11 Ways People Escaped The Heat Before Central Air

[MNeagle]

11 Ways People Escaped The Heat Before Central Air


Most of us take air conditioning for granted. After all, it's always been there and it always will be.


But until sixty years ago, it was virtually unheard of. But yet we did not, as a people, succumb to lethargy and sunstroke.


This post (http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/11-ways-people-kept-cool-before-central-air) originally appeared on BuzzFeed (http://www.buzzfeed.com/).





Cave Dwellings


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Image: mayakamina via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kawaii77/14559298/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Nature's Air Conditioners! One could argue the most intelligent of our ancestors looked out into the heat wave and said "No thanks."
All over the world people have built homes and, in the case of the Pueblo Indians, whole civilizations in the dark cold embrace of caves.
View the whole list as a single page on Buzzfeed. (http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/11-ways-people-kept-cool-before-central-air)



Fans


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Fan window
Image: Attila con la cámara via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/77967821@N00/5595017702/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Whether it was a slave fanning a Sumerian noble with palm leaves or an intricate Elizabethan accessory made of ostrich feathers, stirring the air with manual effort is one of the oldest forms of personal air conditioning.
View the whole list as a single page on Buzzfeed. (http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/11-ways-people-kept-cool-before-central-air)



Damp Sheets/Evaporation Technique


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Image: anathea via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/anathea/307930181/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Considered by me to be one of the most boring parts of 8th grade science, evaporation used to be a crucial part of keeping cool.
Egyptians would hang damp sheets in doorways to turn arid breezes into ancient mist machines. In more modern times, pioneers would sleep under wet blankets to stave off the heat.
View the whole list as a single page on Buzzfeed. (http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/11-ways-people-kept-cool-before-central-air)



Windcatchers


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Image: birdfarm via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdfarm/548637189/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Prevalent in Persian architecture, these towers were built to catch strong desert winds.
Used in conjunction with high windows, the wind would be "caught" by the open side of the tower and funneled into the home which in turn forced the warmer air inside up and out the windows.
View the whole list as a single page on Buzzfeed. (http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/11-ways-people-kept-cool-before-central-air)



Snow


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Image: CarbonNYC via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/2204279378/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Snow is for the winter...and the summer. From the time of the Greeks all the way through the end of the Renaissance, snow was big money.
Hauled down from local (or not so local) mountain ranges and kept in specialized pits, frozen water was a commodity to be used in drinks, to keep food fresh or strategically placed around the home to take advantage of the evaporation effect.
View the whole list as a single page on Buzzfeed. (http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/11-ways-people-kept-cool-before-central-air)

[MNeagle]

Mud, Sod and Other Bricks


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Image: Wikimedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Mosque_of_Djenn%C3%A9_3.jpg)


Turns out those sun-baked mud huts are one of the best forms of natural solar power in the world. Bricks absorb heat during the day and release it at night, helping to regulate the temperature inside.
This explains why most homes after the Industrial Revolution but prior to the widespread use of central air were constructed of brick.
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Shade Trees


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Image: friggy_30 via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovethedaisy/5846814168/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


If you ever wonder why southern plantations have sweeping vistas of tree lined roads or why your grandparents seem to have more trees in their backyard than your whole subdivision, wonder no more!
Instead of an eyesore to be pulled up before building, construction used to take these natural air conditioners into account and build around them. Or, if you were obscenely wealthy, imported fully grown.
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Tall, Symmetrical Windows (Air Flow)


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Image: Dystopos via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dystopos/3485268100/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Windows today are short and fat like Americans because they're mostly for decoration, to the point that some people paint them shut. Shockingly windows used to have a purpose and that was air flow. Any older house with tall, skinny windows usually lined them up in the front and back to move as much air as possible through the room.
And this was just the evolution of ancient techniques where homes from Italy to Arabia were built around open air courtyards, many times with a fountain or pool at the center for practical (evaporation) as well as aesthetical purposes.
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Covered Front Porch


