Survival Tactics for When Your AC Breaks
The sound of silence can be terrifying. Imagine yourself sitting inside on a searing summer day, watching the newest episode of CSI: [Insert City Here] and lounging in the presence of the cool, comfortable hum of your air conditioner. But right in the middle of a tense moment in the show, that hum stops… silence. You power cycle your AC unit, but it can’t be revived. Perhaps someone has committed a heinous crime upon your air conditioning system, or worse—they’re trying to kill you by turning your home into a pressure cooker!
Okay, so maybe you’ve been watching too much CSI lately. You call the professionals for help. Not the forensics team—the Fredericksburg AC repair professionals at All Air. They’re ready to help you out, but it’ll be an hour or two before they’re done helping the little old lady across town with her new air purification system.
As temperatures rise in your home and time working against you, what should you do to stay calm, and more importantly, cool?
In this blog, we’ll discuss how to keep your home (and yourself) cool in extreme heat conditions, even when your AC system is temporarily down for the count.
Lower your blinds.
If you’re actually right, and someone is actually trying to kill you by turning your home into a pressure cooker, lowering your blinds would be your first course of action. But lowering your blinds would also come in handy to keep your home cool as well. This prevents your home from experiencing the “greenhouse effect”—where sunlight entering through open and exposed windows dramatically increases your home’s internal temperature. Blocking sunlight from entering your home will keep temperatures in check so you can last a bit longer without your precious air conditioner.
Change the direction of your fans.
Ceiling fans can cool your home, even without an air conditioner—you just have to make sure they’re spinning in the right direction. By switching your ceiling fans to counterclockwise mode, you’ll be able to push hot air upward and cool air downward. If you’re like most people, you might ask: What kind of witchcraft changes the direction of the blades of my ceiling fans? Luckily, there’s a simple solution: Flip the tiny, standard directional switch on the bottom of your ceiling fan to counterclockwise position. We know—we hadn’t noticed that switch before either.
Chill out with some extreme measures.
The All Air guys say they will show up in 30 minutes, and they don’t break promises—but the heat in your home is getting to you. In these situations, it’s time to get creative. Find a large bowl, a table fan, and a large quantity of ice. Place the ice in the bowl, and place the bowl in front of the fan. Turn that fan on, stick your sweaty face in front of the fan, and let out a big sigh of relief. Replace the ice frequently, and keep your rudimentary AC system going while the All Air guys patch up your regular AC system because, darnit all, it’s hot as a habanero in here, and your Fredericksburg AC repair guys hate the heat as much as you do.
