Archive for January 20, 2009
Reduce: Summer Cooling Costs
It’s summer here in Australia, and I live in Queensland. Now, it might be South-East Queensland, but all you Far Northerners and Top Enders, don’t be thinking it doesn’t get hot here too! Ok, comparatively, not so much. But still, hot. And humid.
I really dislike being sticky. I am also not a big fan of the drying powers of air conditioning, or the corresponding cost and carbon emissions.
Don’t think it’s just Queenslanders who get hot – with global warming, temperatures are rising everywhere. We have heatwaves coming out the wazoo. So it’s really important everyone knows how to stay cool without contributing any further to the problem.
Centenery Pool in the 1930s - Spring Hill, Brisbane
So what does an eco-friendly lesbian do to stay cool in the summer?
Well first up, I dress in cool clothing. This does not necessarily mean skimpy. Light fabrics are key. My favourite item of clothing in summer is the cotton sarong. I have four of them. Yankee Elv has two. Mr Teeny-bop (formerly Mr Pre-teen) has one. Is cotton an eco-friendly fabric? Maybe not. Is it more eco-friendly than running the air conditioner all day? I’d say so. You could try other fabrics, like hemp or bamboo, but cotton is the cheapest and most readily available. That’s not to say I’m not going to try hemp or bamboo one day, cos I think they’re pretty awesome, especially hemp. Linen would be good too. I also wear flowing cotton shirts or singlets/tank tops. If I’m going out, I swap my sarong for a pair of board shorts. Yes, I live in the city – but I grew up at the beach in a house with one ancient fan. Beach clothes in summer are part of my psyche.
Another factor in my temperature maintenance is the cooling power of sweat. Mmm, sweaty goodness, you say. Ha. Sweat exists for a reason, and not just to clean out your pores. Get yourself into a breeze and the wind will cool the moisture on your skin, which lowers your core temperature. If you aren’t sweating as much as you’d like, you can simulate sweat. Jump in the shower (just for a minute, to get wet), and don’t dry off brilliantly. In fact, if you jump in the shower in your togs, you come to my third cooling step.
Wear wet clothes. Eh? Yeah. Togs are best, cos, you know, they’re meant to be wet. That being said, my t-shirt and boardies felt pretty nice a few weeks back after I bathed the dog. Mr Teeny-bop and I indulged in a 10 second spritz under the hose, just to get the dog shampoo off. Playing with the hose/sprinkler is strictly illegal in Brisbane at the moment (we’re in a drought), but you can wash the dog. I really promise it was 10 seconds each only, no kidding. For real. Mostly I do my wet togs trick in the shower – make sure you aren’t wearing wet bikini bottoms though, they’re not good for you. After I get out of the shower, I sit on the verandah and…
Catch the breeze. Queenslanders (the houses, not the people) are built to withstand the heat. We live in an imitation Queenslander, so it has many similar features. These features include:
- Built on stumps to let the air flow under the house
- High ceilings to allow the hot air to rise
- Verandahs back and front (and all around if you’re lucky)
- Lots of windows that open outwards under rounded eaves to prevent the sun shining in too brightly and the rain coming in through the open window in the summer storms.
Whirlybirds on the roofs are optional.
All I have to do is sit by a window on the right side of the house, or on the verandah, and on all but the most still days, the breeze will find me. Combine this with the light, wet clothes and I think you’re getting my picture.
Sometimes though, it’s a stinker, and these methods are not working. So what then?
- Do the wet clothes trick and sit in front of a fan – still better than the air con. Use a spritz bottle of water to keep your face cool.
- Go to the community pool, a friend’s pool, the beach, a lake or a river. Take some friends and make a day of it. Take the dog, if you’re going a place he’s allowed to go – the poor thing is probably roasting too.
- Cool down from the inside – eat icy poles, drink cold water, eat gazpacho.
- Go to the library, shopping centre or the movies. I don’t like air conditioning, but it has it’s benefits on a really hot day. It’s better to have a lot of people in one large air conditioned building, than a lot of people in a lot of air conditioned buildings.
- Do anything and everything in combination.
So why not follow in my new-age hippy footsteps and beat the heat the eco-friendly way this summer?
Or you could just go sit in the air con at work. Mmm. Fun.
Image of Centenery Pool from: espaces arts & objets.
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