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Image: douggarner08 via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/douggarner/3037211014/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Travel to any neighborhood that sprouted up like so many mushrooms after WWII and you'll see covered porches on every home. Sure it might be 97 degrees and stifling in the house but it's only 95 degrees with a breeze and shade on the porch.
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Linen & Muslin


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Image: nickgraywfu via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickgray/2678706611/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Take a look at what materials make up your wardrobe. Go ahead. I'll wait.
....
Back? If you're anything like the rest of the western world, most of your stuff is made of polyester or contains spandex/lycra. Material that doesn't breathe. Which is fine since we live the Age of Central Air.
Not so back in the day. Ancient Egyptians first created linen from papyrus and made it a major export to other Mediterranean nations. Marie Antoinette gained the ire of a nation trying to stave off heat stroke through light weight summer clothes.
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Central Air (Sneaky, Cheating Romans)


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Image: james.gordon6108 via flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/james_gordon_los_angeles/5494113718/sizes/m/in/photostream/)


Yeah, this is supposed to be a list of how people kept cool before central air, but credit where credit is due. While the Goths were still bashing each others heads in over plots of land, the Romans were busy using aqueducts to run cold water into the pipes built between the walls of their homes and businesses.
View the whole list as a single page on Buzzfeed. (http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/11-ways-people-kept-cool-before-central-air)





Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-ways-people-keep-cool-2011-8?op=1#ixzz1VcDC1gcM

[gunDriller]

my chickens like laying in the dirt.

they dig a hole and just sit there.

i got tarps to protect them from sun but it can still get hot.


if i get hot i wear a wet T-shirt. works pretty good ... if it's real hot i have to re-wet the T-shirt every 90 minutes or so.

by the end of the day the T-shirt STINKS though.

[Ponce]

If your home is above ground open a hole in your floor and open a window in the house.....the cool air will come from below and push the hot air out the window.......it works for me......15-20 degrees cooler in the house.

[MNeagle]

my chickens like laying in the dirt.

they dig a hole and just sit there.

i got tarps to protect them from sun but it can still get hot.


if i get hot i wear a wet T-shirt. works pretty good ... if it's real hot i have to re-wet the T-shirt every 90 minutes or so.

by the end of the day the T-shirt STINKS though.

Try wetting a bandana w/ ice water. Wrap it around your neck or forehead, works for quite a while, before it dries out.

[Dogman]

Try wetting a bandana w/ ice water. Wrap it around your neck or forehead, works for quite a while, before it dries out.The dryer the air/humidity the better wetting things will work. Here the humidity is so high along with the temperature, when you sweat it does not dry and cool you. You just get hot and dripping wet.

[ximmy]

http://www.aprilrainshowers.com/E/egyptian-slave-with-fan-t-b.gif

[hoarder]

I just open all the windows early in the morning and close them at 10 AM. Stays cool all day. Only works in well insulated homes.

[Canadian-guerilla]

i guess underground could fall in the caves part

after a certain depth(?) i think the temp is a constant 58'

[Dogman]

I just open all the windows early in the morning and close them at 10 AM. Stays cool all day. Only works in well insulated homes.

Some houses here have attic fans, that get turned on once it cools down outside too less than the inside temp. Crack the windows and run all night into morning until outside temp is higher than inside temp. Then close up the house and avoid as much as possible going in and out of the house. Overall it works very well, a lot of new houses are now being built with double hung tall windows that help get the heat out of the house. Nothing worse than single hung windows in a hot area, you end up with all of the hot air trapped near the ceiling in the house.

[TomD]

I grew up in the South in the 1950's, before the common advent of AC, back in the days that a family would go to a movie because it was "cool inside". Dogman would be correct that evaporative cooling is of marginal use when the humidity is in or above the 80% range. Every house had attic fans, and used them.

[BrewTech]

I just open all the windows early in the morning and close them at 10 AM. Stays cool all day. Only works in well insulated homes.

^^^ Our strategy as well. Keeping the white blinds closed during the day reflects the sunlight back extending the length of time the house stays cool.