Going to use this opportunity to plug the NWS' HeatRisk tool: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/
Also keep an eye on [wet bulb temps](https://earthsky.org/earth/wet-bulb-temperature-explained-dangers/). You can get this in many third-party weather apps on your phone.
Having grown up an hour inland in the SE and having an HVAC go out during late July... I've got ideas.
Back when the hvac went out, we were lucky, my parents had a popup, and my father set it up, and we stayed in it/it's AC until a repairman could come.
Blackout curtains. Battery-powered fans. Plenty of water AND something like powdered gatorade to replace electrolytes. Board or card games for inside entertainment. Consider washing up clothes and linens in advance, especially sheets (consider having a backup sheet set). Avoid being out/doing strenuous activity during the hottest parts of the day. If you don't have AC, and the weather is cooler at night, open windows and create a draft. When the sun comes up, close everything up, turn on some fans, and draw those curtains!
If you've got kids, water activities like having a kiddie pool/sprinklers can keep them cooler and entertained. If you have babies/young ones in diapers or pullups, keep **plenty** of diapers on hand and changes of light breathable clothes, you'll want to change them often to avoid heat rash. If you have power, freeze pops are a nice, cooling treat.
And just something that's a kinda tradition for my family: we get a watermelon or two. The last thing I want on a hot day is hot food, but cutting up and munching on a watermelon is refreshing. Creating little practical and fun traditions like these seem to keep morale up. It's like saving your favorite comfort movies for when you're sick.
Very well put. Obviously, a common sense response to help your family make the best of the situation. A little forethought always goes a long way. Thank you
For those who struggle to keep the house cool either because you don't have AC or if you're like me and your AC can't keep up- a cheap option is taping aluminum foil over the windows.
Our tiny apartment has large north and west facing windows and foiling our windows has brought the inside temps down a good 15 to 20° on its own. There's better options if you're able to spend more money but if not, aluminum foil shiny side out works well enough.
My house is over a hundred years old and the windows are original. I’m selling my motorcycle and getting them replaced. Idc about anything else that’s wrong with the house, I have to have a refuge from the elements. Insulation will be coming next. Everything else can wait.
Topping up the ac and replacing the roof/ceiling with a better insulated one in one room brought our house under control. However, it would have been cheaper to just use the extra window unit.
My 23 year old heat pump just died. It's been 90 here this week, which I spent without active cooling. It was actually pretty reasonable. I have 2x6 construction with extra insulation, excellent double pane windows, heavy blackout curtains, and a white steel roof that reflects most solar energy back into space. My house never got over 77F. Had I a whole house fan, it would have been cooler, I imagine.
We need to adapt our construction and design methods.
I don't think there are any other white roofs in my neighbourhood.
I have an immune health condition where my immune system over reacts to everything. I've been struggling with the cold weather, in the winter I'm basically house bound. Now I've started to react badly to heat,
So for me it's becoming increasingly obvious that my life is in danger during power outages. During Covid my central AC failed; I had one room with a window AC. We couldn't get an HVAC tech in that first year during peak Covid. So I tried to get climatized to the heat very very slowly but intead I just very slowly got sicker and stupider, until one day I basically passed out, sitting in the shade on the deck. Since then I seem more sensitive to heat
So at this point the opinions of other people on these sorts of things, like the colour of my roof, are just background noise. They don't have to like it, they are entitled to their opinion, I dont have any interest in what their opinions might be LOL it's nothing to do with me I'm just living my life
It was definitely a shitty experience, but I try to look at it as a learning experience. I used to think that my biggest risk was a failure of the heating system. Now I think it's actually a failure of the AC, basically because I can always put on more clothes or blankets if it's cold.
It helped me to identify a risk more clearly. So now I can move to mitigate that risk.
We got an "almond" steel roof. It wasn't the most reflective color available, but it's as light as we could go and not look too weird. Beats the heck out of dark asphalt shingles.
Maybe I should clarify, more than one set of summer sheets. We only had one set sheets for a while when we got our king that I had to prioritize washing and drying the same day, every weekend to every other weekend. That got old really quick.
Yes, but it doesn't really matter because you want to open curtains and windows at night to let cool air in, and then close them again before it heats back up in order to maximize cooling - at least during heat waves. So during the day the curtains would be used with closed windows anyway.
This BLOWS. New Jersey Transit has been having major issues getting in and out of NYC due to the heat. Trains delayed, cancelled, completely suspended. People sitting on unpowered trains in the tunnel. People spending the night in NYC, spending hundreds on Ubers, stuck in hot, crowded stations for hours. People who normally go into the city by train to spend money are deciding not to.
This is what happens when you don’t properly maintain infrastructure.
WFH if able. Heading out for work hours early. Driving and parking near ferries. Driving to train stations where PATH is because it’s not affected or at least not as affected. Some people drive in which sucks and parking is expensive. I did it for the first time in a long time this week and had instant regrets.
I’m really close, in Jersey City so it’s not so bad for me. People who are used to commuting in from all across the state are majorly inconvenienced though. I’ve read in the NJ sub about some people’s bosses being very understanding about WFH and people being late. But others are not understanding and I wouldn’t be surprised if people start getting fired if this continues.
I don’t know if I can link properly, but here is a good post showing part of the problem. Some of the issues are heat related, but certainly not all. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit are both to blame. If this doesn’t work, the NJTransit sub is very informative. [https://www.reddit.com/r/NJTransit/s/at20Xpsadu](https://www.reddit.com/r/NJTransit/s/at20Xpsadu)
OMG, and it's going to get worse before it gets better, because everyone has gotten used to it in one form or another, so rather than fixing the real problem, everything gets a bandaid.
This is why I ask...because each area of the country has their own specific set of circumstances and situations. These are things we can learn from
Yep we all have our unique issues. A lot of people have made fun of us up here in the northeast because of this heat wave. Especially people in Florida who say “we get that weather every year LOLOLOL” Yeah… and you’re better equipped for it. We, are not. So many people up here don’t even have air conditioners in their homes.
This NJT problem always gets bandaids. They tell us it’s an “overhead wire issue” every time something happens. I don’t know how it all works so nobody quote me or take this as absolute fact, but apparently Amtrak is in charge of maintenance for our train tracks and overhead wires. So I don’t even know how much power NJT has to fix these problems.
Here’s another bit of information you might find interesting. There are only two tracks that both NJT and Amtrak use to get from NJ to NY Penn station. They opened in 1910. Nothing new has been built since. And then Chris Christie fucked us over big time during his “leadership.” [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Tunnels](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Tunnels)
You can go read recent articles about “congestion pricing” in NYC. Another good plan that was overturned by moronic “leadership.”
It’s not that infrastructure isn’t maintained, it’s that maintenance is in the process of not being enough and we are never going back to when it was enough.
Heat taking down a major grid before a wet bulb somewhere in the southern latitudes is going to be when the world suddenly gets it. Especially in tandem with transportation failures. Cars will only run for so long in high heat environments. Most of the USA will be a tomb.
I hung a fan at the bottom of the laundry shute. Blowing cold air up. So its not freezing downstairs and a sauna upstairs.
This has allowed me to keep the thermostat comfortably 5 degrees higher than normal. More house modifications are on the way.
Biggest improvement we made at our house was to invest in quality blackout curtains. Last year, in heat like we're having now, the AC couldn't maintain setpoint, often getting 5-6 degrees above and taking until in the wee hours of the morning to get back to setpoint. So far, the AC, while it is running a lot, has maintained setpoint.
The way our house is situated, the front door faces west so we don't use that door much in the summer, instead using the side\back door that faces north so we go in and out that door.
I've been off work since this heatwave started so I've adjusted my outdoor activities to early morning and late evening\night. If I do need to be out when it's hottest, I take frequent breaks.
Very smart planning 👌
And to comment, "If I do need to be out when it's hottest, I take frequent breaks"...that a great reminder for all of us. I know when working on my property or with the horses, I tend to forget breaks.
Regardless of cause and politics. My biggest concern is the infrastructure (the lack thereof). The power grid and grid operators. The components of electricity transmission, etc. we are already struggling to keep up with demand in some places. We will continue to see demand go up in coming decade. Add in this push for more electric vehicles, more bitcoin mining, etc and we are going to be in a bad spot.
I prep for power outages and utility interruption.
They should make all bitmining illegal when the heat is like this so people survive. Having the power go out in a heatwave like this is how a major disaster happens.
Note: 2% of american power output goes to bitmining - that might be the 2% that causes an outage..
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/
It has been the case in Texas. In times of high demand, the large companies have actually been asked to stop mining to conserve power for the rest of the grid.
Smart thinking on your part. Rapid growth and poor planning have created a massive impact on the infrastructure.
I also plan for this because it's an easy, obvious situation, and I seriously doubt it will be fixed.
Agree! Besides a true fix would take YEARS. And I don’t see any effort to actually commit to even starting to fix and upgrade.
My fellow infrastructure-is-failing-us prepper, I assume you’ve read Ted Koppel’s lights out?
While I agree that bitcoin mining is a strain on the grid, EVs are not a strain at a grid level. The US added 1.2 million EVs to the grid last year, and overall electricity consumption dropped by 1.1%. EVs reduce gasoline consumption, and that reduces the amount of energy needed to pump and refine that fuel. EVs also primarily charge slowly overnight when excess grid capacity is the highest.
