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Ask HN: How do you hack this hot weather?

4 points by shire ↗ HN
Cold vs hot shower during the summer? which do you guys take to cool you down. I hear taking a hot shower helps to cool you down more than the cold shower it would make sense if you think about Newton's Law of Cooling. But seriously this hot weather is killing me while I'm programming.

9 comments

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andrewhillman
Fire up the AC, put it by your desk and have a Popsicle! It's Summer, maybe go outside.
geuis
Satirical answer: move to San Francisco. Most nights this summer have been jacket or sweater weather. I made the escape from the southeast 6+ years ago.

Serious: Close the blinds/curtains. This helps reflect light back out rather than staying inside and heating up the space. Stay low. Heat rises, cool air sinks. If possible, give the hot air somewhere to escape to up high and back outside.

stevejalim
We have a house with insulated ceilings (most of them in the UK do), so during hot spells, I open the attic/loft access panel as a way to draw warm air up out of the house and generally improve airflow.
caw
Blinds definitely help. I've heard that if you have horizontal mini blinds you want to turn them up so it reflects the sun back and not down where the sunlight streams in.

Keep fans running even if you're not in the room. It'll keep the air moving. Make sure it's rotating in the right direction (switch down for summer, up for winter)

Turn off incandescent lights.

Check your AC unit, I recently found mine needed to be recharged. The AC should be 20 degrees below ambient temp.

Any sort of insulation improvements. In a house I lived in during college I found that the 3M Window seals helped immensely, and closing the fireplace flue.

Get rid of that Pentium 4 box sitting next to you :)

aslewofmice
Updated Satirical Answer: Move to San Diego where it's currently 72 degrees, lower cost of living than SF and a burgeoning startup scene.
gablebarber
Being a south Texas native, I live by cold showers several times per day in the summer, even if just for a few minutes, and especially before I go to sleep.
groundCode
mouthwash made with some high quality peppermint essential oil. The menthol in mint plants apparently tricks your brain into thinking you are cooler than you are......
27182818284
I am pretty old fashioned in that I carry a handkerchief and try to have more iced drinks. It works out for me well.

With my AC running all the time and a box fan my electric bill was still only $70ish dollars because our electricity here is dirt cheap. (Partially nuclear)

cafard
Concentrating when uncomfortable is hard. Run a fan or live down the basement?

After a couple of summers in Washington, DC, I found that running in the daylight hours helped to acclimate me. I wanted to survive, so I made sure to figure out routes that are mostly in shade, but even so I can tolerate more heat than a lot of folks can.