When All Hell Breaks Loose (28 page)

It's Too Hot in the House! The Art of Keeping Your Home Cool

North-facing Rooms: Looking for Naturally Cool Places in the House

During summertime heat, recognizing and exploiting cooler microclimates in your house will be necessary to achieve relative comfort and, in a worst-case scenario, will be needed to prevent you from dying of dehydration and hyperthermia. Notice that this section is directly the opposite of the south-facing room section with a few similarities designed to maintain whatever temperature it is that you're looking for.

North-facing rooms in the home will naturally be cooler during hot weather as direct sunlight never shines within the windows of the room at any time of the year. Even if the room has no windows or openings of any kind, it will still be cooler. If you're unsure of how your home is oriented, every family will have a room that people dread going into during the wintertime because it's damn cold. The chances are high that this room is facing north.

North-facing rooms can be blocked off from the rest of the home to keep the cooler temperature insulated against the onslaught of heat generated from the rest of the house. Close doors or hang up blankets to insulate and block off doorways from the rest of the home and use towels or extra clothing to insulate
above
doorways and higher open areas if needed.
Hot air rises, and cooler air sinks
, thus don't bother stuffing towels under the door. Using the "hot air rises" principle, the entire house can get rid of some of its excess heat through the installation of attic vents.

If north-facing rooms do have windows or openings, they can be utilized to cool down the room at the appropriate time of day. While it may seem counterintuitive at first, I keep all doors and windows in my home
closed
during the daytime in the summer. I open the doors and windows in the evening or at night when it cools down outside. I especially like to open windows that are located high up, as the rising warm air easily escapes. The cooler convective nighttime breezes fill my home all night, bringing inside temperatures down from whatever heat was gained from the heat of the day. To insulate my cooler indoor temperatures from the outside heat, I then close doors and windows the next morning when it starts to warm up outside. Combined with great insulation, orientation, and thermal mass, this simple process works for me as free air conditioning all summer long.

Lay Low and Be Cool

Cooler air sinks. Although insulation such as carpeting or throw rugs works well at retaining hot or cold temperatures, the bare floor of a room, especially if it's a concrete slab, stone, or tile, will be much cooler than the carpet itself. If it gets really hot inside and you're forced to lie on the floor, the resulting heat loss through conduction will be greatly increased if you lie on the bare floor itself without any insulation blocking the transfer of heat. Mattresses can be taken off of their box springs and put on the floor, as can sofa cushions, to make an improvised bed that maximizes lower cooler air.

I fondly remember living in my yurt in the summertime. I would often lie naked on the cool floor when forced to endure yet another summer day in Arizona in a fabric shelter in direct sun with no insulation. The yurt itself was set up on a circular platform constructed of sandstone, 2x4s, and plywood. As my shelter location was on a slight slope, the height of the sandstone wall varied and there was a crawl space underneath the plywood. We cut an opening in the floor, and then covered the opening with a piece of plywood, which I could take off to allow the cooler air from underneath to make its way into the lowest part of the yurt. Even so, some days still sucked and were hotter than hell. Regardless of crummy circumstances, which are all temporary, buck up and maintain a positive attitude as best you can.

Many homes have basements or other built-in underground storage rooms for garden produce. All will be wonderfully cool when compared to the rest of your home.

Wet and Wild

When a liquid changes into a gas (evaporation), the process uses heat or energy. Many times on cross-country desert survival courses, my students use extra water to wet down their clothing. Clothing covering the head, neck, and torso areas respond the best to being wetted down, as these areas possess the most sweat glands. Don't be shy, wet down your clothing or the sheets on the bed when things get smoldering in the house. When wet, cotton clothing and sheets allow for the best loss of heat from your body compared to other materials. Back in my yurt days, I often wet my clothing down with water to stay cooler. In certain conditions, wet clothing on a body excels at losing heat much more effectively than being naked.

The mass production of air conditioners for homes didn't begin until the 1950s. Regardless, Phoenix, Arizona, was the territorial capital of Arizona in 1899, with a population of 5,444 hardy souls who knew how to sweat their butts off in desert summer heat. Early Phoenicians used basic tricks such as insulation, thermal mass, and orientation, just like we do, or should do, to stay cool. They also soaked down sheets with water and hung them from their porches, doorways, and as dividers between rooms. Cooler nighttime breezes would become even cooler when passing through the wet sheet, similar to the soaked burlap "box cooler" my grandmother used to have. It consisted of a wooden framed box, which held the food, surrounded by a layer of burlap. On top of the burlap-coated box was a metal container with tiny holes in its base. My grandmother would fill the container with water and it would slowly seep out the holes throughout the day so as to constantly keep the burlap wet—perfect low-tech evaporative cooling. Creative and liberal use of this concept can make unbearable high temperatures bearable in a pinch. Many urban desert neighborhoods employ swamp coolers on their homes for the same effect.

Horrifying Humidity

Many of you reading this live in locales that are hot and humid. Humidity is a true killer, and when it approaches 70 percent or more it completely impedes the body's evaporation process. High humidity levels will make many of the water tricks in this book useless when trying to "make nice" with hot outdoor temperatures.
As the body's main cooling mechanism (the evaporation of sweat) is ineffective during periods of high humidity, it is extremely important that you monitor your behavior and don't do highly physical tasks during the heat of the day
. If it's already hot outside, and your sweat won't evaporate due to high humidity, and you create excess metabolic heat by working like a crazy person during the hottest part of the day, you're asking for trouble.