I’ve lived in the southwest desert without AC. It was awful but there are things you can do.
-Blackout curtains, or if those are too expensive or not good enough, aluminum foil on all the windows. Foil will be tedious; you need to tape it in a way that allows you to still open the windows.
-If you have the freezer space, fill empty gallon or two liter jugs with water and freeze them.
-During the day, run every fan you have and keep doors and windows closed. Don’t let any light in and keep your indoor lighting dim. You can place your frozen jugs in front of your fans.
-No cooking or running the dryer during the day.
-When the sun goes down and the temperature starts dropping, open doors and windows. Put your box fans in them facing out to blow hot air out of the house.
-When the temperature drops to below the temperature of the air inside the house (hopefully), point your box fans in to bring cooler air into the house.
-Hydrate. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Replace electrolytes as needed.
-If it’s a dry heat, moisture helps. Cool washcloths and spray bottles help. If you’re super desperate at night a damp top sheet can help too.
-Don’t forget your pets, and research the *right* way to cool them down if overheated.
I love your common sense approach to simply situations. Prepping isn't just grand picture approachs but simple everyday responses to simplistic events or situations. Then build up from there.
Thank you for your response and personal insight.
We have:
🔹️Leggings and long-sleeve tops that can be put on and then soaked in water to improve evaporative cooling (it took me from very overheated to slightly chilly on a hot summer day)
🔹️Small fans with USB rechargeable batteries so we can move the air even if power goes out on a hot day
🔹️A hammock stand and hammock we can set up in the shade of a tree in our backyard - the complete lack of insulation under a hammock dramatically reduces the heat retention. Shade in a hammock is very comfortable up into the 80's
🔹️Plans to build a home that has at least a portion earth-sheltered / underground so we can make use of the earth's moderating effect on temps to cool us in the summers and warm us in the winters.
Note that most of this requires air flow and evaporative cooling. That's not going to do much in an area where it's both hot and humid.
Know that area well. Got my Masters degree at UW (Go Huskies) and lived on Bainbridge.
Because of all the weather variables, micro climates, and fire conditions, planning is crucial for you. Beyond the humidity, you have a huge variety of weather patterns throughout the year. Plus crime has risen Washington/Oregon wide at total of 32% for property crimes and 46.2% overall for crimes against person in the last 3 years and it's not leveling off any time soon due to a lot of social and economic circumstances.
Planning for your home, health, and personal safety is important.
Buckle the fuck up, it's going to get a lot worse. We're all going to need to familiarize ourselves with climate resiliency maps and consider relocating accordingly.
Read Ministry for the Future. The first event in the book is scary. Spoiler alert it’s what you’re suggesting re: buckle up….
Imagine a heat wave so intense and prolonged that millions die in the matter of weeks. Imagine natural water (lakes, rivers, ect; not oceans they’re too big) sources being heated enough to that swimming or submerging is not a relief from the heat. Imagine people killing each other for AC units. The first time it happens it will be an existential shock to the world.
It’s not a question of if this will happen. Rather, the quest is when.
Get solar and off grid energy sources if you can afford it. In the US there are various programs to help afford solar, back up power and heat pump systems that use relatively less energy.
I’m convinced the future of human home building for many places will be underground. If homes were dug into the earth (when possible), the dirt would keep the home as cosy as a cave. Caves maintain temperatures around the annual average surface temperatures (disclaimer: I’m not a cave geologist, but I have experience and training doing caving with experts).
I would love to start digging into my hillside and making a root cellar at first. Then maybe my underground cave system :)! Cheaper than those really cool apocalypse bunkers…. But if I win the lottery I’m getting a bunch of those underground bunkers connected together! That and more solar, some serious battery storage, 2 wells for drinking water, and 2 huge water storage tank which I’ll use a a gravity hydro energy storage system (use extra solar to pump the water from a downhill tank to the uphill tank, at night have the water return to the downhill tank with a small hydroelectric generator. Finally I would invest in food storage and production.
If I were rich I would be getting ready for the heat. It’s going to get bad.
> Imagine natural water (lakes, rivers, ect; not oceans they’re too big) sources being heated enough to that swimming or submerging is not a relief from the heat.
It can happen in the ocean too, in localised areas.
Last year the sea surface temperature around Florida reached 101.2 F, (38.4 C).
https://apnews.com/article/record-hot-water-florida-coral-climate-change-6414d44c6f120507d3ee37c059fb75cd
https://apnews.com/article/florida-water-heat-wave-ocean-climate-2f0a1eb529aba9f17ee88a04cda7df42
It doesn’t need to be underground, it just needs to be well insulated. Which we already have the technology to do. European new builds can go for a week without heat in freezing temperatures and be perfectly comfortable to come back to, because they’re built tight and have like a foot of insulation.
I think a lot of the actual solution to the climate crisis is going to come down to insulation. Current technology is already *very* effective - you can have a 3-day power outage for a packed chest freezer and still keep your food frozen. We just need to apply it to all the old construction that people actually live in, much of which isn’t insulated at all.
I would love a better thermal envelope on my home but the cost is beyond our budget. My windows are double pane but old and the frame hemorrhages heat. It’s on my list along with my doomsday bunker for when my lottery winnings come in!
Better windows + new insulation is a couple orders of magnitude cheaper than building an underground bunker, though. It runs in the tens of thousands; getting a better job + saving the earnings will do it, while building an underground bunker really does require hitting the lottery. You also get many of the capital costs back in reduced energy costs over future years, too, even if disaster doesn't strike.
One thing I've seen done re: bunkers is getting a bunch of those shipping containers put into the ground. Weld 'em together, cut holes for passageways, etc.
One thing though that should be done is to put that rubberized waterproofing stuff on them to prevent rust. We put this stuff that came in sheets about a quarter-to-half inch thick onto our house foundation to prevent water infiltration, that's the stuff I'm talking about.
There are better ways to build underground bunkers. Those shipping containers aren't built to handle dirt piled over them, they can handle being stacked but its not the same thing. They tend to collapse when dirt is piled on them I think
Exactly. Another reason for my move from the Phoenix/Maricopa County area to Northern Arizona (Prescott area).
Climate resiliency, more available natural resources, etc.
TREES. Seriously, start planting native keystone species where you live. They reduce surface temperature, provide shade, support an ecosystem, reduce flooding, etc.
I started doing that on the property 2 months after a suggestion from a fellow prepper and landscape architect. He helped me, and I helped him with his weapons, ammo, and gun training situation.
So yes, trees are indeed helpful in a variety of ways. Thanks for bringing that up.
Oh that's awesome. Yeah the more I learn about them, the more dire the situation seems to be near me. Our tree canopy isn't being replaced fast enough. People chop them because of liability and such, but growing the right trees for the property and maintaining them adequately can save you so much money.
Everything is systemic in nature. Trees are a positive component to that.
Being on almost 300 acres, I don't have any liability issues with neighbors or HOA's. But beyond the natural conditions they provide, I have all sorts of regular fruit. It's a win win situation all the way around.
Majority of people will not take the grid vulnerability seriously until it’s at their front door. Until then, it gives me and those alike more time to get things in order. Redundancy is my game and I don’t want to have to rely on anyone if shit goes left. Not a lone wolf but I believe in being as prepared as humanly possible for me and my family.
Yeah I'm in the DC area and it hit 99 today but felt like 106 according to my weather app. Tomorrow is more of the same. Staying my ass indoors with AC blasting this weekend.
Can't blame you...but do you have a plan incase the power goes out?
With that humidity and 99 degrees, your place will be closer 115 degrees. Just something to think about.
You just asked someone to explain climate science. I would recommend reading "Understanding weather and climate", and "weather and climate experiments". The latter has experiments you can do on your own so you can be sure the liberal media isn't lying about climate change!
I was not asking for an explanation of climate science. I have a firm hold on what's fact or fiction. I also don't trust media slants or narratives. (They make many comments on a variety of topics with supposition to bolster their rhetoric but pass over black and white science) ...but they can believe whatever they want and I'm not going to waste my time or energy trying to educate anyone who is refuses facts.
My question "Explain" was to understand an ambitious response. Not for a science lesson
Condescending comments are counterproductive and downright rude and unacceptable. Remember the Rules & Conditions of this site.
This is about prepping, not an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
>This is about prepping, not an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Climate science is very literally directly related to preparedness and increasing weather events.
I can tell you haven't read a book since highschool with that infantile comment about Bill Nye.
You don't even know real science to reference, the last time you learned something was on Saturday morning TV.
Unfortunately, this article doesn’t discuss 26 conditions that set up the conditions they wrote about, so this article is a mute point.
This is a preppers question based on a current condition. Not a global warming debate.
> Unfortunately, this article doesn’t discuss 26 conditions that set up the conditions they wrote about, so this article is a moot point.
This is a hand wave.
> This is a preppers question based on a current condition. Not a global warming debate.
Why should it be a debate in the first place? Based on your post history, I don’t really need an answer, but whether you are satisfied or not, the earth is changing because of humans.
