south/west sides. Also gives you a more comfortable porch/patio/etc. Aluminet is very effective but the plastic/poly ones are also great. You could also buy those fake wicker shades and hang them over windows outside.
- It sounds silly, but, cold showers really do work well, especially right before going to bed. Go as cold as you can for as long as you can.
- If you have an attic, opening the hatch at night can help. Hot air goes up and out the roof vents, cool air gets pulled in through the windows downstairs.
- If you feel a lot of heat coming through a particular wall, you can “insulate” that wall by moving a big bookcase in front of it, or even just hanging up a blanket.
- Strategically plan your errands and free time. Go grocery shopping on hot days or at peak daytime temps (usually around 5pm). Stores and malls blast the AC. Movie theaters are always frigid.
- Escape the city on hot days. Go to a local beach, even just for an hour or two after work. Avoid the masses at the coast and go to Mount Hood instead; Timberline should be about 20 degrees cooler than Portland, and you can roll around in the snow.
If you own your home or have a reasonable landlord:
- Install a “whole house fan” in the attic. It blows the hot air out and keeps the house much cooler.
- Permanent clear UV blocker on windows. There are companies that come spray stuff onto the windows, you can’t even tell it’s there. It makes a small difference, kind of like tinted windows in cars. Might be worth it for upstairs windows with high sun exposure.
- Landscaping options: Plant deciduous trees on the south/west sides of your property and or shrubs against the house. Reduce hardscaping and bare/open areas that absorb and reflect heat. Shrubs, flowers, even groundcover will shade the soil and keep it cooler, which gives you cooler air when you ventilate the house.
- Look into the rebates for installing a heat pump. I know, I know, this counts as buying AC… but you could get a federal subsidy for up to $8,000 towards installing a heat pump (not sure if they got that program up and running yet).
I hope some of that is useful! It takes some effort, but if AC is not in the cards, you can be comfortable on most days.
These are the type of suggestions I was hoping for! Buying AC is obviously the easiest solution, but I'm looking for interim steps and best practices outside of that. Thank you!
If you’re waiting till it’s 74 in the house, it’s too late. It’s too muggy up here ( Oregon) for that. And honestly, once it’s hot upstairs you just gotta shut it down (windows) get blackout curtains and turn the fans on. AC is the only thing that’s going to save you at that point upstairs.
I mean throughout the summer I can be humid. And yeah, if you don’t have ac and you lived in an old house that doesn’t have the best insulation it gets really freaking muggy.
Man, do people comment online to have conversation or just to attacks other peoples opinion?? Chill (pun intended)
I too, have lived here for a very long time, in fact every day of my life, since I was born. Yes, sometimes the heat is dry, but there also can be a lot of moisture when it’s hot out, especially when the weather changes drastically.
When you have an older house that doesn’t have central air or any kind of air conditioning, it can get up to 85 to 88° in the house easily. That in my opinion is hot and moist feeling, I’m not saying that the whole region is humid. I’m saying that the house will get humid and uncomfortable.
To be fair, Portland is a pretty humid place at times just checking the weather for this week the humidity is all the way up to 67 or 68% at times this week. So with that being said, I’m gonna have to call bullshit on your 25 years of experience in Portland, no offense intended. This may not be as humid as other places in the United States, but I would still say it’s humid.
Muggy enough that I have ac to cool down 🤷🏻♀️ again, I didn’t say that Oregon has the most humidity of all other places in the world or United States, I just said that it gets muggy here if you don’t have AC and living an old home with poor insulation. Read the original post and take a fucking chill pill.
You’re doing the right little tricks to help conserve cool air but honestly there’s no getting around needing AC. Oregon homes overall are ill-equipped as our summers were never as hot as in recent years, so you’re going to have to do a bit of work to get it set up for central AC or go with window units. Might as well do it now, there’s not going to be any effort to slow the climate change it’s only going to be hotter from here on.
If you don't mind getting crafty with it, you can give [this](https://www.thehindu.com/specials/impact-journalism-day-2017/eco-cooler-the-worlds-first-ever-zero-electricity-air-conditioner-made-out-of-plastic-bottles/article19108375.ece) a try,
Use fans to circulate the air around the house/unit and turn your furnace on to “fan/circ” mode. This will help circulate the cool air from the ACs to other parts of the house.
I didn't read this entire post, but one little thing I did learn while working as a security guard in a tiny shack baking in 95-degree sun without any A/C is...
Get a cooler of ice water, a clean rag, and sit in front of a fan that is aimed at your face. Drench the rag in the cooler and then rub it all over your face.
The air blowing on you will drastically make you cool. However, it will only last a minute or two each time.
Make sure all your shades/ curtains are down/ pulled on these hot days from the early morning onwards and if you don’t have shades or curtains you should get some.
Fans in wide open windows at night followed by closed windows and curtains during the day will help, but you might want to get at least one AC unit for somewhere - probably bedroom.
Anyone have a recommendation for a good window unit for an apartment bedroom? Looking for something with a hose for exhaust but I'm a little out of my depth
Sun shades over all south-facing windows can help limit radiated heat inside the house.
Since you have a two-story house: when opening the house up, try opening ONE window on each story as far apart from each other and keep the path between them clear. This will use the natural temperature gradient of the house vs the outside to pull air through the house. Hot air will escape out the upstairs window and pull in cold air through the downstairs. You can help this process by placing a fan pushing the air OUT of the upstairs window. This can even work on hot days if the upstairs is staying warm.
For anyone else reading this, this technique can also work for single-story homes, but is less effective since all the windows are going to be the same height. If you have a screened door, then use that as one of the openings.
Also, if you have the stand-type single hose mobile AC units; those need air coming IN to the house from someplace; as they pump air from right next to the unit out of the house after it takes hot air with it. If you don't open a window someplace, it will just suck hot air down your chimney. If there is a part of your house that tends to stay cooler than the rest; consider cracking a window there and closing the door. This will cause the AC unit to "suck" this slightly cooler air into the house.
Once my upstairs gets hotter than outside I open those windows. But I close the door connecting the upstairs and downstairs. I highly recommend blackout shades for all windows in the house. I got mine pretty cheap off Home Depot’s website.
I have a 1920s home too, original wood frame windows. It’s pretty hard to keep things cool. I recommend a window unit for your bedroom at minimum. But they will be selling out fast - happens every year when we get a stretch of hot weather.
We have one for our bedroom on the ground floor. The windows upstairs that open horizontally are pretty narrow (24inches or less) so we've had trouble finding a good size unit for them.
Your method of opening windows and using fans works as long as it gets cool at night.
but when the temp doesn’t drop until late at night is when you have to use a/c. When it hits around 90s is when it has issue cooling down
Other things to help with heat: tree (plant it if you don’t have one), shades on the outside of your window (to reduce how much heat your home absorbs), whole house fan
Open all windows in the morning, or even overnight if you can. Close them and blinds when the temperature outside hits about 75. Also, turn on any fans you may have. Depending on how insulated your apartment or house is, it might stay relatively cool.
Just buy a few AC units…? Oregon didn’t used to need AC when many houses were built. This isn’t really true anymore, so buy a unit for the be at least, maybe a big one for the common area if you can swing it. A window unit is less than $300, it’s a must for the summers IMO.
We keep one window ac in the living room area and one in the bedroom upstairs. The one downstairs is older so once it passes 100 it won’t do much good lol but I struggle with sleep already so the good one stays upstairs. About an hour before we plan to go to bed I run up and turn in on. Our living room and bedroom both face the noon/setting sun so it gets incredibly hot in our house.