Going Under Cover

Obviously, it's hotter to stand in the sun than in the shade.
Any
shade allowing protection from direct solar radiation will drastically make your living environment cooler. Rooms not oriented to the north, yet featuring plenty of overhead shade cover from trees, buildings, or whatever, may be cooler inside than the sun-beaten roofs of exposed north-facing rooms, especially if you have crummy insulation in your attic or ceiling. Pay attention someday to how and when the summer sun pummels your home and make mental notes for the future. Tarps, opaque rolls of plastic, blankets, or other shade-producing items can be strung up over parts of your home to eliminate some or all direct sunlight. Along with the created shade, the dead air space produced between the tarp and the house acts as bonus insulation from hot temperatures. Think of your home as a body similar to yours. If it stands out in direct sunlight all day long, it will be much hotter than if it has access to shade. It's very common in the desert to see mobile homes with entire carports erected over the mobile home itself for the same benefit. This is the same reason that many ancient Native American tribes in the Southwest built stone-stacked pueblos under natural rock overhangs. If your house is cooler on the outside, you will be cooler on the inside.

Covering Windows with Space Blankets

I've mentioned this several times but now I'll get specific. Taping a space blanket to the inside of your home's window will reflect away direct shortwave radiation from the sun, as well as hotter long-wave radiation from the boiling outside environment. Smaller, more reflective space blankets will be easier to use for this application than the heavier grommeted type. In truth, while the shinier the material the more it will reflect, any reflective surface can be used. Tape up tinfoil if that's all you have, but keep the foil flat and neat and don't scrunch it up, thereby eliminating some of the tinfoil's reflective value, and put the shinier side out.

Whatever you use, the reflective surface should be taped onto the window itself if possible, yet done so in a way that will allow you to remove it when necessary without ripping up the material. If the reflective surface is hung or taped a few inches away from the window itself, radiation will heat up the space between the reflective surface and the window. This heat gain will eventually leak into the room.

Your home's (or any shelter's) main purpose is to help thermoregulate your core body temperature in hot and cold temperatures.

Avoiding
hypothermia
(low body temperature) and
hyperthermia
(high body temperature) is a major factor in your survival. Know the signs and symptoms of both for yourself and others.

Being properly dressed by having adequate clothing and staying hydrated by storing and drinking sufficient water are the easiest ways to thermoregulate core body temperature and stay warm or cool during temperature extremes.

Your body loses or gains heat from the environment through
convection
(wind and moving water),
conduction
(touching a hot or cold object),
radiation
(shortwave radiation from the sun and long-wave radiation from everything else),
evaporation
(sweating), and
respiration
(breathing). Pay attention to the same physics when improvising or setting up an alternative shelter such as a tent, tarp, or RV.

Your home could be partially or completely destroyed during a disaster. Check for structural damage before entering the home. If you choose to reenter, make sure it's not in danger of collapsing. Ultimately, this inspection will need to be done by a professional. If you do decide to reenter your home, turn off any outside gas lines and let the house air out for several minutes to remove potential escaping gas. When entering the home, don't use open flames as a light source. Instead, use a battery-operated flashlight or some other nonfuel burning light source.

Have portable, alternative shelter option(s) that are easy to set up under stress such as a tent or tarp in case you need to evacuate your home or your home is damaged in a disaster.

In Cold Weather: Maximize the warmest room(s) in the house and isolate it from the rest of the colder home. As a general rule, smaller south-facing rooms with windows will be warmer on cold, sunny days than other rooms in the house. Direct sunlight hitting thermal mass areas such as a concrete floor will re-radiate more heat at night than the same floor covered with a throw rug. Close and insulate under doors with extra clothing or towels, cover windows during nighttime hours with clear plastic and/or space blankets, and make group "sleeping forts" to maximize body heat. Remember that warm air rises, and sleeping next to a family member will be warmer than sleeping alone.

For your safety and maximum efficiency, woodstoves and fireplaces should be serviced yearly by a professional whether they have been used or not. Have an adequate supply of firewood or pellets on hand, stored in a safe location away from the house.

Danger!
Beware of deadly carbon monoxide fumes when using
any
fuel-burning heating source indoors such as fireplaces, woodstoves, or propane, kerosene, natural gas, or coal-burning space heaters.
All yellow and orange flames produce poisonous carbon monoxide
. Install battery-powered carbon monoxide detectors and alarms near all rooms where people will be sleeping.

Space heaters should be vented to the outside and kept in good working order. Keep all heaters at least
three feet away
on all sides from all combustible materials. Use caution with space heaters around children and pets and store all fuels in approved containers safely away from the home.

In Hot Weather: Maximize the coolest room(s) in the house and isolate it from the rest of the hotter home. Look for north-facing rooms, draw window blinds, and utilize space blankets or tinfoil to keep out the sun. Close doors, insulate higher openings in rooms to keep out rising hot air, and create shade wherever possible. Open windows at night to let out trapped heat and let in cooler nighttime air and close them again before outside temperatures rise. Cooler air sinks, so go low and wet down clothing and/or sheets that can be hung between rooms or in doorways to increase evaporative cooling.