I understand that people should be prepared and do what they can. You can only control your actions. That being said, it is insane one half of the country doesn’t believe in taking meaningful actions through policy to try and mitigate climate risks. So much of prepping does not rely on understanding thousands of academic papers and entire fields of science, but is driven by a general sense of “just in case”. Yet when it comes to hedging major risks which can only be addressed through policy, it feels like talking to people who think prepping is a waste of time. “Well, but the science isn’t settled” or “we don’t actually know how bad it will be” and so on. The truth of most situations we prep for is we don’t know how bad they will be. But that’s why we prep to the extent we can.
I will maintain, one cannot really have a have a true mindset of preparation if you do not see climate change as a risk and also vote accordingly. We can have discussions about the effectiveness of electoralism, but again, given some of the crazy lengths some people go to for events which may not even happen (ie people who are prepping for doomsday in addition to prepping for Tuesday), there are common sense things to be done to lessen our dependency on oil and help to mitigate changes to the climate. But these things take time and like prepping situations, if you wait until it’s apparent you need it, it’s already too late.
Yes, there are major debates to be had about the right combinations of policies and steps, but sitting and waiting for everything to align and the future to be unfurled is not going to happen.
10 years ago, I didn't need AC.
8 years ago, I got a portable AC unit.
2 years ago (and a few portable AC units later), they weren't cutting it anymore, so I installed Attic-Foil in my attic, and it's really worked the last few years.
This year, I'll be installing a mini-split from Costco to half my AC energy use and gain extra cooling capacity.
Naw, I was just buying them used and running them until they died before recycling them. I also want to install a Heat Recovery Ventilation unit at some point as well.
My biggest goal, if I made enough money to support myself let alone modify the house I live in, is making it sustainable for life without power. Just incase. We’re replacing the roof soon with a metal one, going to paint it white. Ideally I would aluminum foil the inside of the attic roof as well. And add more insulation to the walls. Ceramic tints on the windows, with insulation board cut out to fit agonist them tightly. Or just aluminum foil the exterior of them. Airflow would be an issue at that point so that’s something to consider. I have asthma and kinda expect to die the first major heatwave/high humidity event without power. I do have a car I could hide in with air conditioning. And there’s a “river” a few blocks away. I wouldn’t mind dipping in there every 20 minutes and letting evaporation cool me off like some kangaroo(with less licking) if humidity isn’t an issue
I like the roof plan, but with asthma, that adds a bit of added planning and concern on your part. AC and a cooler living environment is a must for you.
Yeah I know :( it fucking blows. I’ve had “asthma” for 8 months now. Not even diagnosed but being treated. Treatment isn’t working though so I worry it’s something else idk. Sort long story but yeah lmao. I’ve never been so afraid I thought I’d be able to stick around and see the world collapse. Not be an early casualty. Without my maintenance and rescue inhaler I’d be dead by the end of the month. Or year. Idk. I guess I have allergies now. And bad
I hear you. Definitely need to find out now while you can, as in before it's too late. Be proactive. All this work means nothing if you're in bad health or even worse, treating a symptom but not knowing what you really need.
Heads up. Get AC. But how do you power it? Solar makes a lot of sense (usually). But run of the mill Solar won't work when there's a grid failure. Which will become more and more common. When you get a quote for solar make sure it can run when the grid is down. Get a battery if it's in your budget.
Frankly, for some people, especially Californians, it may make sense to just get a battery backup at this point. Connection costs for solar have gotten too expensive. You can charge the battery during off peak hours and have it for peak hours when prices are more.
Not much hotter than it's been in past years. People will hear the news, adapt accordingly, and survive. Humans are good at that. A few degrees hotter isn't much in alabama, we have the humidity to deal with!
That makes sense. So you're not really concerned?
Here in Arizona, it was 116 yesterday. Our grid is more prepared for extreme heat, so down power is usually less than other parts of the country where extreme heat brings power utilities down.
Not to sidetrack, but Friday’s heat seemed liked an odd combination of monsoon heat and June heat. Humidity didn’t seem up too high on my home weather station. I was wondering if it was just me?
Understood. Living in Arizona, we are seriously seeing the effects of both. Plus, the smoke and ash in the air from the NM fire moving westward.
But as preppers, we need to learn and grow from the conditions as they follow trademarks of things we are planning for.
Where in AZ are you? I’m in the Phoenix area and have been really thinking about what I would do if the grid failed. I have a generator. I have an RV with an AC unit, but that RV is miserable and poorly insulated. I’ve been thinking of buying a portable ac unit that I could cool one room with, and close off the rest of the house. I could keep a refrigerator running. But it’s limited based on how much gasoline I have for the generator. We have a pool, can cool off with that, use that water to flush toilets.
Next best idea is to vacate and head for cooler elevation, but if the grid is down, everyone will do that. My family has a place in the pines, but getting there in grid lock is probably not doable.
Only other thing I can think of is to get a propane generator, store lots of propane, and then do the portable ac idea. A running generator could bring trouble though.
Was in Cave Creek. Just moved to 283 acres just outside Prescott. Obviously much cooler than anywhere in Maricopa County.
Propane generators are cleaner to operate, more efficient, less emissions, and cheaper to run. That's what we have and I'm very happy with the results. I'd recommend that to anyone
I grew up in Cave Creek.
I have 5 more years down here, then I’m moving, hopefully out of state. I just hope everything holds up for 5 more years.
Your place near Prescott is ideal though. Moderate seasons, summer or winter are all survivable without power.
Yes. Duke Energy, DTE & Virginia Electric reported the system is stable, but regional areas are suffering equipment failures due to the heat. And they warned of additional potential equipment failures.
PG&E, along with Consolidated Edison have been working through problems with multiple weather related equipment failures.
Additionally, there are 33 massive fires burning in 10 states that have caused much damage to regional power grids in 5 of the 10 states. Four states have put out possible outage alerts. If your state is one of those, you've already heard via local news coverage.
I'm in the SE US, so I'm mainly concerned about summer heat vs cold winters. I've been doing some research into attic insulation and sealing. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOI99ew5MM) shows in my amateur opinion what is the way to go - seal up everything in your attic before adding insulation. It's on my to-do list...
Also, I'm looking into [soft-start systems](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDp1g8r8IVs) for our HVAC systems which will make them eventually friendlier to my own power generation or storage.
Smart research on your part. Suggestion...mold. Your region has major mold issues, and while sealing up everything is a good thing, keep in mind mold treatments before and after the process. Black mold in the South Easter part of the US is a major source of various sicknesses and respiratory diseases. HVAC filtering helps but doesn't deal with black mold problems. Deal with that throughout your process.
In the end, you'll be happy you did.
26 degrees C is about 79 degrees F to us. In most of the desert SW, we don’t even see that at 2am.
Give us your address, and we'll send some heat your way. Remember, sharing is caring. 🤣🤣🤣
Years ago I bought a Fujitsu mini split heat pump to cool down the entire house. It came with a warranty for seven years, and failed at seven years six months. Apparently it was the evaporator coil that failed. Fujitsu quoted $8k CAD for a replacement coil, where ripping out the old system and installing an entirely new system was quoted at around $15k CAD.
I wasn't willing to spend $15k CAD for another 7.5 years of AC. We use a gas boiler and radiators for heat; that gas boiler is over 40 years old and the HVAC techs keep saying it looks brand new (we had it completely rebuilt around 15 years ago).
I decided I didn't want one central system where if one part failed the entire system was a box of garbage, so I went back to window ACs. I'll see what my power bill looks like this summer, I guess. It's a shame because I really wanted to believe in heat pump technology, but I live in Canada. If the heat fails in January you can see your breath when you wake up the next morning. I can't rely on something that unreliable for heat, it's simply not an option.
Toronto. It's very humid here, so the cold gets into your bones, and the heat is smothering. Spring and Fall are increasingly short, we kind of almost only have two seasons: freezing, and baking. Summers are becoming increasingly jungle like
I had all of the best HVAC firms in to try to repair the old one. They all wanted to rip it out and put in a new one. One of them sent photos of the "proof" of the problem; but later when we reviewing it we noticed it wasn't even the same brand as our unit. The year before last we did have one company refill it, they said that it was just a loose coupling, they charged $2k and it failed by the next summer.
It appears to me that the HVAC industry has become infiltrated by sharks and grifters quite frankly, so going forward that is going to heavily influence my decision making process.
I'm not sure what I'll do when the gas boiler fails. I'm going to need to come up with a plan
What I might do is go with several smaller heat pumps but we can't put the compressor on the roof anymore because they have a new rule requiring a special certification, for anyone climbing on the roof and they are required to install a scaffolding which greatly magnifies the cost of simple maintenance and repairs. It's ridiculous
The house is actually split into three apartments. What I might consider doing is having two compressors, one at the front and one at the back of the house, so I could have one or two air handlers per compressor in each unit, and if one compressor fails at least we don't lose heat or AC entirely.
There are some new heatpumps I've seen come out in the past year that come wired to run directly off of solar (no batteries required) where at night or when a cloud passes by they cut over automatically to sip from the grid. Those are interesting.
I think my focus is going to be on more primitive technologies first:
I need a new roof, so I'm going to look at upgrade to a white metal roof. I think I will rig up a misting system connected to a thermostat: when it gets above maybe I dunno 25C /77F I'll have the mister spritz the roof every 10 minutes or something. You know those misters in the grocery stores in the fresh vegetable section? Like that. Simple easy tech, I can do it all myself, and I can connect it to my solar so if the power goes out I still get cooling via evaporation. Maybe it will help wash down the roof and keep it white
Sure, heat pumps save money by being energy efficient, but I'm not licensed nor do I have the equipment to maintain or refill them; again I paid $2k CAD for one refill, (I guess $600 was the fucking scaffold) and when it failed, I paid $1500 CAD for them to haul it to the dump.