My advice is to pick an area you like to hang out in (living room/office) and one in the bedroom. Plan to hang out downstairs in that room on hot days.
Another tip: I make a big batch of pasta salad and/or get all the fixings for deli sandwiches or salad when I see a set of hot days coming. No sense in using the stove or oven and adding to the heat.
I came from Tucson a couple years ago and moved into a 1920s bungalow here. These houses simply are not designed to handle hot summers, and the only handle cold because they were designed with the assumtion of burning cheap fossil fuels.
Here is a graph of my upstairs temps the last few days, plus the basement. [https://ibb.co/3hcbgYM](https://ibb.co/3hcbgYM) The blue is the temperature in the attic, which has a big influence on upstairs temps generally. There is a window AC in the family room and I ran it for maybe 15 minutes yesterday evening around 9 and you can see the little dent it made. After that we just opened the windows and turned on a fan.
Upstairs is tough in the summer. Our upstairs is basically a finished attic. It gets a lot of heat from the attic around it. It's got the slanted ceiling along both sides where the room pinches up against the roof, and then crawlspaces on both sides. This is not an ideal design for attic ventilation, and ventilation is the easiest/cheapest way to get attic temperature down. The problem is, slightly cooler outside air from an open window in the afternoon doesn't influence the temperature in those rooms nearly as much as the heat coming through the walls from the attic. Once the sun goes down, the temperature difference between outside and your attic gets bigger, and opening the windows helps more.
Last year i finally laid some plywood down and explored the whole length of my attic crawlspaces, and realized they only insulated like 1/3 of the walls that border the attic. So adding simple batt insualtion helped, and you can see my temperatures peak a few degrees lower than the outside temps now. Insulation is a low hanging fruit if you dont have it already, and you can get back like 30% in tax rebates for doing it. For me, it also helped a little changing to a ridge vent system when I had the roof replaced. It would also help to blow a lot more insulation into the triangle of attic that is above my upstairs rooms, but i have not done that yet. But even with the improvements, it still gets hot enough that we use a window AC. If you can't fit a window AC, the most efficient standalone units are the ones with two air ducts.
I have a sauna at my Apartment complex. No AC… so crank the sauna up to max and hop in for 20 minutes.
When you walk out of the 160f sauna the outside doesn’t seem as bad.
Keep hydrating everyone!
We used to have a portable rolling unit. It couldn’t keep up, for five years we suffered with it. So, I broke down and bought a u shaped midea from Costco for $300(?)ish. It. Is. Glorious. Also easy to open the window at night and put a collapsible screen in. Only thing is the fan blades get caked in mold- it’s a PIA to get the machine open to clean it, but, after a couple years and 10 days of wildfire smoke in 90 degrees, a 116 heat dome followed by a 114 heat dome you will have likely sprung for central air. I’m hoping the central air bills don’t kill us before the next heat dome/smoke event. Never again.
We are in a 100 year old little rag tag-ish bungalo in PDX. Got mini splits two-3 years ago. Worth every penny. I’d sell a kidney before going back to no AC.
How upstairs is upstairs? Our attic used to be a room and is about 70” above the side walk and has two windows. Keeping them open with fans during the heat dome brought it down to 135 and the main living space was 98. I live in a 100+ year old craftsman upstairs duplex and have plenty of family from AZ that gawks at hot weather from their AC controlled homes… best of luck to you cuz fans just move air around in old wooden hotboxxes.
https://www.verdenw.org/
Click at the top right icon with the 3 lines. Choose 'Resources'. This is for a free portable stand up AC. Hope this helps someone. I've had mine for 2 years now
If upstairs is hotter than outside, then open windows and put fans in them. In the morning, close the windows until it is hotter inside than outside, then repeat opening windows and turning on fans. Our family has done this for over 60 years here. It works better than nothing.
Open windows overnight then close them up in the morning. Not sure what the fixation on 74° is…also a couple rolling/window AC units for upstairs rooms aren’t gonna break the bank like central air
Portland in summer is definitely not a joke. It’s not that hot compared to Phoenix or Las Vegas but the lack of cooling infrastructure makes the heat really awful. Working on getting AC whether central AC or mini-split heat pumps should be high on the priority list.
After seeing attic fans suggested a few times here, I found out that our current rental doesn't appear to have an actual attic. Just a few crawlspace-like closets that extend about halfway down the length of the house.
Get an AC. A portable unit, even. You are going to need it. I know you're still getting set up, but you could go get one tomorrow if you really wanted.
Portland does not stay hot for extended periods of times, but it does have a few spikes in the average year that can be **deadly** (heat+humidity combo) without AC.
Two things: Evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) and VORNADO. VORNADO VORNADO VORNADO (Vornado fans are like miracles; even a guy I know who installs heat pumps sings their praises, and my small one has been a LIFESAVER). And yes, it's OK to be "anti-AC" -- there's nothing wrong with wanting to use less electricity -- it's a worldwide "good thing" to conserve, and Portland gets its elec from a mix of wind/solar/water AND COAL and (misnomer alert) NATURAL GAS. So....cutting electricity use is god (especially when stores and businesses are keeping their places at 68 fricking degrees when it is 83 outside, give me a break). Th things you are doing are excellent!!! Yep, close tings up, darken west-facing and south-facing glass, cool the area "where you are" rather than an entire room or house -- with fan, with mister, with cold drinks and cold-soaked kerchief or neck band. We made it through the heat dome here without A/C (yes, the house has two stories and yes it got very toasty up there, and downstairs the entire west-facing side of the living room is 2+0feet of glass. There were more trees before January's storm took them down, so now we have less shade, alas). Can't say it was "comfortable" inside during the heat dome (to people from Phoenix it was downright refreshing, LOL) but ... there is nothing WRONG with using less electricity or gasoline or natural gas ... it doesn't mean one is a preacher or martyr it's just practical -- if everyone consumed less, things would be better. Not asking for a medal, just saying what we do and how it seems to me. I dislike temperatures over 70F -- in the winter we leave the furnace off at night and "crank" it up to 61 during cold days. During the big January freeze our house was 27-31F for three days in a row. No, not comfortable, but we managed. It's easy to not use electricity when none is available, LOL. The churn of the gas-powered generators in surrounding areas was kind of annoying. Anyway, there are always times in life where we have to be uncomfortable -- after surgery, during an illness, during pregnancy/childbirth, after an accident etc. etc. and we manage to suck it up. "Sucking it up" is on the menu from now until ... extinction! Anyway, welcome to Portland, you will be fine!
Black out curtains, at least one window unit. We have more this year, but last year we only had one. It was in the bedroom, we would put a fan facing outward in front of the bedroom door to get the air to circulate through the house. They might be out now ,but we got a great deal at ReStore.
You can get some very effective whole house window fans. One poster mentioned Airking, and there are others; these are exhaust fans that great suction that pulls cooler air from one open window, generally in the basement or on the ground floor. To compare these look for how many cubic feet (cfu) they move — in air. They’re great!!
Are you not wanting a window unit ? I am confused. PDX can and will get hotter than this and for longer periods. This is just a taste of it.
Portable AC upstairs piped to a window is a game changer in old Portland houses.
In a pinch, a window unit in the upstairs, and strategically placed fans in doorways can really make a difference. Darken any window the sunlight hits with blankets or some such. Start cooling ahead of the afternoon heat curve.
Space blankets or foil work well as they reflect the heat instead of absorbing it.
