HOLY BALLS EVEN FOR 'STRAYA THATS HOT. It gets to that heat here in Adelaide occasionally, and it's always fucking awful. I feel ya.

Poor lil' air conditioner sounds like it's struggling, although not doing too terrible a job (Don't turn it off do not do not do not do not do not). When we first moved into this house, we had this tiny little split system that wasn't even big enough for the room it was in, let alone the whole house. And we had other problems with shade and insulation as well. On 45ºC+ (113ºF+) days, the temperature in the lounge room was around 35ºC (95ºF).

I don't know what options you have as far as modifying your home go (renting? owning?) but it's worth checking where you can close the "thermal envelope" to keep heat from getting in. We managed to fix a lot of shit by getting some shade to the windows, and by fixing our inadequate insulation. There were gaps around doors as well that we have fixed up. Dropped the internal temperature by 10ºC (so from around 95ºF to 77ºF) just from stopping where the heat was coming in!

I think these days you can get stick-on double-glazing film for your windows that helps keep a lot of heat out. That might be one of our next mods too.

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Originally posted by Xkeeper

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We rent, so our situation is basically "fucked". We also face west, so we have the afternoon sun beating down on our (fairly large) windows.

We've considered getting thermal curtains to try to block some of it, but I don't know what the complex allows.

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Yeah, renting is pretty fucked, especially if you don't have a very accommodating landlord. Some of 'em will help out, and some won't… Don't know what you can do in the way of temporary curtains but it'd make a difference if you can put something up over those windows somehow.

If there's not a lot you can do about the environment, one thing I found helpful this summer was cooling cloths. Basically it's a microfibre cloth that you wet, wring out, wave around in the air, and put around your neck. Uses evaporative cooling to help you cool down. There are some types that have beads in them that hold extra water to last longer. Won't work as well in humidity though, as it won't evaporate as well. Relied pretty heavily on these this summer when I was out and about, as I was very heat sensitive due to pregnancy.

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Well, the cloths should help then, at least a little, to avoid heat stress. My body wasn't able to cool itself properly all summer and it made it possible to do things like catch the bus to and from work. I'd also freeze a little water bottle overnight and keep that in my handbag to drink/pour over the cloth if it was dry/put ice block on forehead.

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Today's warm but not completely horrible. Yesterday tho... 33-35°C, sitting at a flatbed editor (warm!), handling 400m+ rolls of film (heavy!)... gaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Summer sucks so soooo much.


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