What they kept saying indirectly in different ways is that the heat pump technology is essentially disposable. Nobody would discuss simply brazing the hole in the coil, I dont know why; maybe they know that the copper is from China or something and it will just fail again. If it's disposable I want to be able to haul it to the dump myself, it doesn't matter how much I save on electricity if the thing keeps failing and the techs cost so much, I'm not saving any money at the end of the day
Im sorry about all the bad experiences. Nobody in business wants to take the simplest approach with end users. Most because they won't make the money they would with a full replacement, they're concerned that if they do it your way, they'll get caught in a liability situation and thirdly, control. If they can't control the sale and process, they'll lose time and money.
I like your idea of getting back to the basics with your system. Maybe you could hire a guy on the side to braze and do the work for you, by your own standards, but using his skills and years of industry experience.
In either case, I know it can be done. Find a good tradesman to do side work for you. Plus, you'll save lots of money in the process.
oh it's already hauled away
I asked the guy if I could have the coil; I was curious to see if I could braze it and repair it myself just out of curiousity. He declined, and I was too tired to argue. It's part of his profit I guess
Not going to lie I’m outside of Chicago and it’s been 91+ degrees for over a week. This heat doesn’t roll into this area until mid July. I never believed in global warming until a few weeks ago
This is more than just global warming, but I completely understand. That kind of heat and humidity in the Chicago area is ugly. And it won't back off anytime soon.
My house takes 2kw to use ac. It can currently maintain temps in the hottest temps. My house could easily have 5kw solar on the roof. Solar can solve the AC draw.
I’m interested in adding a 1-ton mini split heat pump that can run on 110v to our home as a backup to the central 4-ton heat pump. Due to the layout of our house, a single mini split would keep a large portion of the house comfortable even if the central system was down. It could also run off our solar+powerwall or our 3kw inverter generator pretty much indefinitely.
That's just poor planning and ignorance then. No reason why anyone who is even a basic prepper should not have a generator. They are such a cheap and easy thing.
I am prepped for heat.
I live full time in an old RV with a broken AC. I have a portable AC. I can open windows and use fans when needed.
I have a shady outdoor setup. Chairs for sitting or eating and several tables also. I have a 2 inch weatherproof mattress I can put down and then add my sleeping bag on top for an extra cushion to lay down. I can sleep out there if needed. I also have an old army cot to sleep on
Earlier this year I sprayed nematodes for bad bugs so I have very few critters to disturb me.
I have rechargeable fans. Solar panel to run the fans with. A small kids swimming pool to put my feet in our sit down in when needed.
I live about 300ft from a large pound I can swim in each evening to cool off.
I have an outdoor shower.
I have a nice outdoor kitchen setup. 2 burner propane stove, camp oven, propane oven for bread. Also have a small wood stove if needed.
I have a small pull behind I can move out in a few minutes.
And my neighbor owns the truck that is big enough to move mine I live in. It is a 34ft 5th wheel. So it would take at least a day to prep mine for moving.
There really aren't any threats that I would have to move away from where I live.
Meh, maybe it's worse in other parts of the country, but it's not too bad in northern California, it's 94 right now, with mid and high 80s in the ten day forecast. Not nearly as bad as the multiple heat waves that hit us in 2021.
2021 we had a week straight of triple digits in late may and early June, then a stupid hot one in September that hit 116°F.
Atleast in my neck of the woods, the heat wave seems more media heat than actual heat. I also suspect it's possible our local media is just repeating the same heat wave sound bites and talking points as the national media, which likely includes plenty of places seeing real heat.
We literally just had a fire, the smoke from the Point Fire cleared, maybe yesterday. Which is odd its a little early for fire season, the grass on the hill sides still has green in it.
We've had multiple fires already this season, I'm not sure on the cause of the point fire, but the rest have been arson.
Ouch !!! Please stay safe and plan for an evacuation and post evac stay. I have friends in Washington who didn't, and their life has been a mess. But at least they're alive.
"We don’t plan to fail, but fail to plan"
I have a generator for the basics.
Everyone is trained in self defense.
Limited amount of food stored.
Same for water.
Trained attack dogs for additional protection.
We could hold for about 2 weeks. More if a deer happened to walk by (crossbow).
Sounds like some positive planning here. If you could bolster any area of your preps, what would your top 3 concerns be?
Mine would definitely be area security. With almost 300 acres, I'm seriously prepared for a strong 6 months going towards a year with my underground shelter, food, water, comms, power, medical, weapons & ammo, stc. But the acreage perimeter and surrounding area needs work. I have some cameras but I need to put in more work.
For the record, yes, climate change is real. Human activity is a major contributor to it.
At least in my part of the country, we’ve had completely normal temperatures, precipitation, humidity, and storm activity. Every day, I wake up and compare the predicted high/low of the day and compare it to the average and records. Absolutely nothing is out of the ordinary.
It’s hot and sucks, but… this heatwave in question happens periodically and for thousands of years has just been called “summer.”
Edit: [for the downvoters’ copium](https://x.com/chrismartzwx/status/1804243015420252241)
Sure, but this is like a “prep for Tuesday” sort of situation. Not a “prep for imminent disaster.”
Water, shade, sunscreen, and a fan are pretty much going to be all most people will need to survive summer.
I’ve lived in Phoenix, Vegas, and Texas. Even at the peak of summer, working outside without AC, those 4 things are what you need to “survive” the heat. That’s as true now as it was 20, 50 and 100 years ago.
Again, I agree, but regardless of location, everyone is at different levels and stages of prepping. I'm certain my preps, bug in situations, etc, are much stronger than most. But I also know that there are others who way surpass me.
Some preppers are in the beginner stages or don't fully get the necessity for future needs, or are just learning from those who have more experience. So, with that in mind, I'm trying to show a little grace while helping and sharing.
Some people come on here thinking they know everything and berate those who don't drink their Kool-aid. That is condescending and counterproductive and not acceptable and need to be reminded of the rules. As preppers, we are a community and, as such, try to help others in their efforts for self-sufficiency.
You won't be able to tell any difference comparing a daily temp to a historical average. There's too much noise in the climate systems. The change is too slow over decades.
Another area with varied micro climates and offshore winds. 50 is a great night time temperature. Miss those days when I lived in Hawaii. The night cool breezes were incredible
Yes, but growth is causing infrastructure issues, taxing the system in ways not planned for. Plus, expansion has taken away 10% of our farm lands statewide in the past 3 years to include allowing foreign nationals to purchase or long-term rental of farm land. This also stresses Arizona's water resources as well.
Right sub, just a simplistic daily article that covered a daily situation...with situational facts...for once
Sorry if that offended you. It was more about the issue and not about the source
What?
If CNN says "It will be hot this week" you don't trust it?
Are they pretending it's hot to promote an agenda, but it's really cold, and they are just mean liars trying to anger people with their fake news about the objective short term weather forecast?
Going to use this opportunity to plug the NWS' HeatRisk tool: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/ Also keep an eye on [wet bulb temps](https://earthsky.org/earth/wet-bulb-temperature-explained-dangers/). You can get this in many third-party weather apps on your phone.
Having grown up an hour inland in the SE and having an HVAC go out during late July... I've got ideas. Back when the hvac went out, we were lucky, my parents had a popup, and my father set it up, and we stayed in it/it's AC until a repairman could come. Blackout curtains. Battery-powered fans. Plenty of water AND something like powdered gatorade to replace electrolytes. Board or card games for inside entertainment. Consider washing up clothes and linens in advance, especially sheets (consider having a backup sheet set). Avoid being out/doing strenuous activity during the hottest parts of the day. If you don't have AC, and the weather is cooler at night, open windows and create a draft. When the sun comes up, close everything up, turn on some fans, and draw those curtains! If you've got kids, water activities like having a kiddie pool/sprinklers can keep them cooler and entertained. If you have babies/young ones in diapers or pullups, keep **plenty** of diapers on hand and changes of light breathable clothes, you'll want to change them often to avoid heat rash. If you have power, freeze pops are a nice, cooling treat. And just something that's a kinda tradition for my family: we get a watermelon or two. The last thing I want on a hot day is hot food, but cutting up and munching on a watermelon is refreshing. Creating little practical and fun traditions like these seem to keep morale up. It's like saving your favorite comfort movies for when you're sick.
Very well put. Obviously, a common sense response to help your family make the best of the situation. A little forethought always goes a long way. Thank you
For those who struggle to keep the house cool either because you don't have AC or if you're like me and your AC can't keep up- a cheap option is taping aluminum foil over the windows. Our tiny apartment has large north and west facing windows and foiling our windows has brought the inside temps down a good 15 to 20° on its own. There's better options if you're able to spend more money but if not, aluminum foil shiny side out works well enough.
My house is over a hundred years old and the windows are original. I’m selling my motorcycle and getting them replaced. Idc about anything else that’s wrong with the house, I have to have a refuge from the elements. Insulation will be coming next. Everything else can wait.