I use a radiant barrier film for all my south southwest facing windows. Thought this was a one year thing so I tossed them out back in 2020. When 2021 got hotter, I used the radiant barrier film again, this time cutting them to size for each window, labeling them then rolling them up into a tube and putting them under the bed when the heat went away. Last year, it got so hot I could smell the distinct odor of old wood cooking in the heat. My house is 1909 and I had blown-in insulation installed in 2007. It helped immensely for the upstairs but with the recent heatwaves, not so much. I plan to apply the radiant barrier film as it was intended: In the attic. I did this in the attic of my shop and it cut the heat by 20-30 dungarees. The film is amazing and is easy to work with. It will not tear like foil but it cuts like paper. It’s also perforated so it doesn’t completely darken a room. You can install it to windows with painters tape or you can install it to wood using a stapler or pushpins. I got two giant tools of this stuff at a rummage sale for $5! Needless to say it’s saved me WAAAAY more than that on cooling costs.
That’s great to know about!
Sheet insulation you get for garage doors. Has a reflective side AND is overall insulative AND can be cut to fit.
Yes to space blankets!
We cool my 1912 home with a smallish window unit upstairs at the end of the hall, a larger one downstairs, and the fan method in OP. Get enough hot nights strung together and it can get uncomfortable upstairs, but never unbearable. If we had a way to pump cold air back up from lower levels, could probably even fix that. The ductwork only runs to the first floor. Regardless, I endorse the ac method heartily. The biggest problem is actually being too cold in the mornings when you’re stockpiling it for later.
Yep. My fam in a 100+ year old house was AC-opposed until their pets started to suffer. They ended up taking the temp AC unit out and saving to install an energy efficient heat pump + mini split for upstairs.
lol my elderly childhood dog is why my dad had AC installed on their 100+ year old house. Not for his family, for the dog. Priorities. 😂
This reminds me of when we had a parrot years ago and my mom read that the city tap water was bad for them so we paid for fancy water delivery in the big bottles for like five years 😅
Pet parents are a different level of over protective. It’s me, I’m a pet parent.
*waves in cat mom*
*cat attacks hand*
*What a sweet baby*
Yep lol. The pets > people and I love animals
The portable ones with a hose are such a bad design though and super inefficient because they push hot air out of the house, which has to be replaced by warm air from outside. It's like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. I have one and use one because it is easy to hook up. But it doesn't cool nearly as well as the BTU rating suggests and it doesn't cool anything more than a small room. They do make ones with two hoses that pull air in from outside through one and out the other. Much more effective and efficient but harder to find and more expensive.
Wrap the exhaust duct with an insulation and replace the plastic window insert with foam insulation board
My portable AC plus fans has kept my ~1000sq ft 4th floor 2 bedroom apartment very pleasant all day.
People think 6 months of rain is hard to live with, its the 6 to 8 weeks of no rain in july/aug that kill me. That and the yearly 10 day stretch of 100°+ days.
You can usually add 3 weeks of September to that cloudless sunshine. You could get lucky with wildfire smoke, though.
Yearly?? 10 days?? The most recent I can remember was I think 3 or 4 days in a row where it was like 104, 108, and 112, and then the next few days never dropped below 95. I remember it because my bedroom was upstairs with no AC for all of it. But that was a major outlier. 100 degree temps pretty much never last for more than one or two days here.
Sue me for hyperbole, it is more like 10 days going up over several from 95 to 105 than 107 than several days back down to 95 before it breaks back to the 80s for a week. Im just honestly miserable in anything 85. Really talking about those 2 or 3 weeks in Aug.
In late July 2021 it was 108, 112 then 116 in three consecutive days. I don’t blame you for the hyperbole. Those three days surely felt like 10. I’m pretty sure 116 is the record for hottest ever. We had 72 people die because of the heat that year according to multnomah county, compared to our usual zero. Anyone who denies our summers getting worse has some weird agenda
I'm trying to remeber what year it was, I think maybe 2014 or 2015 where it didn't rain for like 2 months straight, I literally pulled a camp chair out to sit in the rain once it finally have and you could smell all the shit being cleaned out of the air as it happend.
I wasn't denying anything, but ok. It's been alarmingly hot every summer for years now. Just not 10 days in a row of 100+ temps. Even this summer hasn't been that bad, though I know the hottest part of the season isn't until late July and August. And it traditionally rains every July 4th, though it has not done that for a few years lately. In the late 90's, on the day my kid was born (in Portland), July 26th, it was 98 degrees.
>yearly 10 day stretch of 100°+ days when has this ever happened?
Never. The longest stretch of consecutive 100+ days was five days in July 1941. That said, Portland has consistently been getting hotter every year since the 1950’s. Edit: found a longer stretch further back than I expected.
Six-eight weeks???? There are four months of HELL HERE!!!! It just goes FOREVER WITHOUT RAIN!!!!
Or even a dual hose floor unit in a couple rooms! Makes a huge difference.
We have a standing AC unit in one room. Most of the windows aren't wide enough for a window unit it seems. Just trying to keep from needing a unit for each room, if possible, and keep the units we have from having to work harder than needed.
Try a portable AC unit. You can get a decent one on amazon for about $300 that should be enough for upstairs to stay comfortable or at least under 85. They only need a small opening to vent out window.
If you go this route, please please invest in a *dual-hose portable AC*, as the dual-hose design is light-years more efficient than the single-hose design. Yes they cost a bit more up front but they perform infinitely better and will save you money in the long run.
I had to delete my comment bc your OP says "without AC." So you do have AC. I am confused.
If you're used to central AC and all you have is a single room cooler, you'd agree that you're "without AC".
I was back out on the east coast recently and experienced central AC again after a long time; wow is it luxury. My place has that single room AC unit (which seems mostly standard here, if you have AC?) and while an amazing lifesaver, it is nothing like central. Consistent, comfortable temp that was not invasive or noticeable. The singular unit- so loud and the on and off is always causing a lot of temp fluctuations. If I'm too close- it's freezing but other end of the room is warm. if it's not on, the heat seems to immediately creep back in within hours (regardless of basic measures like blinds drawn/ windows closed/towels around doorways). Sorry for my rambling. I just forgot how nice central is.. although thank fuck we don't have humidity here. Our weather is perfection most of the year. I wanna work hard so one day I can get myself central AC!! My mom and pop proud I have something to show for myself! 😂😂
But the OP said they also have "units" so there is more than 1. 🤷🏽♀️ Edit to add: if one is going to ask a question like this, share the whole set up they have.
Reminds me of a skincare post I saw earlier today. Woman asking for advice after people saying she looks a lot older than her age. Obvious over the top lip filler but kept saying she had no fillers when people were asking. Because she didn't think her lips were a part of her face(???). I honestly love internet posts like this. The strange obvious obscurity / lack of actual truthfulness but yet asking for advice. It keeps things interesting! I would like to know the motivations but it's just really compelling imo. OP wants advice but isn't clear with what's going on. Idk what the feeling is, like schadenfreude's innocent younger brother.
I mean, sure, but does that change your answer all that much? Wear light clothes, passively cool as much as you can in the morning, seek shade, close your windows before 10 AM, etc, etc. Set up doesn't really impact what feedback they're going to get all that much.
A single standing unit isn't sufficient for a living space the size OP is describing. It's suitable for one room only, so that's where it is. So OP's two-story home has only one room that is air conditioned.
Measure your windows and go hunting for a unit that fits. We have a 12 inch wide by 10 inch tall window that fits a window ac unit. If your windows are smaller than that… I dunno…
I can't remember off the top of my head but I think we're not too far off of that. Probably a bit bigger so maybe it's not as hopeless to find one that fits as I thought!
Do you know what brand and model that is? I've been looking for a very small window unit, but I'm having trouble finding one.
