[Viking]

I've worked in a few factories over the years, no AC and often no fans, but in all those years I saw boxes of salt tablets mounted on posts here and there throughout the factories. I've used the salt tabs but you also have to drink plenty of water as well. Salt is a big factor but sweat is made up of many different minerals which are needed as electrolytes and with a balance of the proper minerals a person can do very well without AC. The trouble with most so called "Sport Drinks" is that they usually don't have a proper balance of minerals and they often have sugars added.

 

[Viking]

I've mentioned this a few times before in other posts, when I built our home I didn't install central heating and no AC, all we do is just when things start cooling down toward evening is to open a lot of windows and a sliding glass door in the bedroom, turn on a few small fans and a couple of ceiling fans (only 9.5 watts each on low). At about 8 in the morning we close all the windows and even on a 104 degree day it's never gotten more than 80 inside. It would probably be cooler if I would have built all of the roof as a cold roof, but just having the North roof a cold roof has made a tremendous difference, when I built the addition to the South side I couldn't afford putting a cold roof on, it's also twice the surface area, at least I've got plenty of attic insulation there and I'm sure that helps, as it was I think I was also running up against the rainy season and was pressed to get the roof done, ASAP. Thinking of those old houses, many were built with tall windows that could be opened at the top as well as the bottom, I remember that the elementary and high schools I attended had those kind of windows and no AC, still got hot but it could have been worse without constant air flowing into the rooms because of those kinds of windows.

 

[Viking]

Keeping cool in the country is a whole lot different than keeping cool in the city.

City living is the developers seeing how many houses they can put in the smallest possible footprint so there's no chance of a breeze finding its way between the houses or you being able to plant enough trees to shade your house. Then there's all that reflective heating - concrete and asphalt. Don't forget the exhaust from the cars. It all adds to degrees on the thermometer.

It's a lot different in the country. We can sit in a lawn chair under a shade tree and enjoy a cooling breeze even on the hottest of days. We have grass instead of concrete which aids in cooling. A lot of us, on this side of Texas, have easy access to ponds, creeks, and lakes so a quick dip or a good cooling foot soaking is easy to do.

Some of you may not understand this next comment.... for us, living in the country is less stressful than city living. I think that lack of chronic stress, that lack of anxiety, is in itself calm and cooling even if only psychological.

Don't get me wrong, I would miss air conditioning; but we have a better chance of getting by without it where we live.

There are huge heat storage areas in cities, paved streets and parking lots, buildings that store up heat in their mass, windows that reflect heat to the sidewalks and streets, sometimes with enough energy to start a fire. Then there are the vehicles, exhaust was mentioned but the heat coming off of radiators is tremendous especially adding the AC condenser heat. Even the small town of around 1,500 population, which we live four miles from, it's amazing just how much heat is generated there, in the winter when we have snow it can be on the roads until about a 1/4 mile from town where it's melted from there through town.