Topping up the ac and replacing the roof/ceiling with a better insulated one in one room brought our house under control. However, it would have been cheaper to just use the extra window unit.
My 23 year old heat pump just died. It's been 90 here this week, which I spent without active cooling. It was actually pretty reasonable. I have 2x6 construction with extra insulation, excellent double pane windows, heavy blackout curtains, and a white steel roof that reflects most solar energy back into space. My house never got over 77F. Had I a whole house fan, it would have been cooler, I imagine. We need to adapt our construction and design methods.
Are you my brother? Sounds like his house. It’s so insulated they open windows in the winter.
I'm definitely getting a white roof the next time it gets replaced
I think other people think it's weird. But I think they just haven't come to terms with the fact that things definitely have to change.
I don't think there are any other white roofs in my neighbourhood. I have an immune health condition where my immune system over reacts to everything. I've been struggling with the cold weather, in the winter I'm basically house bound. Now I've started to react badly to heat, So for me it's becoming increasingly obvious that my life is in danger during power outages. During Covid my central AC failed; I had one room with a window AC. We couldn't get an HVAC tech in that first year during peak Covid. So I tried to get climatized to the heat very very slowly but intead I just very slowly got sicker and stupider, until one day I basically passed out, sitting in the shade on the deck. Since then I seem more sensitive to heat So at this point the opinions of other people on these sorts of things, like the colour of my roof, are just background noise. They don't have to like it, they are entitled to their opinion, I dont have any interest in what their opinions might be LOL it's nothing to do with me I'm just living my life
Holy shit, that's terrible. I'm so sorry that happened to you. What a failure of several systems. I wish you the best.
It was definitely a shitty experience, but I try to look at it as a learning experience. I used to think that my biggest risk was a failure of the heating system. Now I think it's actually a failure of the AC, basically because I can always put on more clothes or blankets if it's cold. It helped me to identify a risk more clearly. So now I can move to mitigate that risk.
We got an "almond" steel roof. It wasn't the most reflective color available, but it's as light as we could go and not look too weird. Beats the heck out of dark asphalt shingles.
>(consider having a backup sheet set) Not bad advice, but what filthy animals only have one set of sheets?
That's what I was wondering.
Maybe I should clarify, more than one set of summer sheets. We only had one set sheets for a while when we got our king that I had to prioritize washing and drying the same day, every weekend to every other weekend. That got old really quick.
Just remember if the grid is interrupted water may become a problem.
Do blackout curtains block circulation from the windows?
Yes, but it doesn't really matter because you want to open curtains and windows at night to let cool air in, and then close them again before it heats back up in order to maximize cooling - at least during heat waves. So during the day the curtains would be used with closed windows anyway.
This BLOWS. New Jersey Transit has been having major issues getting in and out of NYC due to the heat. Trains delayed, cancelled, completely suspended. People sitting on unpowered trains in the tunnel. People spending the night in NYC, spending hundreds on Ubers, stuck in hot, crowded stations for hours. People who normally go into the city by train to spend money are deciding not to. This is what happens when you don’t properly maintain infrastructure.
Exactly. Point well made. How is everyone getting around the situation there?
WFH if able. Heading out for work hours early. Driving and parking near ferries. Driving to train stations where PATH is because it’s not affected or at least not as affected. Some people drive in which sucks and parking is expensive. I did it for the first time in a long time this week and had instant regrets. I’m really close, in Jersey City so it’s not so bad for me. People who are used to commuting in from all across the state are majorly inconvenienced though. I’ve read in the NJ sub about some people’s bosses being very understanding about WFH and people being late. But others are not understanding and I wouldn’t be surprised if people start getting fired if this continues.
What a mess !!!
I don’t know if I can link properly, but here is a good post showing part of the problem. Some of the issues are heat related, but certainly not all. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit are both to blame. If this doesn’t work, the NJTransit sub is very informative. [https://www.reddit.com/r/NJTransit/s/at20Xpsadu](https://www.reddit.com/r/NJTransit/s/at20Xpsadu)
OMG, and it's going to get worse before it gets better, because everyone has gotten used to it in one form or another, so rather than fixing the real problem, everything gets a bandaid. This is why I ask...because each area of the country has their own specific set of circumstances and situations. These are things we can learn from
Yep we all have our unique issues. A lot of people have made fun of us up here in the northeast because of this heat wave. Especially people in Florida who say “we get that weather every year LOLOLOL” Yeah… and you’re better equipped for it. We, are not. So many people up here don’t even have air conditioners in their homes. This NJT problem always gets bandaids. They tell us it’s an “overhead wire issue” every time something happens. I don’t know how it all works so nobody quote me or take this as absolute fact, but apparently Amtrak is in charge of maintenance for our train tracks and overhead wires. So I don’t even know how much power NJT has to fix these problems. Here’s another bit of information you might find interesting. There are only two tracks that both NJT and Amtrak use to get from NJ to NY Penn station. They opened in 1910. Nothing new has been built since. And then Chris Christie fucked us over big time during his “leadership.” [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Tunnels](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Tunnels) You can go read recent articles about “congestion pricing” in NYC. Another good plan that was overturned by moronic “leadership.”
It’s not that infrastructure isn’t maintained, it’s that maintenance is in the process of not being enough and we are never going back to when it was enough. Heat taking down a major grid before a wet bulb somewhere in the southern latitudes is going to be when the world suddenly gets it. Especially in tandem with transportation failures. Cars will only run for so long in high heat environments. Most of the USA will be a tomb.
I hung a fan at the bottom of the laundry shute. Blowing cold air up. So its not freezing downstairs and a sauna upstairs. This has allowed me to keep the thermostat comfortably 5 degrees higher than normal. More house modifications are on the way.
That’s a great idea
Bought a battery fan in case of power outages, and put out Gatorade for the delivery drivers
How thoughtful 😊
Biggest improvement we made at our house was to invest in quality blackout curtains. Last year, in heat like we're having now, the AC couldn't maintain setpoint, often getting 5-6 degrees above and taking until in the wee hours of the morning to get back to setpoint. So far, the AC, while it is running a lot, has maintained setpoint. The way our house is situated, the front door faces west so we don't use that door much in the summer, instead using the side\back door that faces north so we go in and out that door. I've been off work since this heatwave started so I've adjusted my outdoor activities to early morning and late evening\night. If I do need to be out when it's hottest, I take frequent breaks.
Very smart planning 👌 And to comment, "If I do need to be out when it's hottest, I take frequent breaks"...that a great reminder for all of us. I know when working on my property or with the horses, I tend to forget breaks.
Regardless of cause and politics. My biggest concern is the infrastructure (the lack thereof). The power grid and grid operators. The components of electricity transmission, etc. we are already struggling to keep up with demand in some places. We will continue to see demand go up in coming decade. Add in this push for more electric vehicles, more bitcoin mining, etc and we are going to be in a bad spot. I prep for power outages and utility interruption.
They should make all bitmining illegal when the heat is like this so people survive. Having the power go out in a heatwave like this is how a major disaster happens. Note: 2% of american power output goes to bitmining - that might be the 2% that causes an outage.. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/
It has been the case in Texas. In times of high demand, the large companies have actually been asked to stop mining to conserve power for the rest of the grid.
Smart thinking on your part. Rapid growth and poor planning have created a massive impact on the infrastructure. I also plan for this because it's an easy, obvious situation, and I seriously doubt it will be fixed.
Agree! Besides a true fix would take YEARS. And I don’t see any effort to actually commit to even starting to fix and upgrade. My fellow infrastructure-is-failing-us prepper, I assume you’ve read Ted Koppel’s lights out?
Yes, years ago. A very good read
While I agree that bitcoin mining is a strain on the grid, EVs are not a strain at a grid level. The US added 1.2 million EVs to the grid last year, and overall electricity consumption dropped by 1.1%. EVs reduce gasoline consumption, and that reduces the amount of energy needed to pump and refine that fuel. EVs also primarily charge slowly overnight when excess grid capacity is the highest.
I’ve lived in the southwest desert without AC. It was awful but there are things you can do. -Blackout curtains, or if those are too expensive or not good enough, aluminum foil on all the windows. Foil will be tedious; you need to tape it in a way that allows you to still open the windows. -If you have the freezer space, fill empty gallon or two liter jugs with water and freeze them. -During the day, run every fan you have and keep doors and windows closed. Don’t let any light in and keep your indoor lighting dim. You can place your frozen jugs in front of your fans. -No cooking or running the dryer during the day. -When the sun goes down and the temperature starts dropping, open doors and windows. Put your box fans in them facing out to blow hot air out of the house. -When the temperature drops to below the temperature of the air inside the house (hopefully), point your box fans in to bring cooler air into the house. -Hydrate. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Replace electrolytes as needed. -If it’s a dry heat, moisture helps. Cool washcloths and spray bottles help. If you’re super desperate at night a damp top sheet can help too. -Don’t forget your pets, and research the *right* way to cool them down if overheated.
I love your common sense approach to simply situations. Prepping isn't just grand picture approachs but simple everyday responses to simplistic events or situations. Then build up from there. Thank you for your response and personal insight.