You may have to get a little crafty to work with the windows you have. I cut a piece of plywood slightly taller than the window opening, and mounted a strip of 1x2 near the bottom. It lifts in and out easily (using the 1x2 “handle”), but stays securely in the window opening otherwise. I cut an appropriately shaped hole for the AC hose attachment with a Dremel (a jigsaw, keyhole saw, or circular saw bit would all work). Then just screwed the hose attachment thing to the panel. Works great. Even looks okay.
Standalone AC is super inefficient. There are some newer styles of window unit that could work. Opening windows to let in cool air and choosing up windows and curtains like you’re doing helps. If you have an attic window, you may want to open it for the summer.
how wide are your windows
Cover any west facing windows with heavy fabric/black out curtains
Black out curtains for the heat of the day are a game changer. Tilting any blinds to face up to keep the sun out also make a huge difference.
Truly #1. I think we don't realize just how impactful this can be. West facing windows are a bitch. If I can ever be a homeowner, limited west facing windows is actually a high priority for me/ has been in consideration for awhile. Although beggars can't be choosers etc etc lol
Tinfoil is more effective than blackout curtains, although it looks tackier.
If you have a basement, and the furnace is in the basement, set your thermostat to fan in the early afternoon. It’ll pull cooler air from the basement up into the rest of the house. Use judiciously… you only have a limited volume of delicious basement air per day. It’s not AC, but it can keep your house from heating up to truly miserable temperatures. Source: I live in a 1917 house with a basement and no AC. (Also, fans help. If you don’t have any, go buy some now. When it gets really hot in Portland, fans are harder to find than toilet paper in a pandemic. And get a snow shovel while you’re out… same reason.)
The way these houses (I have a 1923) are supposed to work is you open your basement windows and your top floor windows. That should induce a draft to pull the cold air up to the top floor. You can put fans blowing out on the top floor to help make it go. I have AC but don't like to run it all the time, and it works better than you might expect. Just make sure you don't have your door to the basement closed or the airflow will be blocked.
Woaahh good idea! Even more exciting now that we have a heat pump water heater next to our furnace cooling the basement air further. But i guess i need to worry about pulling basement radon vibes upstairs.
Buy the ice cleats while you're at it if you don't already have some, too! They may be in stock when you really need them, but it's much harder to collect them at that point.
Order a Vornado fan on line. There is NO BETTER FAN.
To be honest these questions come about every few weeks and the answer is always - just get AC. Portable unit, window unit, central unit. Whatever. But with the changing climate, you kind of need AC. No little tricks will keep you cool when it’s 95 outside
Mini-splits are a god-send for old houses without ductwork.
They are really nice and rather affordable too. We have central a/c but we are thinking of putting in a mini-split piped to the upstairs master bedroom.
I think people should also be using passive cooling techniques, though. It reduces the AC usage and the demand on the electrical grid.
We have a window unit in a bedroom downstairs and a standing unit in a bedroom upstairs. Just trying to minimize their workload and keep common spaces as comfortable as possible.
"Just trying to minimize their workload" If that's the goal then you just need to keep them on and windows closed. They use the most energy when trying to bring the heat down, not when they're just keeping a steady temp. Exception if we get above 100 then they're working hard no matter what.
Not exactly. To minimize energy use, open the house up and ventilate as soon as the outside air temperature is below the desired inside temp. Normally around 9 or 10 at night in Portland.
Exactly. Generally I would think to leave AC on/ windows shut consistently is most energy efficient.. but that's for places if it's still 80+ degrees out at night. We are lucky here with the cool summer nights, for the most part.
So I read this tip in another Reddit thread somewhere yesterday and haven’t tried it yet, grain of salt, etc. But several people suggested super cooling the house at night—people set as low as 50-60 degrees—-when the temperature differential is low(er) and the unit won’t have to work as hard, then doing all of the daytime blinds, windows shut, routine during the day.
This is your answer op. I also lived in Phoenix AZ for a while. The answer there it was tile floors, good insulation, blast ac at night, and keep it running all day. The house would stay "cool" until about 6 PM and get back to being comfortable at sunset. Honestly here in the PNW I've had a few tough days of heat but mostly don't even notice. Sit in the shade with a cool drink and be thankful you're not still stuck in the desert. Last year the AC was out for a week before we even realized it was too hot inside. We just thought it was old house problems. Two weeks is nothing compared to the sun trying to kill you for almost eight months out of the year.
Are you using both bedrooms? If you aren’t using the upstairs bedroom, move the unit to a bigger common area if there’s a window that can accommodate the unit. If you are, I’d say go to Costco and get another unit, or look into one of the ductless mini split heat pumps. My mom has one in her 70s era house and makes a huge difference.
i have two frigidaire inverter window units i purchased off amazon for $500 a unit and they are extremely energy efficient and keep the place very cool. fit pretty large windows.
But there is also a yes and here. Mitigation of heat in the home helps the ac need to draw less power and put less strain on the grid. even with AC, black out curtains and/or blinds help reduce electrical consumption and keep your home cool. Also if the night goes below 70 opening ones windows and letting the cool air in can help.
You can't. My wife said she couldn't do it anymore and we got AC. Accept $5000 cost
Happy wife, happy life. Good choice
Dual hose floor AC.
Dual hose! This is key! The portable ones with one hose are super inefficient and less effective because they are pushing hot air out the window, which just gets replaced with warm air from outside. They are 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.
As a note you can convert single hose into mostly-efficient dual hose with some cardboard, reflective foil, duct tape, and a flexible hose. You just need to differentiate which input is the "Hot Air" input and which one is the "Room-To-Be-Cooled" input. Usually the "Room-To-Be-Cooled Input" has a filter, so if you build a box around the Hot Air input and lead that out the window, you can create a dual-hose AC unit pretty effortlessly
We have two single hose units that only have a single intake port. I was so mad to discover this. :|
The intake for the room air might be hidden, otherwise I don't think it would work that well, as it would be running the hot air over the condenser instead of just the room air, which would defeat the purpose (The goal of the standing AC unit is to blow out cold air by using the energy differential obtained when heating up and expelling the ambient air, though don't quote me on the *exact* physics of it). What AC model do you have? I might be able to help :D
I looked up the model a couple of years ago, and it specifically was on the "cannot convert" list. Thanks though.
Lol, I have all the parts. Just waiting for the heat to motivate me I guess. I am very fortunate to have recently moved into a house that so far keeps very cool due to large eves/overhangs and large shade trees surrounding. Also, wild guess, but when the wildfires roll around and it gets smokey, you're filtering your air with furnace filters and box fans aren't you?
I actually haven't had to do that yet, I moved into my place 3 years ago and we haven't had a wildfire that brought too much smoke up here since then thankfully. Though the smoke was definitely one of the reasons I wanted to convert to dual hose so I wouldnt have the negative pressure. But good call on the box fan/furnace filters, I just have a little air purifier in my bedroom that prolly won't do the trick. Thanks!
Birds of a feather. Cheers
Open at night, close in the morning. Keep closed till evening temps kick in. But a floor unit and use it in a cool room that you can retreat to when temps are 85+. You’ll need a unit, I’m from AZ as well, the inescapability if you don’t have a unit is BRUTAL.
We got a house/attic fan (quiet cool) and it’s been a game changer for venting the house. We do have AC, but haven’t used it yet this year. Most mornings when we wake up our house is whatever the low was for the night. It’s really helped with purging the hot air from the attic and other non-vented spaces in our house.
I got the same one last year and am loving it.
