askye- trick from a desert dweller: leave all the windows open and fans on while it is cool- basically until sunrise. Lowest temps are usually before dawn. THEN shut everything down at sunrise or so (desert it is around 9 or so when it starts heating up,) keep the air moving inside.

this is what I do all summer in Seattle, and there's usually only a couple of days when I need a/c. Love it. Favorite part of moving here. And the window fan I have is one I got remembering Smonster having one, with an intake and exhaust fan.

If it's humid, turning off the A/C and pulling in humid air versus leaving the A/C on is kind of a wash in terms of electricity use.

We didn't have A/C in Chicago when I was a kid, and I remember lying on top of the covers in front of a fan and not being able to sleep. I also spent a summer in Nashville and a summer in Macon without it. The next time I spend a summer without A/C, I'll either be living in a very different climate or trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

sara I'll have to try that. I haven't really left the windows open at night, but I'll try it. So far it's been nice enough that running a fan works to cool things off.

I'm getting used to being this far north. Will and I took a drive today and if I had my enhanced driver's license we could have driven into Canada! We didn't , we just drove over to New York and around a bit. This is the first time I've been back that way since I came up and the flooding is even crazier.

Lake Champlain has been at or above the highest level recorded in the past 184 years for most of the month and we keep getting more rain. When we were driving we passed geese paddling around in what used to be crop fields. And we saw kayakers paddling around in what is flooded fields.

did you look at Levis curve id?

I come up against the wall of describing my body in terms I just don't use, but it gave me something. Measurements would be more sensible.

Oh, god I can't believe I just woke up. There's no way I'm sleeping tonight, is there?

I didn't always run the a/c when I was hot in Florida, trying to keep the electricity bills down. One of my stay cool tricks is to keep aloe gel in the fridge and then slather it on when I'm feeling hot. And to really cool off -- slather it on and then sit in front of a fan.

I grew up in Tennessee without any kind of A/C. Open windows and floor fans, and one ceiling fan in the den. It was awfully hot, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't THIS hot, this early or for this long. Or, maybe I was just smaller and therefore had a larger surface-area-to-volume ratio and thus cooled off easier.

The next time I spend a summer without A/C, I'll either be living in a very different climate or trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Ginger and I are as one in this. I can't stand the heat and am willing - and thankfully able - to pay $$ to make my personal air cool.

It's pretty lovely here tonight.

We totally do sarameg's desert dweller method, and it is so awesome. Our house doesn't have A/C, but it's never needed it. We wired for it, thinking we'd add it in later, but at three years in, I don't think we'll ever need it. There have really only been a few days where it's been like, oh, it's hot. My (west-facing) office gets hot sometimes if I leave the shades up too late, but eventually I hope to put up a pergola on that side of the house and grow some seasonal shade, because I love the winter sun there.

We just throw all the windows open all night, shut them down in the morning, and it's so well insulated it stays blissfully cool all day. And yeah, I'm not dealing with humidity, and I've got desert day/night temperature swings, so it works better for us than it will for everyone, but it's a great method.

It's 76° in my apartment and I am perfectly comfortable. Haven't even thought about pulling out the fans. I got a little warm while doing pilates, but otherwise I've just been happy today to not need layers.

I don't have AC. Since I always spend July elsewhere it's really only an issue for a couple of weeks in August. If I did spend the summer here I'd probably just install ceiling fans.

I do my part by keeping the air set on 80 in the day/77 at night, and making liberal use of my bedroom ceiling fan and near-nudism. But if it's still out with 60% humidity and temps in the 90s, opening two little windows isn't going to help me much.

The next time I spend a summer without A/C, I'll either be living in a very different climate or trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Bwah! I'm now envisioning several zombies trapped in harnesses on a wheel that turns roof fans, with little gobbets of meat suspended just out of reach in front of them.

There's a very loud very big buzzy bug in my living room. It doesn't seem to be able to see very well, because it keeps ricocheting off thing, including me, several times. It's also hit the ceiling fan a few times, and just bounces off. It's getting rather annoying.