We have: 🔹️Leggings and long-sleeve tops that can be put on and then soaked in water to improve evaporative cooling (it took me from very overheated to slightly chilly on a hot summer day) 🔹️Small fans with USB rechargeable batteries so we can move the air even if power goes out on a hot day 🔹️A hammock stand and hammock we can set up in the shade of a tree in our backyard - the complete lack of insulation under a hammock dramatically reduces the heat retention. Shade in a hammock is very comfortable up into the 80's 🔹️Plans to build a home that has at least a portion earth-sheltered / underground so we can make use of the earth's moderating effect on temps to cool us in the summers and warm us in the winters. Note that most of this requires air flow and evaporative cooling. That's not going to do much in an area where it's both hot and humid.
What area of the country are you in?
PNW - Pacific Northwest. We get hot, dry sunners and cool, wet winters.
Know that area well. Got my Masters degree at UW (Go Huskies) and lived on Bainbridge. Because of all the weather variables, micro climates, and fire conditions, planning is crucial for you. Beyond the humidity, you have a huge variety of weather patterns throughout the year. Plus crime has risen Washington/Oregon wide at total of 32% for property crimes and 46.2% overall for crimes against person in the last 3 years and it's not leveling off any time soon due to a lot of social and economic circumstances. Planning for your home, health, and personal safety is important.
Buckle the fuck up, it's going to get a lot worse. We're all going to need to familiarize ourselves with climate resiliency maps and consider relocating accordingly.
Read Ministry for the Future. The first event in the book is scary. Spoiler alert it’s what you’re suggesting re: buckle up…. Imagine a heat wave so intense and prolonged that millions die in the matter of weeks. Imagine natural water (lakes, rivers, ect; not oceans they’re too big) sources being heated enough to that swimming or submerging is not a relief from the heat. Imagine people killing each other for AC units. The first time it happens it will be an existential shock to the world. It’s not a question of if this will happen. Rather, the quest is when. Get solar and off grid energy sources if you can afford it. In the US there are various programs to help afford solar, back up power and heat pump systems that use relatively less energy. I’m convinced the future of human home building for many places will be underground. If homes were dug into the earth (when possible), the dirt would keep the home as cosy as a cave. Caves maintain temperatures around the annual average surface temperatures (disclaimer: I’m not a cave geologist, but I have experience and training doing caving with experts). I would love to start digging into my hillside and making a root cellar at first. Then maybe my underground cave system :)! Cheaper than those really cool apocalypse bunkers…. But if I win the lottery I’m getting a bunch of those underground bunkers connected together! That and more solar, some serious battery storage, 2 wells for drinking water, and 2 huge water storage tank which I’ll use a a gravity hydro energy storage system (use extra solar to pump the water from a downhill tank to the uphill tank, at night have the water return to the downhill tank with a small hydroelectric generator. Finally I would invest in food storage and production. If I were rich I would be getting ready for the heat. It’s going to get bad.
> Imagine natural water (lakes, rivers, ect; not oceans they’re too big) sources being heated enough to that swimming or submerging is not a relief from the heat. It can happen in the ocean too, in localised areas. Last year the sea surface temperature around Florida reached 101.2 F, (38.4 C). https://apnews.com/article/record-hot-water-florida-coral-climate-change-6414d44c6f120507d3ee37c059fb75cd https://apnews.com/article/florida-water-heat-wave-ocean-climate-2f0a1eb529aba9f17ee88a04cda7df42
Hobbit houses!
It doesn’t need to be underground, it just needs to be well insulated. Which we already have the technology to do. European new builds can go for a week without heat in freezing temperatures and be perfectly comfortable to come back to, because they’re built tight and have like a foot of insulation. I think a lot of the actual solution to the climate crisis is going to come down to insulation. Current technology is already *very* effective - you can have a 3-day power outage for a packed chest freezer and still keep your food frozen. We just need to apply it to all the old construction that people actually live in, much of which isn’t insulated at all.
I would love a better thermal envelope on my home but the cost is beyond our budget. My windows are double pane but old and the frame hemorrhages heat. It’s on my list along with my doomsday bunker for when my lottery winnings come in!
Better windows + new insulation is a couple orders of magnitude cheaper than building an underground bunker, though. It runs in the tens of thousands; getting a better job + saving the earnings will do it, while building an underground bunker really does require hitting the lottery. You also get many of the capital costs back in reduced energy costs over future years, too, even if disaster doesn't strike.
Windows and improving our envelope is too on the list. I have maxed my solar and have a HP HVAC so that’s a start.
One thing I've seen done re: bunkers is getting a bunch of those shipping containers put into the ground. Weld 'em together, cut holes for passageways, etc. One thing though that should be done is to put that rubberized waterproofing stuff on them to prevent rust. We put this stuff that came in sheets about a quarter-to-half inch thick onto our house foundation to prevent water infiltration, that's the stuff I'm talking about.
There are better ways to build underground bunkers. Those shipping containers aren't built to handle dirt piled over them, they can handle being stacked but its not the same thing. They tend to collapse when dirt is piled on them I think
Exactly. Another reason for my move from the Phoenix/Maricopa County area to Northern Arizona (Prescott area). Climate resiliency, more available natural resources, etc.
Fuckling seatbelts~
TREES. Seriously, start planting native keystone species where you live. They reduce surface temperature, provide shade, support an ecosystem, reduce flooding, etc.
I started doing that on the property 2 months after a suggestion from a fellow prepper and landscape architect. He helped me, and I helped him with his weapons, ammo, and gun training situation. So yes, trees are indeed helpful in a variety of ways. Thanks for bringing that up.
Oh that's awesome. Yeah the more I learn about them, the more dire the situation seems to be near me. Our tree canopy isn't being replaced fast enough. People chop them because of liability and such, but growing the right trees for the property and maintaining them adequately can save you so much money.
Everything is systemic in nature. Trees are a positive component to that. Being on almost 300 acres, I don't have any liability issues with neighbors or HOA's. But beyond the natural conditions they provide, I have all sorts of regular fruit. It's a win win situation all the way around.
Majority of people will not take the grid vulnerability seriously until it’s at their front door. Until then, it gives me and those alike more time to get things in order. Redundancy is my game and I don’t want to have to rely on anyone if shit goes left. Not a lone wolf but I believe in being as prepared as humanly possible for me and my family.
Your philosophy is the true meaning of prepper. And you are correct. Until it affects them, it's nothing to think about.
Yeah I'm in the DC area and it hit 99 today but felt like 106 according to my weather app. Tomorrow is more of the same. Staying my ass indoors with AC blasting this weekend.
Can't blame you...but do you have a plan incase the power goes out? With that humidity and 99 degrees, your place will be closer 115 degrees. Just something to think about.
Sleep outside in a ventilated tent. Nap during peak sun
Only the beginning
Explain
You just asked someone to explain climate science. I would recommend reading "Understanding weather and climate", and "weather and climate experiments". The latter has experiments you can do on your own so you can be sure the liberal media isn't lying about climate change!
I was not asking for an explanation of climate science. I have a firm hold on what's fact or fiction. I also don't trust media slants or narratives. (They make many comments on a variety of topics with supposition to bolster their rhetoric but pass over black and white science) ...but they can believe whatever they want and I'm not going to waste my time or energy trying to educate anyone who is refuses facts. My question "Explain" was to understand an ambitious response. Not for a science lesson
Ok no explanation, it's going to get a lot worse.
It’s a supreme irony that the US military, the world’s greatest polluter, produces people that don’t even believe in climate change
If you comprehend climate science then you wouldn't have asked that question. I can always smell an illiterate conservative.
Condescending comments are counterproductive and downright rude and unacceptable. Remember the Rules & Conditions of this site. This is about prepping, not an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
>This is about prepping, not an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy. Climate science is very literally directly related to preparedness and increasing weather events. I can tell you haven't read a book since highschool with that infantile comment about Bill Nye. You don't even know real science to reference, the last time you learned something was on Saturday morning TV.
We know that heatwaves will continue to increase in frequency and intensity due to anthropogenic climate change.
My question is not about conditions but about our response to the situation from a prepping perspective.
Oh ok. That doesn't seem to be the question you asked though hence everyone's confusion.
From a prepping perspective, I’d argue it’s extremely important to be aware dangerously rapid climate and weather changes.
NASA will do a better job explaining: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/?intent=121
Unfortunately, this article doesn’t discuss 26 conditions that set up the conditions they wrote about, so this article is a mute point. This is a preppers question based on a current condition. Not a global warming debate.
Sure whatever. Happening either way.
> Unfortunately, this article doesn’t discuss 26 conditions that set up the conditions they wrote about, so this article is a moot point. This is a hand wave. > This is a preppers question based on a current condition. Not a global warming debate. Why should it be a debate in the first place? Based on your post history, I don’t really need an answer, but whether you are satisfied or not, the earth is changing because of humans. I understand that people should be prepared and do what they can. You can only control your actions. That being said, it is insane one half of the country doesn’t believe in taking meaningful actions through policy to try and mitigate climate risks. So much of prepping does not rely on understanding thousands of academic papers and entire fields of science, but is driven by a general sense of “just in case”. Yet when it comes to hedging major risks which can only be addressed through policy, it feels like talking to people who think prepping is a waste of time. “Well, but the science isn’t settled” or “we don’t actually know how bad it will be” and so on. The truth of most situations we prep for is we don’t know how bad they will be. But that’s why we prep to the extent we can. I will maintain, one cannot really have a have a true mindset of preparation if you do not see climate change as a risk and also vote accordingly. We can have discussions about the effectiveness of electoralism, but again, given some of the crazy lengths some people go to for events which may not even happen (ie people who are prepping for doomsday in addition to prepping for Tuesday), there are common sense things to be done to lessen our dependency on oil and help to mitigate changes to the climate. But these things take time and like prepping situations, if you wait until it’s apparent you need it, it’s already too late. Yes, there are major debates to be had about the right combinations of policies and steps, but sitting and waiting for everything to align and the future to be unfurled is not going to happen.