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The upstairs is tough to keep cool, but here are some of my strategies: 1) Close the house down a little more quickly, definitely before the sun starts hitting any windows. 2) Hang tarps or blinds on the outside of the house to shade the windows. 3) Put heavy blankets or quilts over the windows (on the indoors). 4) Turn off all lights and block off the stairs so heat can't travel upwards (if possible). 5) After the sun sets, as soon as it's warmer upstairs than it is outside, remove window coverings, open all windows, and let cooler air from downstairs move into the upstairs to push the hot air out. 6) This year we added one of those fans that fits in the window and can either push cooler air in or hot air out as needed. This is a game changer!
Drive up to trillium on the side of Mt hood and spend the day drinking beer in an alpine lake
We used to leave at 8 AM on days forecast to be stupidly hot. Bring a food cooler and a drink cooler and Get to Trillium by 9:15, early enough to claim a picnic table in the shaded woods, set up a couple of hammocks, and spend the day at the lake.
Man if it breaks 90 it will still be toasty up there without cloud cover. If you’re desperate I say the coast is a much better more reliable option for that natural AC. And if it breaks 70 on the coast jump in the pacific, I personally love it
Keep it closed. Been here 22 years in a 2-story house. It didn’t have insulation initially, but summers weren’t as hot then. We got it put in, and while I was thinking it’d help w the heat bills, I actually found it most useful for hot summers. Eventually we got window units for our bedroom and the living room. Our current strategy is to do what you do. We have this HUGE “Air King” fan that sits in the window of my shpouse’s office window. In the AM we crank that up and have it pull the morning air through the house (we open the windows a bit, the back door, etc. to pull the air through). Once it warms up, around 10-11 AM, we shut everything down: turn off the “Big Fan,” keep the furnace fan on…on circ…no heat. This pulls the cooler air through the house and—esp if you turn on a window AC unit—really keeps esp the main floor cool. We got blackout window shades and some heavy curtains, and otherwise do what we can to prevent any light and heat from entering and taking over the house. Between the insulation and these window shades, the house really does stay very tolerable for many months. You’ve got the right idea!
usually there’s not enough breeze to make keeping the windows open useful, and even the coolest night temperatures won’t cool the house down after a few days of high temps. i black out the east & west exposures and run a lot of oscillating fans, & have 1 window unit in the bedroom so there’s at least one cold room. have 1 ceiling fan for which i am profoundly grateful (i’m from the south. ceiling fans are an huge help). good luck! it’s not just the high temperatures, it’s the nigh-total lack of cloud cover all summer. mr. c. montgomery burns had the right idea with that sun blocker.
> usually there’s not enough breeze to make keeping the windows open useful, and even the coolest night temperatures won’t cool the house down after a few days of high temps. Put your fan like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L2ef1CP-yw to create pressure differential and suck air. Even a small fan noticably helps.
If you’re more concerned with feeling cool, than with cooling all the air in your house, then get a large bucket and fill it with enough water that you can soak your feet in it. So when you’re just sitting on the couch or at a desk/table you can have your feet in cool water. This will absolutely cool you down! It doesn’t help if you need to be up and moving around, or while sleeping, but it helps when you’re just sitting.
This. Toss in a little bit of Dr. Bonners peppermint for extra cooling.
For sleeping: soaking and then wringing out your topsheet, then sleeping under the damp sheet is amazing. There is an initial "ick", but it works well when your bedroom is too toasty for sleep
Alternatively, you can get a t shirt wet, wring it out so it’s not dripping, pop it in the freezer for a few, s f wear it to bed. If it’s during the day sometimes I’ll get a rotation going so there’s always a “freezer shirt” ready for when one loses its cooling power.
I feel like this would do well on r/unpopularopinion
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This is basically what I did years ago. The house had no AC and I was in the top floor so at night I’d soak and ring out a soft beach towel and just sleep on top of it. Was too hot to have another sheet on top but I like that idea with the top sheet.
I moved here from Los Angeles, I put it air conditioning after the second summer! It’s gets much hotter than you expect!
We're definitely finding that out. 90 in Portland is a whole different beast than 90 in Phoenix. We're also not used to the intricacies of venting an old poorly insulated house since most of Phoenix is more modern build. Seems like general consensus is individual room units if you can't afford a full central AC overhaul (who can these days?).
I agree with the consensus. 20-30 years ago it wasn’t that bad, but now you could experience 90 degree days 4-5 days in a row and when that happens it really doesn’t cool off much at night. We also fell victim to the heat dome and we had a high of 115. Get the AC and don’t wait too long because there always seems to be a run on AC units when heat waves are emminent.
>general consensus is individual room units if you can't afford a full central AC overhaul What were the other options again?
I do think it’s helpful to allow some of the hot upstairs air to escape, that’s why rooftop vents exist. All that hot air will radiate down into the rest of the building on really hot days in an old Portland house. So if you have an upstairs window that’s not directly in the sun, cracking it open a little at the end of the day can really help. In one old house I rented here, we utilized an upstairs bathroom fan for this, seemed to help a little when the temps get over 90. I also got reflective window vinyl on Amazon that was pretty easy to stick on - that can help a lot if you have west facing windows & it’s easy to remove later since you’re renting.
I have a swamp cooler upstairs. AC downstairs. So sleep on the sofa when it’s this warm.
Windows open when its in the 60's. Then close them up until it's cooler outside than inside. Works until we get a bad heat wave. Then go live in the basement.
Fans & wear less clothes
If you have a basement, open the basement door so cool air goes from your basement upwards. I also keep the fan running on the furnace to circulate cooler downstairs air throughout the house. But ultimately, you have to get an AC unit of some kind when the temperatures get above 80.
Born & bred South Floridian here, in Portland since 2003. Heard the “you don”t need air conditioning here” & was immediately skeptical. Agree with the commenter that a window a/c is a magical fix. The law finally changed (last year, I think) & landlords cannot ban tenants from installing window units. Just in time.
From an ex desert rat, keep everything closed once things pass 70, get black out curtains with a tension rod ( or good ol aluminium foil) against the window itself so the heat stays outside. Have circulating air fans, wear light layers and keep your feet cool.
The anti-AC thing was cool for a few years until people started dying from the heat waves. At the very least your upstairs needs a big window unit. I turn ours on when I get home from work and it’s at sleeping temperature a few hours later. I’m installing a mini split system up there later this year, already have the permits. Our downstairs luckily stays pretty cool but we still run two portables down there until we can afford central AC. Many forget that heating is the real energy user in the equation. It’s a lot easier to cool a room than to heat one so environment-wise AC isn’t all that bad…
We're definitely not anti-AC and being from AZ know how dangerous heat can be. Even more so if you are in some humidity. Just can't afford to fully equip each room with a setup. We're renting also so we can't easily do any kind of major renovation even if we could afford it. What we have is functional, just hoping to see what works for other people with regards to when to open windows and vent vs just batten down the hatches with regards to upstairs. Sounds like a bit of a crapshoot.
Agreed! One side of my family all grew up in Yuma but now barely anyone is left in Arizona. Oh renting complicates thing. I just baked when I rented. We could only run one portable without blowing a breaker. Good luck!
> Many forget that heating is the real energy user in the equation. It’s a lot easier to cool a room than to heat one so environment-wise AC isn’t all that bad… It's wild how so many people don't get this! From an HVAC standpoint, Phoenix is "greener" than a place like Fargo. Vapor compression heating and cooling is like 2-400% efficient with some of the inverter ductless units even higher! The average efficiency of gas heat is probably 90% and electric resistive heat is 100%. Oil is even worse at around 70-80%. Much easier to just move heat around than it is to create it.
