http://permaculture.org.au/2008/08/11/a-refrigerator-that-runs-without-electricity/#more-540

A short quote:
“From a family of pot-makers, Mohammed has made ingeniously simple use of the laws of thermodynamics to create the pot-in-pot refrigerator, called a Zeer in Arabic….

“To give an idea of its performance, spinach that would normally wilt within hours in the African heat will last around twelve days in the pot, and items like tomatoes and peppers that normally struggle to survive a few days, now last three weeks. Aubergines (eggplants) get a life extension from just a few days to almost a month.”

This method does rely on an ample source of water, but where I live, temperatures often reach 100+ for a few weeks at a time. Rolling blackouts were frequent a few years back. This pot refrigerator strikes me as a good back-up measure and a nice way of keeping an overabundant harvest for a time before processing.

With 100 degrees today, our buttoned up house stayed at 75 all day. It leaped up to 85 when we got home and were in and out gardening, etc., but now it’s 10 pm and the attic fan has got some traction. By morning we will be back to 65 and will close everything up again.

There is one room that has a slab floor and counts as a basement (it was once the garage). If we had 100 for a whole week, our scheme would give out but then we would move into the slab room while waiting for the weather to break. It is always cool there.

The vinegar trick was used by medieval reapers; it was their electrolyte, so to speak. I’m learning to make and drink switchel and, yep, it works. Try it with mint solar tea and a little molasses.

I had forgotten about wet cotton sheets! So many good ideas show up here! It’s like the Mother Earth News Archives, or Carla Emery, or something. Empowering… Thanks, all!!

risa b

If you don’t have a wool mattress, amass a stack of wool blankets and put them under a 100% cotton sheet (or even better, linen) and sleep in comfort. It sounds counterintuitive, but it works because wool has such a capacity for absorbing moisture, leaving you much more comfortable throughout the night. So much better than the polyester batted/covered mattresses. (Never use any sheets with polyester in them: it doesn’t breathe.)

However, it is important to pull back the covers during the day to let the mattress breathe, and we air ours in the sun on a dry day at least once a year. It’s an annual ritual that has elements of the comedic, considering our bedroom is on the second floor…

Earlier I forgot to add one important consideration when sleeping outdoors in hot weather: mosquitos. Make sure you are protected from them or you could get sick as well as bitten. This was the purpose of the screened porches that use to be ubiquitous in Southern homes: a place to sleep outside where it was cooler and also safe from mosquitos.

I still keep my windows open but have learned how to minimize entry from outside. This only works on double hung windows by the way. If you have wooden double hung windows, Stanley Hardware makes a lock that you mount on the upper window so that the lower sash cannot be opened higher than the locking mechanism. They are pretty cheap and you can put two on each window (one per side) if you want more protection. Mount them so that the lower sash can only be opened to about 3 inches. This isn’t great ventilation but it is much better than the alternative. You will need a screwdriver and a gimlet to start the pilot holes.

If you have vinyl or aluminum double hung windows, you will need a pair of 1/2 inch diameter oak dowels for each window. Cut the dowel to 3 inches; this goes on the window sill with the lower sash resting on it. Cut the remaining dowel so it fits snugly (felt shims on the ends help with fit)between the top of the lower sash and the top of the upper window frame. This makes it very difficult to open the window from outside, enough to discourage casual burglary. The same dowels perform double duty as they hold up the sash all the way: my windows don’t stay up on their own. The only tool needed for this method is a small saw to cut the dowels.

A large, territorial dog helps too.

We found that about every hour or so, the temperature would seem to become unbearable, but this was solved by going outside and dowsing everybody with the water hose.

I also like to put one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a quart of water. This somehow makes the water seem more refreshing in hot water. My grandmother told me that they used to do that when they were working in the fields in the heat all the time.

I am dubious about hanging laundry inside in a humid climate during the summer. It would probably work great in a dry climate, but in a humid climate it would add to the discomfort, since there are no passive measures to deal with humidity. That’s why evaporative AC doesn’t work if the humidity is above 60% or so.