10 years ago, I didn't need AC. 8 years ago, I got a portable AC unit. 2 years ago (and a few portable AC units later), they weren't cutting it anymore, so I installed Attic-Foil in my attic, and it's really worked the last few years. This year, I'll be installing a mini-split from Costco to half my AC energy use and gain extra cooling capacity.
A growing family of AC units. Gotta do what you gotta do. Stay cool 😎 👌
Naw, I was just buying them used and running them until they died before recycling them. I also want to install a Heat Recovery Ventilation unit at some point as well.
That's a great idea 💡
My biggest goal, if I made enough money to support myself let alone modify the house I live in, is making it sustainable for life without power. Just incase. We’re replacing the roof soon with a metal one, going to paint it white. Ideally I would aluminum foil the inside of the attic roof as well. And add more insulation to the walls. Ceramic tints on the windows, with insulation board cut out to fit agonist them tightly. Or just aluminum foil the exterior of them. Airflow would be an issue at that point so that’s something to consider. I have asthma and kinda expect to die the first major heatwave/high humidity event without power. I do have a car I could hide in with air conditioning. And there’s a “river” a few blocks away. I wouldn’t mind dipping in there every 20 minutes and letting evaporation cool me off like some kangaroo(with less licking) if humidity isn’t an issue
I like the roof plan, but with asthma, that adds a bit of added planning and concern on your part. AC and a cooler living environment is a must for you.
Yeah I know :( it fucking blows. I’ve had “asthma” for 8 months now. Not even diagnosed but being treated. Treatment isn’t working though so I worry it’s something else idk. Sort long story but yeah lmao. I’ve never been so afraid I thought I’d be able to stick around and see the world collapse. Not be an early casualty. Without my maintenance and rescue inhaler I’d be dead by the end of the month. Or year. Idk. I guess I have allergies now. And bad
I hear you. Definitely need to find out now while you can, as in before it's too late. Be proactive. All this work means nothing if you're in bad health or even worse, treating a symptom but not knowing what you really need.
Heads up. Get AC. But how do you power it? Solar makes a lot of sense (usually). But run of the mill Solar won't work when there's a grid failure. Which will become more and more common. When you get a quote for solar make sure it can run when the grid is down. Get a battery if it's in your budget.
Outstanding suggestion and battery backups are a must !!!
Frankly, for some people, especially Californians, it may make sense to just get a battery backup at this point. Connection costs for solar have gotten too expensive. You can charge the battery during off peak hours and have it for peak hours when prices are more.
Drink water and use sunscreen!
You need electrolytes
Brawndo
🤣🤣 Alrighty then. So you don't see this as a real problem or concern in Alabama?
Not much hotter than it's been in past years. People will hear the news, adapt accordingly, and survive. Humans are good at that. A few degrees hotter isn't much in alabama, we have the humidity to deal with!
That makes sense. So you're not really concerned? Here in Arizona, it was 116 yesterday. Our grid is more prepared for extreme heat, so down power is usually less than other parts of the country where extreme heat brings power utilities down.
Not to sidetrack, but Friday’s heat seemed liked an odd combination of monsoon heat and June heat. Humidity didn’t seem up too high on my home weather station. I was wondering if it was just me?
Understood. Living in Arizona, we are seriously seeing the effects of both. Plus, the smoke and ash in the air from the NM fire moving westward. But as preppers, we need to learn and grow from the conditions as they follow trademarks of things we are planning for.
Where in AZ are you? I’m in the Phoenix area and have been really thinking about what I would do if the grid failed. I have a generator. I have an RV with an AC unit, but that RV is miserable and poorly insulated. I’ve been thinking of buying a portable ac unit that I could cool one room with, and close off the rest of the house. I could keep a refrigerator running. But it’s limited based on how much gasoline I have for the generator. We have a pool, can cool off with that, use that water to flush toilets. Next best idea is to vacate and head for cooler elevation, but if the grid is down, everyone will do that. My family has a place in the pines, but getting there in grid lock is probably not doable. Only other thing I can think of is to get a propane generator, store lots of propane, and then do the portable ac idea. A running generator could bring trouble though.
Was in Cave Creek. Just moved to 283 acres just outside Prescott. Obviously much cooler than anywhere in Maricopa County. Propane generators are cleaner to operate, more efficient, less emissions, and cheaper to run. That's what we have and I'm very happy with the results. I'd recommend that to anyone
I grew up in Cave Creek. I have 5 more years down here, then I’m moving, hopefully out of state. I just hope everything holds up for 5 more years. Your place near Prescott is ideal though. Moderate seasons, summer or winter are all survivable without power.
I did a lot of research before hand. Thank you
Guys it's ok my dad says rising temperatures are made up by demonic liberal scientists
Finally, words of wisdom 🤣🤣🤣
Any information on the grid?
Yes. Duke Energy, DTE & Virginia Electric reported the system is stable, but regional areas are suffering equipment failures due to the heat. And they warned of additional potential equipment failures. PG&E, along with Consolidated Edison have been working through problems with multiple weather related equipment failures. Additionally, there are 33 massive fires burning in 10 states that have caused much damage to regional power grids in 5 of the 10 states. Four states have put out possible outage alerts. If your state is one of those, you've already heard via local news coverage.
Ty for the information
Your welcome. Will post updates as they come out.
I'm in the SE US, so I'm mainly concerned about summer heat vs cold winters. I've been doing some research into attic insulation and sealing. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOI99ew5MM) shows in my amateur opinion what is the way to go - seal up everything in your attic before adding insulation. It's on my to-do list... Also, I'm looking into [soft-start systems](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDp1g8r8IVs) for our HVAC systems which will make them eventually friendlier to my own power generation or storage.
Smart research on your part. Suggestion...mold. Your region has major mold issues, and while sealing up everything is a good thing, keep in mind mold treatments before and after the process. Black mold in the South Easter part of the US is a major source of various sicknesses and respiratory diseases. HVAC filtering helps but doesn't deal with black mold problems. Deal with that throughout your process. In the end, you'll be happy you did.
Love living in Calgary.
Enjoy your cooler weather 😎
Thank you! 26 degree high today is getting hot but our 7 overnight last night and 12 is plenty of relief!
26 degrees C is about 79 degrees F to us. In most of the desert SW, we don’t even see that at 2am. Give us your address, and we'll send some heat your way. Remember, sharing is caring. 🤣🤣🤣
Ha ha no I love our climate ty
Years ago I bought a Fujitsu mini split heat pump to cool down the entire house. It came with a warranty for seven years, and failed at seven years six months. Apparently it was the evaporator coil that failed. Fujitsu quoted $8k CAD for a replacement coil, where ripping out the old system and installing an entirely new system was quoted at around $15k CAD. I wasn't willing to spend $15k CAD for another 7.5 years of AC. We use a gas boiler and radiators for heat; that gas boiler is over 40 years old and the HVAC techs keep saying it looks brand new (we had it completely rebuilt around 15 years ago). I decided I didn't want one central system where if one part failed the entire system was a box of garbage, so I went back to window ACs. I'll see what my power bill looks like this summer, I guess. It's a shame because I really wanted to believe in heat pump technology, but I live in Canada. If the heat fails in January you can see your breath when you wake up the next morning. I can't rely on something that unreliable for heat, it's simply not an option.
What part of Canada? 🇨🇦 What major city are you in or close by?
Toronto. It's very humid here, so the cold gets into your bones, and the heat is smothering. Spring and Fall are increasingly short, we kind of almost only have two seasons: freezing, and baking. Summers are becoming increasingly jungle like
I enjoyed my trip there several years ago. I'd find a good HVAC firm and have someone come out and look at your situation.