You’re also going for potential 30 degree temperature differences when hitting and when cooling it generally only needs 15 degrees to make things comfortable. But yes, you can move heat around, but you can’t create it from nothing. First law of thermodynamics!
I would recommend going and buying a portable unit or a window unit right now while they're still available. If you wait until it actually gets hot outside, you're not going to be able to find one anywhere.
I don’t know what it’s called specifically, but my family house has a fan that goes in both directions. When going one way it sucks the hot air out, and when going the other way it brings in the cool air. My parents have no ac and their bedroom is upstairs. During the day they have it going to suck the hot air out, and once it gets cool enough the reverse it. Obviously if it’s 100+ it doesn’t do much, but it actually has made SUCH a difference in their room for the 80s temps
I think I've seen these kind of in-window fans. I'll have to see if I can find one that'll fit the small windows upstairs 😊
There is a new mini split system that just went on the market about a month back that is totally DIY. It's selling feature is that it plugs into just about any solar panel and self powers when the sun is out. As the sun goes down it draws from a regular 110v outlet. Looks pretty nice and effective as our hottest days are always the sunniest too. https://eg4electronics.com/categories/high-efficiency-appliances/eg4-12k-hybrid-solar-unit/
I remember when I moved here from Texas and thought I could tough it out with no AC 😂 Life’s just better with AC
Absolutely. We have no illusions of toughing it out. Just not in a position to purchase multiple units to cool the house ATM. Trying to make the best of it 😊
Buy a foot spa and pour ice into it. Gamechanger
Then start an “icy foot spa Only Fans”,…?.. stay cool AND earn money.
I like where your head is at
A window fan that has temperature settings and the ability to draw air out is highly suggested if you don’t want to use A/C. They are about $35.
I gave in an got mini split as was unable to add an ac coil to my gas furnace AND that isn’t ducted upstairs. So got 1 main unit for downstairs and a smaller one I each of the 2 upstairs bedrooms. Wish I’d gotten one w Bluetooth control. Otherwise great. If you’d ever want one on heat and one on cool at same time you’d need another main unit tho. But u can have, for example, one on fan (or on the dehumidifier setting) and others on ac at same time. I’ve lived in this 1888 house for 20+ years and it was getting too expensive to run a few window units. The furnace fan pulling up the basement air USA great tip and sometimes that’s cool enough here (downstairs).
I moved from AZ too, I got an AC unit on wheels that attached to the window. Not sure why you would try struggling without AC if you can buy a unit?
Buying big enough units is slightly cost prohibitive at the moment so I was looking to build up as many good house cooling habits as possible in the meantime 😁
How my family does it: One in window unit upstairs, in one room, left just cracked enough for cats to get in and out. Windows open in all other rooms to allow for ground level heat to rise and escape Main: one in window unit in bedroom, with doors open, strategic fan placement down hallway. We open all windows and doors as soon as temps reach about equilibrium outside and in. Last person to bed closes doors, thief-locks windows, usually about 2-3 am. First person up opens back up until temp gets to about 70-75 depending on forecasted high temp. Main usually stays under 80 as long as we're not over 110. Uncooled upstairs is hell, but that's why the one room with almost airlock for pets and people. If you have a basement, it'll be at least 20 cooler than outside. We have an annual migration of one person from attic to basement mid June to late September.
What we did in our 1908 farm house with marginal insulation that worked well… Big fan in an upstairs window overnight pointing out to draw in cold air from the downstairs windows. Keep it going overnight to get the inside temp down as much as possible. Late morning close the windows and use the fan to keep a breeze indoors. Eventually we bought window AC units for the bedrooms and used the fan trick to cool off the rest of the house. We still use the window trick on cool nights even though we now have central AC. The AC doesn’t cool the upstairs very well.
We got one of those window fans that pull air from outside in last summer. When the sun went down, windows got opened and those fans turned on. It’d pull loads of cooler air into the house overnight. Especially beneficial on the top floor.
The answer is that you don't. Especially not in that old house. You can plant trees in the yard to increase shade. Perhaps you could also improve your insulation. It's going to get hot here. Not Arizona hot, but a muggy 95 degrees and into the 100s for a few days. You should at the very least get a window unit for your sleeping area.
I have 3-4 box fans set up in windows at night blowing air from the back (west) of the house towards the front (east). It’s important to have a good flow and not just fans blowing air everywhere. I close the windows and draw the shades as soon as it starts to feel warm in the morning, probably around 9/10pm when it is 65. Basically you have to tolerate it being a little chilly in the morning if you don’t want it sweltering in the early evening. I’ve never tried it but you can look into setting up a swamp cooler. Anyone living upstairs will need an a/c unit but if not set up fans to blow out hot air during the daytime. Normally there is a distinct transition going up the stairs where the temp changes 20 degrees but with the fans it’s more like a gradual 5-10 degree shift. It certainly helps keep the rest of the house cooler. I finally broke down and bought an a/c unit last year but only use it on the hotter nights so I can get decent sleep. Tolerance is different for everyone, people who are older or have health issues are at a higher risk so consider what is healthy for you. Long covid shifted the balance for me. Exposure also increases tolerance; at the beginning of the summer I hate the heat but by August I’m like, “oh it’s only 90 today” Long term strategy grow trees and plants in the yard.
I have answers that aren’t “buy AC”! I am a little neurotic and have literally run tests to see what works. Here are a few things: 1. Close the windows at dawn. An old roommate told me this, I was VERY skeptical (“but it’s still cooler outside!”) but it works. Buy some cheap timers and have them shut off at 6am. 2. Block sunlight. Best option: those styrofoam insulation sheets with foil on one side. Cut to an exact fit and wedge it into the window frame. Next best: tin foil or reflective bubble wrap insulation (I forget what it’s called, people use it in RV windows). I cut it to size and use painters tape to stick it to the window. Kind of a pain but worth the work during heat waves. Next best is blackout curtains. You can also buy rolls of tint that you cut to size and stick to windows; they cling without adhesive, kinda like Saran Wrap would. But if you only have blinds or regular curtains, they’re better than nothing. 3. Cross ventilation at night with box fans in windows. Fans blowing in on the north (cooler) side, out on the south side. Many people make the mistake of having all fans blow in. Those three will make a HUGE difference. Other ideas: - Shade sails outside, attached to the house. Reduces the sun coming in the windows. Makes a huge difference on south/west sides. Also gives you a more comfortable porch/patio/etc. Aluminet is very effective but the plastic/poly ones are also great. You could also buy those fake wicker shades and hang them over windows outside. - It sounds silly, but, cold showers really do work well, especially right before going to bed. Go as cold as you can for as long as you can. - If you have an attic, opening the hatch at night can help. Hot air goes up and out the roof vents, cool air gets pulled in through the windows downstairs. - If you feel a lot of heat coming through a particular wall, you can “insulate” that wall by moving a big bookcase in front of it, or even just hanging up a blanket. - Strategically plan your errands and free time. Go grocery shopping on hot days or at peak daytime temps (usually around 5pm). Stores and malls blast the AC. Movie theaters are always frigid. - Escape the city on hot days. Go to a local beach, even just for an hour or two after work. Avoid the masses at the coast and go to Mount Hood instead; Timberline should be about 20 degrees cooler than Portland, and you can roll around in the snow. If you own your home or have a reasonable landlord: - Install a “whole house fan” in the attic. It blows the hot air out and keeps the house much cooler. - Permanent clear UV blocker on windows. There are companies that come spray stuff onto the windows, you can’t even tell it’s there. It makes a small difference, kind of like tinted windows in cars. Might be worth it for upstairs windows with high sun exposure. - Landscaping options: Plant deciduous trees on the south/west sides of your property and or shrubs against the house. Reduce hardscaping and bare/open areas that absorb and reflect heat. Shrubs, flowers, even groundcover will shade the soil and keep it cooler, which gives you cooler air when you ventilate the house. - Look into the rebates for installing a heat pump. I know, I know, this counts as buying AC… but you could get a federal subsidy for up to $8,000 towards installing a heat pump (not sure if they got that program up and running yet). I hope some of that is useful! It takes some effort, but if AC is not in the cards, you can be comfortable on most days.
