Planning for the emergency
In an emergency being prepared before the incident will be invaluable. Smart people will look back and see what they should have done and learn from their mistakes. REALLY smart people learn from other people’s mistakes, and prepare so they don’t make them in the first place. For emergency cooling, you want to ensure you have plenty of water, some methods or devices that can cool your environment, and some way to power those devices. For methods to power the devices, please see my article here on Emergency Power.
Step 1, Stay Cool
One of the first things to remember in a heat emergency is you don’t want to use anything that will generate more heat. This would include your clothes dryer, stove or oven, hair dryers, or even large TV’s. Microwaves are generally ok since they don’t heat the air, only your food. Unless you need to open the windows in your house for cooling, keep the blinds and curtains closed to keep the sunlight out. Limit or eliminate any strenuous activities, or perform them in the early morning, evening, or at night when the air is cooler and the sun isn’t out. Don’t move around any more than you have to and stay out of the sun.
Water for cooling
Water can be used in many ways to cool you, or your environment. As water evaporates it will take the heat in the air, or in your body, with it. Evaporation is exactly how sweat works to cool your body, and how swamp coolers work to cool the air. If you have ever seen a misting system in a large outdoor stadium, or saw a fan with a misting system on it, that because it is a really cheap way to reduce the heat in the air. In an emergency, when heat is an issue, you will be sweating and you need to stay well hydrated. In addition to hydration, water can be used to help cool your body as well. You could put it in a bathtub and soak in it when you start feeling overwhelmed. Even at room temperature (in most places), the water in the tub will be cooler than your body. You could use a washcloth or rag soaked in water on your head or other areas of the body where heat escapes to encourage heat loss. If you have power, you can freeze water and make ice to use for drinks, or for cooling your body. Water is 100% the most advantageous things you can store and have for emergencies of all types, not just heat emergencies.
Other reasons to store water
You don’t just need water for drinking or cooling, you need some for washing hands, washing dishes, washing clothing, bathing or flushing toilets. Having water to flush your toilet is something that is often overlooked, but usually just the one time. Anyone who has ever made this mistake of not having water to flush a toilet knows the consequences all too well. If you need a cheap way to store water you can use your used milk jugs. Make sure they are CLEAN (use soap and water, and maybe even a little vinegar) and then fill them almost completely full using tap water. Store them somewhere out of sunlight since UV light will degrade the HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic that they are made from. You can flush most toilets with a gallon of water or less, depending on when the toilet was made. As long as the jugs are clean, the water stored in them should be potable (able to be drank) as well. For more information check out our article on Water Sources and Storage.
Fans for cooling
Just as evaporating water will take heat from your body, moving air will do the same as long as the temperature of the air is less than your body temperature. Fans are not generally considered effective if the air temperature is above 90° Fahrenheit. Fans are a great way to cool down. They are inexpensive, easy to store or deploy, and they don’t use much power to operate. The ceiling fan in my house uses around 9 watts on low, 30 watts on medium, and 55 watts on high. A ceiling fan can move a lot of air in a fairly large room, and it still uses less power than the older 60 watt incandescent light bulbs. A large box fan will use the same amount of wattage or less. If you have a generator, or even a small inverter, you can easily several portable fans off it with just some extension cords.
AC (Air Conditioner) for cooling
Air conditioners are one of the best ways to cool your environment. However, they use a lot more power (wattage) than fans. If you have a generator, and it is tied into your breaker box via a transfer switch, you can run your ceiling fans, refrigerator, freezer, or even some air conditioners as long as the total wattage doesn’t exceed the rating for your generator. If you are able to run an air conditioner, not only will it cool the air, but it will also remove some of the humidity from the air, which makes it feel even cooler. This is the reason they are called air CONDITIONERS, not just air coolers.
If you have a generator that isn’t tied into your main breaker box, or if you are using an invertor, you can still potentially use some types of air conditioners. Portable air conditioners are usually on wheels to move them easily, and use a vent through the window to vent hot air outside. There are window mount air conditioners that install easily in a window, but these are usually heavier and more cumbersome to install. Depending on the BTU’s of the air conditioner (cooling capacity), it can either cool one room of your house, or multiple. Obviously the smaller portable or window mount units will provide less cooling BTU’s than a whole-house unit, but they also use a LOT less power.
For most people, I recommend a portable unit over a window mount unit if it will only be used for emergencies, or if you are not able to install and uninstall a window unit by yourself. Keep in mind, that an air conditioner is not magic. It works by using the cooling effect of a compressed gas expanding to cool the air, absorbing the heat from the air, and then being compressed again to release that heat outside. However, the hotter the air is that comes into the unit, the less it will be able to cool that air. Still, in an emergency, any cooling is better than no cooling, and all air conditioners also have a fan-only mode to circulate air.
Other methods of cooling
In an emergency, don’t forget that you are not alone. Organizations will come to help in emergencies. They may setup shelters, distribute water and food, provide generators or other supplies, and many other things to help those in need. If you are unable to provide for your own needs don’t hesitate to reach out for help if you need it. If there is a localized outage or emergency that only affects a small area that includes you, move elsewhere until that emergency is over. Go to a mall, a library, a store, anywhere that still has power and air conditioning. If you don’t know where to get help, call 911 and ask.
If none of the options above are possible, just opening the windows of your house, and staying out of the sun goes a long way towards staying cooler. Anything that keeps the sunlight out of your house will help keep the house cooler. If you are able to keep your windows/blinds/curtains closed, you can put aluminum foil in the windows to help reflect the sun and heat. You can remove any clothing that is not necessary or replace it with something lighter (weight and color) to allow your body to cool off better. Fold some paper into a hand fan and move some air across your body. If you have ever seen a dog or other animal in the summer dig a hole to lay in, they do that because the ground is usually much cooler than the air and it helps to cool their bodies. If you have a cellar, it will be cooler than the rest of the house. Put some water in a container that you can rest your feet in. Anything cooler than your body that comes in contact with your body will help to cool you off.
Be prepared for health emergencies
In cases of extreme heat, it is common for heat-related health emergencies to arise, especially if the person is not able to stay cool or hydrated. You should learn the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses like heat exhaustion and heatstroke, and know how to respond.