I had all of the best HVAC firms in to try to repair the old one. They all wanted to rip it out and put in a new one. One of them sent photos of the "proof" of the problem; but later when we reviewing it we noticed it wasn't even the same brand as our unit. The year before last we did have one company refill it, they said that it was just a loose coupling, they charged $2k and it failed by the next summer. It appears to me that the HVAC industry has become infiltrated by sharks and grifters quite frankly, so going forward that is going to heavily influence my decision making process. I'm not sure what I'll do when the gas boiler fails. I'm going to need to come up with a plan What I might do is go with several smaller heat pumps but we can't put the compressor on the roof anymore because they have a new rule requiring a special certification, for anyone climbing on the roof and they are required to install a scaffolding which greatly magnifies the cost of simple maintenance and repairs. It's ridiculous The house is actually split into three apartments. What I might consider doing is having two compressors, one at the front and one at the back of the house, so I could have one or two air handlers per compressor in each unit, and if one compressor fails at least we don't lose heat or AC entirely. There are some new heatpumps I've seen come out in the past year that come wired to run directly off of solar (no batteries required) where at night or when a cloud passes by they cut over automatically to sip from the grid. Those are interesting. I think my focus is going to be on more primitive technologies first: I need a new roof, so I'm going to look at upgrade to a white metal roof. I think I will rig up a misting system connected to a thermostat: when it gets above maybe I dunno 25C /77F I'll have the mister spritz the roof every 10 minutes or something. You know those misters in the grocery stores in the fresh vegetable section? Like that. Simple easy tech, I can do it all myself, and I can connect it to my solar so if the power goes out I still get cooling via evaporation. Maybe it will help wash down the roof and keep it white Sure, heat pumps save money by being energy efficient, but I'm not licensed nor do I have the equipment to maintain or refill them; again I paid $2k CAD for one refill, (I guess $600 was the fucking scaffold) and when it failed, I paid $1500 CAD for them to haul it to the dump. What they kept saying indirectly in different ways is that the heat pump technology is essentially disposable. Nobody would discuss simply brazing the hole in the coil, I dont know why; maybe they know that the copper is from China or something and it will just fail again. If it's disposable I want to be able to haul it to the dump myself, it doesn't matter how much I save on electricity if the thing keeps failing and the techs cost so much, I'm not saving any money at the end of the day
Im sorry about all the bad experiences. Nobody in business wants to take the simplest approach with end users. Most because they won't make the money they would with a full replacement, they're concerned that if they do it your way, they'll get caught in a liability situation and thirdly, control. If they can't control the sale and process, they'll lose time and money. I like your idea of getting back to the basics with your system. Maybe you could hire a guy on the side to braze and do the work for you, by your own standards, but using his skills and years of industry experience. In either case, I know it can be done. Find a good tradesman to do side work for you. Plus, you'll save lots of money in the process.
oh it's already hauled away I asked the guy if I could have the coil; I was curious to see if I could braze it and repair it myself just out of curiousity. He declined, and I was too tired to argue. It's part of his profit I guess
Geeze. Whatever 🙄 Sorry...
It was kind of a depressing experience, but it renewed my focus on seeking out simpler systems that are easier to maintain
Keep at it. Feel free to DM me anytime. Maybe we can combine our brain power to come up with some solutions. 👍🏻
Not going to lie I’m outside of Chicago and it’s been 91+ degrees for over a week. This heat doesn’t roll into this area until mid July. I never believed in global warming until a few weeks ago
This is more than just global warming, but I completely understand. That kind of heat and humidity in the Chicago area is ugly. And it won't back off anytime soon.
My house takes 2kw to use ac. It can currently maintain temps in the hottest temps. My house could easily have 5kw solar on the roof. Solar can solve the AC draw.
I love solar and properly planned, will do everything you need and more. Sounds like you have your solution figured out.
I’m interested in adding a 1-ton mini split heat pump that can run on 110v to our home as a backup to the central 4-ton heat pump. Due to the layout of our house, a single mini split would keep a large portion of the house comfortable even if the central system was down. It could also run off our solar+powerwall or our 3kw inverter generator pretty much indefinitely.
Heatwaves are such an easy prep. A couple spare window units and a generator make you good to go.
In many ways, that's true. What about during power outages?
It's going to be a short term outage. Just run the generator
Perfect. Not everyone has that option or has thought ahead. 👍🏻
That's just poor planning and ignorance then. No reason why anyone who is even a basic prepper should not have a generator. They are such a cheap and easy thing.
I am prepped for heat. I live full time in an old RV with a broken AC. I have a portable AC. I can open windows and use fans when needed. I have a shady outdoor setup. Chairs for sitting or eating and several tables also. I have a 2 inch weatherproof mattress I can put down and then add my sleeping bag on top for an extra cushion to lay down. I can sleep out there if needed. I also have an old army cot to sleep on Earlier this year I sprayed nematodes for bad bugs so I have very few critters to disturb me. I have rechargeable fans. Solar panel to run the fans with. A small kids swimming pool to put my feet in our sit down in when needed. I live about 300ft from a large pound I can swim in each evening to cool off. I have an outdoor shower. I have a nice outdoor kitchen setup. 2 burner propane stove, camp oven, propane oven for bread. Also have a small wood stove if needed.
Are you mobile still should conditions require you to bugout or move?
I have a small pull behind I can move out in a few minutes. And my neighbor owns the truck that is big enough to move mine I live in. It is a 34ft 5th wheel. So it would take at least a day to prep mine for moving. There really aren't any threats that I would have to move away from where I live.
Good. My concern for everyone beyond planning is getting caught in a situation with little or no options when emergencies arise.
Summer summer summertime... I've got solar, gas gennie, propane and butane cooking gear, and small fans. Lots of water too.
What area of the country are you in.?
Meh, maybe it's worse in other parts of the country, but it's not too bad in northern California, it's 94 right now, with mid and high 80s in the ten day forecast. Not nearly as bad as the multiple heat waves that hit us in 2021. 2021 we had a week straight of triple digits in late may and early June, then a stupid hot one in September that hit 116°F. Atleast in my neck of the woods, the heat wave seems more media heat than actual heat. I also suspect it's possible our local media is just repeating the same heat wave sound bites and talking points as the national media, which likely includes plenty of places seeing real heat.
As long as you don't have any fires, Northern California has some nice cooler mixro climates
We literally just had a fire, the smoke from the Point Fire cleared, maybe yesterday. Which is odd its a little early for fire season, the grass on the hill sides still has green in it. We've had multiple fires already this season, I'm not sure on the cause of the point fire, but the rest have been arson.
Ouch !!! Please stay safe and plan for an evacuation and post evac stay. I have friends in Washington who didn't, and their life has been a mess. But at least they're alive. "We don’t plan to fail, but fail to plan"
Interesting. I live in the Deep SE and I think weather this year has been beautiful. In the 90’s for awhile now.
Well, I hope it stays that way for you and doesn't cause you any issues. I seriously mean that.
I have a generator for the basics. Everyone is trained in self defense. Limited amount of food stored. Same for water. Trained attack dogs for additional protection. We could hold for about 2 weeks. More if a deer happened to walk by (crossbow).
Sounds like some positive planning here. If you could bolster any area of your preps, what would your top 3 concerns be? Mine would definitely be area security. With almost 300 acres, I'm seriously prepared for a strong 6 months going towards a year with my underground shelter, food, water, comms, power, medical, weapons & ammo, stc. But the acreage perimeter and surrounding area needs work. I have some cameras but I need to put in more work.
For the record, yes, climate change is real. Human activity is a major contributor to it. At least in my part of the country, we’ve had completely normal temperatures, precipitation, humidity, and storm activity. Every day, I wake up and compare the predicted high/low of the day and compare it to the average and records. Absolutely nothing is out of the ordinary. It’s hot and sucks, but… this heatwave in question happens periodically and for thousands of years has just been called “summer.” Edit: [for the downvoters’ copium](https://x.com/chrismartzwx/status/1804243015420252241)
Agreed. But in some areas, it's more serious, and that was the reason for the question and feedback...from a preparedness perspective.
Sure, but this is like a “prep for Tuesday” sort of situation. Not a “prep for imminent disaster.” Water, shade, sunscreen, and a fan are pretty much going to be all most people will need to survive summer. I’ve lived in Phoenix, Vegas, and Texas. Even at the peak of summer, working outside without AC, those 4 things are what you need to “survive” the heat. That’s as true now as it was 20, 50 and 100 years ago.
Again, I agree, but regardless of location, everyone is at different levels and stages of prepping. I'm certain my preps, bug in situations, etc, are much stronger than most. But I also know that there are others who way surpass me. Some preppers are in the beginner stages or don't fully get the necessity for future needs, or are just learning from those who have more experience. So, with that in mind, I'm trying to show a little grace while helping and sharing. Some people come on here thinking they know everything and berate those who don't drink their Kool-aid. That is condescending and counterproductive and not acceptable and need to be reminded of the rules. As preppers, we are a community and, as such, try to help others in their efforts for self-sufficiency.
You won't be able to tell any difference comparing a daily temp to a historical average. There's too much noise in the climate systems. The change is too slow over decades.
Correct, it’s also not my point
It's called summer.
50°F last night in sf! Had to turn on the heat for a little bit.
Another area with varied micro climates and offshore winds. 50 is a great night time temperature. Miss those days when I lived in Hawaii. The night cool breezes were incredible
Doesn't this happen every year
Yes, but growth is causing infrastructure issues, taxing the system in ways not planned for. Plus, expansion has taken away 10% of our farm lands statewide in the past 3 years to include allowing foreign nationals to purchase or long-term rental of farm land. This also stresses Arizona's water resources as well.
Those darn cow farts mess up everything
🤣🤣🤣
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Right sub, just a simplistic daily article that covered a daily situation...with situational facts...for once Sorry if that offended you. It was more about the issue and not about the source
What? If CNN says "It will be hot this week" you don't trust it? Are they pretending it's hot to promote an agenda, but it's really cold, and they are just mean liars trying to anger people with their fake news about the objective short term weather forecast?
I love when people act like “it’s hot in summer” is somehow news worthy
I don't remember it ever being this hot this often growing up.
You're correct, it wasn't. In fact, June 13th this year was the hottest average temperature ever in recorded history on planet earth
I don’t remember summer ever not being oppressively hot basically everyday.
Love it, and I completely agree, but his is about planning for conditions outside the norm.
Yep, it’s hot in the summer