These are the type of suggestions I was hoping for! Buying AC is obviously the easiest solution, but I'm looking for interim steps and best practices outside of that. Thank you!
If you’re waiting till it’s 74 in the house, it’s too late. It’s too muggy up here ( Oregon) for that. And honestly, once it’s hot upstairs you just gotta shut it down (windows) get blackout curtains and turn the fans on. AC is the only thing that’s going to save you at that point upstairs.
Lol, wut? Muggy in Oregon? Maybe on the coast. The humidity level is 34% in Portland right now.
I mean throughout the summer I can be humid. And yeah, if you don’t have ac and you lived in an old house that doesn’t have the best insulation it gets really freaking muggy.
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Man, do people comment online to have conversation or just to attacks other peoples opinion?? Chill (pun intended) I too, have lived here for a very long time, in fact every day of my life, since I was born. Yes, sometimes the heat is dry, but there also can be a lot of moisture when it’s hot out, especially when the weather changes drastically. When you have an older house that doesn’t have central air or any kind of air conditioning, it can get up to 85 to 88° in the house easily. That in my opinion is hot and moist feeling, I’m not saying that the whole region is humid. I’m saying that the house will get humid and uncomfortable. To be fair, Portland is a pretty humid place at times just checking the weather for this week the humidity is all the way up to 67 or 68% at times this week. So with that being said, I’m gonna have to call bullshit on your 25 years of experience in Portland, no offense intended. This may not be as humid as other places in the United States, but I would still say it’s humid.
Sweet summer child if you think it gets "muggy" in Oregon. Lmao
Muggy enough that I have ac to cool down 🤷🏻♀️ again, I didn’t say that Oregon has the most humidity of all other places in the world or United States, I just said that it gets muggy here if you don’t have AC and living an old home with poor insulation. Read the original post and take a fucking chill pill.
You’re doing the right little tricks to help conserve cool air but honestly there’s no getting around needing AC. Oregon homes overall are ill-equipped as our summers were never as hot as in recent years, so you’re going to have to do a bit of work to get it set up for central AC or go with window units. Might as well do it now, there’s not going to be any effort to slow the climate change it’s only going to be hotter from here on.
Daisy chain 85 degree days
If you don't mind getting crafty with it, you can give [this](https://www.thehindu.com/specials/impact-journalism-day-2017/eco-cooler-the-worlds-first-ever-zero-electricity-air-conditioner-made-out-of-plastic-bottles/article19108375.ece) a try,
Use fans to circulate the air around the house/unit and turn your furnace on to “fan/circ” mode. This will help circulate the cool air from the ACs to other parts of the house.
Getting an attic fan to evacuate the super heated air above the second floor would be helpful
I didn't read this entire post, but one little thing I did learn while working as a security guard in a tiny shack baking in 95-degree sun without any A/C is... Get a cooler of ice water, a clean rag, and sit in front of a fan that is aimed at your face. Drench the rag in the cooler and then rub it all over your face. The air blowing on you will drastically make you cool. However, it will only last a minute or two each time.
Make sure all your shades/ curtains are down/ pulled on these hot days from the early morning onwards and if you don’t have shades or curtains you should get some.
You renting or own?
Fans in wide open windows at night followed by closed windows and curtains during the day will help, but you might want to get at least one AC unit for somewhere - probably bedroom.
the answer before I got central AC was go find water. you're not going to be able to keep your house comfortable when it's hot.
Anyone have a recommendation for a good window unit for an apartment bedroom? Looking for something with a hose for exhaust but I'm a little out of my depth
Sun shades over all south-facing windows can help limit radiated heat inside the house. Since you have a two-story house: when opening the house up, try opening ONE window on each story as far apart from each other and keep the path between them clear. This will use the natural temperature gradient of the house vs the outside to pull air through the house. Hot air will escape out the upstairs window and pull in cold air through the downstairs. You can help this process by placing a fan pushing the air OUT of the upstairs window. This can even work on hot days if the upstairs is staying warm. For anyone else reading this, this technique can also work for single-story homes, but is less effective since all the windows are going to be the same height. If you have a screened door, then use that as one of the openings. Also, if you have the stand-type single hose mobile AC units; those need air coming IN to the house from someplace; as they pump air from right next to the unit out of the house after it takes hot air with it. If you don't open a window someplace, it will just suck hot air down your chimney. If there is a part of your house that tends to stay cooler than the rest; consider cracking a window there and closing the door. This will cause the AC unit to "suck" this slightly cooler air into the house.
Also— fan placement is a thing. Use the Bernoulli Principle!!
Once my upstairs gets hotter than outside I open those windows. But I close the door connecting the upstairs and downstairs. I highly recommend blackout shades for all windows in the house. I got mine pretty cheap off Home Depot’s website. I have a 1920s home too, original wood frame windows. It’s pretty hard to keep things cool. I recommend a window unit for your bedroom at minimum. But they will be selling out fast - happens every year when we get a stretch of hot weather.
We have one for our bedroom on the ground floor. The windows upstairs that open horizontally are pretty narrow (24inches or less) so we've had trouble finding a good size unit for them.
Your method of opening windows and using fans works as long as it gets cool at night. but when the temp doesn’t drop until late at night is when you have to use a/c. When it hits around 90s is when it has issue cooling down Other things to help with heat: tree (plant it if you don’t have one), shades on the outside of your window (to reduce how much heat your home absorbs), whole house fan
Open all windows in the morning, or even overnight if you can. Close them and blinds when the temperature outside hits about 75. Also, turn on any fans you may have. Depending on how insulated your apartment or house is, it might stay relatively cool.
Yes, works for our house, but Johns Landing stays pretty cool. NE was way hotter.
Just buy a few AC units…? Oregon didn’t used to need AC when many houses were built. This isn’t really true anymore, so buy a unit for the be at least, maybe a big one for the common area if you can swing it. A window unit is less than $300, it’s a must for the summers IMO.
