Attack of the Deadly Rays!
John and I are gearing up like it's war: Ice? Check! Popsicles? Check! Supersoakers? Check! Things to do inside because our shoes might melt if we go outside? Check! I'm spending tomorrow morning cooking for the weekend so we don't have to heat up the kitchen; it feels vaguely kosher somehow.
We don't have central a/c, just a wheezy little window affair that we are putting in the TV room, the teeniest room in the house. That room barely fits a couch, but the a/c will keep it semi-tolerable better than the big front rooms.
Upstairs, where it gets smokingly hot (and where we sleep), we are going with a reflection/containment philosophy. We bought a bunch of cheap cheap cheap space blankets and some rubber cement and stuck the mylar blankets over the windows and skylights. Dropped the temperature an easy five-ten degrees instantly. We'll see how it works when it's over the windows from the beginning of the day.
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our office is upstairs
and it's small with two overheated computers in it so it's been miserable working here recently. We've got a couple of fans and we let in whatever breezes we can, and keep all southfacing windows covered with curtains or blinds. We also try to whip up a through draught during the night so it doesn't start the day hot.
watch out for the deadly computers though... if you can turn them off, do so! Worse than a tumble drier!
aircon is unheard of in private property in England, so whilst some might think we'd be immune to the heat we're much more used to switching on aircon to cope.
Kerri.
oh dear...
I didn't mean to start anything!!
We do keep the curtains open a bit where the windows are open to let the draught through. This is why all windows in Singapore are tinted. My parents never realised that you never look through a winow of any kind in Singapore without it being tinted. If we ever build our own house... 
JJ - that sounds like quite a project you have in mind... might be an idea to discuss it with your nearest and dearest fairly soon, before it costs you a big bunch of flowers!
Kerri.
John's heat shield is up
He built a test case shield and we put it up in the west-facing window of the TV room, the room with the teeny a/c. If it works we'll be posting an article with pix.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
so far
It's 3:45. Outside it's 102 (that's just really hot for Portland, guys, we're just not used to it). Inside with no a/c it's a decent 81. We still have at least two more hours of the heat increasing rather than decreasing, so pretty soon here we'll be retreating to the TV room and firing up the a/c.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
ICE, ICE, BABY
Thank Heaven for ice, fans, and cool basements, that's how I'm getting through this.
Anhata
www.familynaturally.com
Your Family's General Store, Naturally
the problem with curtains/blinds
is that *any* airflow between the window and the blind picks up that hot air and then recirculates it.
I have a cunning plan!
I am going to build "window baffles" at some point. 2 sheets of 1/8" plywood sandwiching bubble wrap. on both external sides of the plywood will be that spaceblanket material, and then wrapped around the whole thing will be fabric to make it purty
The space blankets will isolate out heat/cold, and the baffle will add a small insulating layer to keep the cold in/out, and heat in/out. These would be held in place via clips or perhaps pins?
Something to think about.
JJ
oh it's fine
No fear. He bought the supplies at lunch, in fact. It's just typical that someone mentions something and the next thing I know the power saw in the garage is running...
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
oy.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
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