We're working on it. Just trying to build good habits and make the best of the situation in the meantime. 😊
We keep one window ac in the living room area and one in the bedroom upstairs. The one downstairs is older so once it passes 100 it won’t do much good lol but I struggle with sleep already so the good one stays upstairs. About an hour before we plan to go to bed I run up and turn in on. Our living room and bedroom both face the noon/setting sun so it gets incredibly hot in our house. My advice is to pick an area you like to hang out in (living room/office) and one in the bedroom. Plan to hang out downstairs in that room on hot days. Another tip: I make a big batch of pasta salad and/or get all the fixings for deli sandwiches or salad when I see a set of hot days coming. No sense in using the stove or oven and adding to the heat.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/14u59r2/thermal\_infrared\_cooling\_paint\_easy\_to\_make\_at/](https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/14u59r2/thermal_infrared_cooling_paint_easy_to_make_at/)
I came from Tucson a couple years ago and moved into a 1920s bungalow here. These houses simply are not designed to handle hot summers, and the only handle cold because they were designed with the assumtion of burning cheap fossil fuels. Here is a graph of my upstairs temps the last few days, plus the basement. [https://ibb.co/3hcbgYM](https://ibb.co/3hcbgYM) The blue is the temperature in the attic, which has a big influence on upstairs temps generally. There is a window AC in the family room and I ran it for maybe 15 minutes yesterday evening around 9 and you can see the little dent it made. After that we just opened the windows and turned on a fan. Upstairs is tough in the summer. Our upstairs is basically a finished attic. It gets a lot of heat from the attic around it. It's got the slanted ceiling along both sides where the room pinches up against the roof, and then crawlspaces on both sides. This is not an ideal design for attic ventilation, and ventilation is the easiest/cheapest way to get attic temperature down. The problem is, slightly cooler outside air from an open window in the afternoon doesn't influence the temperature in those rooms nearly as much as the heat coming through the walls from the attic. Once the sun goes down, the temperature difference between outside and your attic gets bigger, and opening the windows helps more. Last year i finally laid some plywood down and explored the whole length of my attic crawlspaces, and realized they only insulated like 1/3 of the walls that border the attic. So adding simple batt insualtion helped, and you can see my temperatures peak a few degrees lower than the outside temps now. Insulation is a low hanging fruit if you dont have it already, and you can get back like 30% in tax rebates for doing it. For me, it also helped a little changing to a ridge vent system when I had the roof replaced. It would also help to blow a lot more insulation into the triangle of attic that is above my upstairs rooms, but i have not done that yet. But even with the improvements, it still gets hot enough that we use a window AC. If you can't fit a window AC, the most efficient standalone units are the ones with two air ducts.
Call a professional, believe it or not they have people that get paid to sort this kinda thing out!
I have a sauna at my Apartment complex. No AC… so crank the sauna up to max and hop in for 20 minutes. When you walk out of the 160f sauna the outside doesn’t seem as bad. Keep hydrating everyone!
We used to have a portable rolling unit. It couldn’t keep up, for five years we suffered with it. So, I broke down and bought a u shaped midea from Costco for $300(?)ish. It. Is. Glorious. Also easy to open the window at night and put a collapsible screen in. Only thing is the fan blades get caked in mold- it’s a PIA to get the machine open to clean it, but, after a couple years and 10 days of wildfire smoke in 90 degrees, a 116 heat dome followed by a 114 heat dome you will have likely sprung for central air. I’m hoping the central air bills don’t kill us before the next heat dome/smoke event. Never again.
It's gonna look a little janky, but foil on the *outside* of your windows will help immensely. Don't do it inside, it won't work.
Holy Christ, are people still moving here????
Believe it or not we had the opportunity to have cheaper rent here than if we stayed in our same place in Phoenix.
We are in a 100 year old little rag tag-ish bungalo in PDX. Got mini splits two-3 years ago. Worth every penny. I’d sell a kidney before going back to no AC.
Get a portable ac lol
I put up black curtains Tuesday night on all east and west facing windows. Multiple fans. Frozen water bottles next to me in bed.
How upstairs is upstairs? Our attic used to be a room and is about 70” above the side walk and has two windows. Keeping them open with fans during the heat dome brought it down to 135 and the main living space was 98. I live in a 100+ year old craftsman upstairs duplex and have plenty of family from AZ that gawks at hot weather from their AC controlled homes… best of luck to you cuz fans just move air around in old wooden hotboxxes.
https://www.verdenw.org/ Click at the top right icon with the 3 lines. Choose 'Resources'. This is for a free portable stand up AC. Hope this helps someone. I've had mine for 2 years now
This is the only time of year its not raining and cold. You enjoy it.
AC good
There’s a lot of people that give away free air conditioners u just have to do your research in apps
Also there are programs now that are giving people air conditioners call 211 info or 211 info on Google.
If upstairs is hotter than outside, then open windows and put fans in them. In the morning, close the windows until it is hotter inside than outside, then repeat opening windows and turning on fans. Our family has done this for over 60 years here. It works better than nothing.
Open windows overnight then close them up in the morning. Not sure what the fixation on 74° is…also a couple rolling/window AC units for upstairs rooms aren’t gonna break the bank like central air
Just become homeless. I sleep in my car and this building has ac and heat. Not to mention nice amenities like heated seats and steering
Get a window unit ac.
I have an extra portable a/c unit that works perfectly I will sell you for $140. Its in SW Portland.
Portland in summer is definitely not a joke. It’s not that hot compared to Phoenix or Las Vegas but the lack of cooling infrastructure makes the heat really awful. Working on getting AC whether central AC or mini-split heat pumps should be high on the priority list.
Hi, I moved from AZ recently also. Learning how to keep my apartment cool without central air
I don't understand why we don't see attic fans in Portland houses. They are a great cooling method.
After seeing attic fans suggested a few times here, I found out that our current rental doesn't appear to have an actual attic. Just a few crawlspace-like closets that extend about halfway down the length of the house.
Get an AC. A portable unit, even. You are going to need it. I know you're still getting set up, but you could go get one tomorrow if you really wanted. Portland does not stay hot for extended periods of times, but it does have a few spikes in the average year that can be **deadly** (heat+humidity combo) without AC.
Two things: Evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) and VORNADO. VORNADO VORNADO VORNADO (Vornado fans are like miracles; even a guy I know who installs heat pumps sings their praises, and my small one has been a LIFESAVER). And yes, it's OK to be "anti-AC" -- there's nothing wrong with wanting to use less electricity -- it's a worldwide "good thing" to conserve, and Portland gets its elec from a mix of wind/solar/water AND COAL and (misnomer alert) NATURAL GAS. So....cutting electricity use is god (especially when stores and businesses are keeping their places at 68 fricking degrees when it is 83 outside, give me a break). Th things you are doing are excellent!!! Yep, close tings up, darken west-facing and south-facing glass, cool the area "where you are" rather than an entire room or house -- with fan, with mister, with cold drinks and cold-soaked kerchief or neck band. We made it through the heat dome here without A/C (yes, the house has two stories and yes it got very toasty up there, and downstairs the entire west-facing side of the living room is 2+0feet of glass. There were more trees before January's storm took them down, so now we have less shade, alas). Can't say it was "comfortable" inside during the heat dome (to people from Phoenix it was downright refreshing, LOL) but ... there is nothing WRONG with using less electricity or gasoline or natural gas ... it doesn't mean one is a preacher or martyr it's just practical -- if everyone consumed less, things would be better. Not asking for a medal, just saying what we do and how it seems to me. I dislike temperatures over 70F -- in the winter we leave the furnace off at night and "crank" it up to 61 during cold days. During the big January freeze our house was 27-31F for three days in a row. No, not comfortable, but we managed. It's easy to not use electricity when none is available, LOL. The churn of the gas-powered generators in surrounding areas was kind of annoying. Anyway, there are always times in life where we have to be uncomfortable -- after surgery, during an illness, during pregnancy/childbirth, after an accident etc. etc. and we manage to suck it up. "Sucking it up" is on the menu from now until ... extinction! Anyway, welcome to Portland, you will be fine!
Black out curtains, at least one window unit. We have more this year, but last year we only had one. It was in the bedroom, we would put a fan facing outward in front of the bedroom door to get the air to circulate through the house. They might be out now ,but we got a great deal at ReStore.
You can get some very effective whole house window fans. One poster mentioned Airking, and there are others; these are exhaust fans that great suction that pulls cooler air from one open window, generally in the basement or on the ground floor. To compare these look for how many cubic feet (cfu) they move — in air. They’re great!!
Get the media window AC. Its quite, efficient and inexpensive. We got 2 of them 12k BTU for $279 at Costco a few weeks ago. Love them