When you live in a hot climate, there are a spectrum of ways to handle the heat. Each household has various inputs such as family finances, how well the people in the household handle the heat, ability to manage the sun and the breeze, and more that will come to me as I write this, I’m sure.
Paul and I are not martyrs - we don’t take pride in using the air conditioning less than others or that kind of thing, but I think we do have a baseline usage level that is lower than most. Partially this is due to our acclimatization to Mazatlán’s weather and partly it is due to our desire to not use more power than we feel is fair. The government subsidizes electricty during the hot months and it just seems wrong for us to take advantage of their generosity. We sleep with the air on (29 dehumidify) and a few days a week turn it on for a siesta or in the evening when we watch tv. That’s it.
Our windows are mostly open, and I manage the curtains and blinds throughout the day depending on where the sun is coming from. We are lucky in that our house is large, and a large space with high ceilings gives more of a feeling of cool. And we can almost always find a coolish place to sit to eat or read. Our house has very good orientation for breezes and unless it is dead calm I am usually pretty comfortable. For example, inside our house for most of the the last week during the day it has been 88 degrees. And usually the humidity or dew point make it feel a lot warmer than that! But I have cooked and baked and exercised and done some ironing.
Some people have their house set up so it stays at a constant temperature. Some cool only certain rooms and stay in those rooms most of the time. No right or wrong, it just is what it is.
But one of the things that I am aware of in the summer is I really think about who I feel good about inviting over…I mean you can’t predict when you invite someone if it will be a super hot day or if there will be a breeze. And for us, none of our common areas are air conditioned, so if it is hot, what would we do, invite people over to sit on our bed in the air conditioning? Probably not. So do you invite non-airconditioners only? How do you sort people out? It’s too complicated for me, for sure!
My answer to the question is to invite people over in the daytime, where most people are more active and outdoors and all. If it’s hot, set up a fan and apologize. Or meet people at the beach. That works pretty well.
Occasionally I will admit that the heat gets to us and we just need to get a break. Then one of us usually suggests that we take a spin in our little “capsule of cool” and go somewhere for a meal or a beer. A bit of a drive in the cool and a beverage will usually reset our temperature gauge just fine.
I’d be curious how other people handle inviting guests in the hot weather, and also strategies to stay cool. I know the obvious ones, like gin and tonics and iced tea, though!
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July 13th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Nancy, I like how you have written about this topic. You are right – we all do things differently.
We are a bit like you. At night we turn on the air. During the day we try to keep off although while working I sometimes have to “give in.” It is always nice when we get to the beach or pool instead of staying inside.
July 14th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Our weather over here on the east side of Mexico at an altitude wherein weather relating to guests is mostly whether they brought an umbrella – never a heat problem. Thank goodness for this as I am not a host to be concerned about others temperature comfort – but how very thoughtful and predictable this is for a sweet young lady such as yourself.
Everyman for himself (and that includes the girls)
July 14th, 2009 at 7:34 am
We have an AC in every room but the bathroom, which has a little fan. I find if I use a supplementary fan it helps a lot in cooling a room and I can run the AC on Low. If we have company I turn on the living room AC; otherwise we just cool the bedroom (where I work all summer) and the Capt’s studio. We haven’t seen our electricity bill yet and we may get sticker shock. Our next-door neighbors (identical living space, it’s a duplex) have a mini-split they’re running all the time, plus a small AC in the bedroom just for sleeping. Their bill was higher than ours last year.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:04 am
As you say, a lot depends on the size of the house and air flow. Mine is smaller, so the heat hits us harder, but I try to take advantage of my nice big corner windows until I start sticking to the couch. A barbecue is almost a necessity in our house during the summer. Somehow, when you segue into the heat, knowing you can hit the beach, go to the pool at the Freeman (which my friend and I do at least three times a week)it isn’t as oppressive as the first time you experience it. I don’t entertain as much during the summer…that is how I handle that question! ‘-)
July 14th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
AMM, If I am sitting at the computer I really have to have a fan blowing on me, do you do that?
Calypso, If you lived here you would think about it,I bet. Kind of like living in Maine and having a woodstove in the kitchen, your friends would need to bundle up to come over in the winter.
1st. Mate, I’ll be curious how your bills turn out. Weren’t you in the same place last summer?
Zoe, I don’t invite people as much in the summer, either, and this is why. But of course summer is when I try lots of new recipes and WANT to have people over more. Oh well!
July 14th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I am enjoying the relative cool in Guadalajara, but people here think it is hot. School is intense, just what I wanted.
Paul
July 15th, 2009 at 9:20 am
One of these days I will blog about our electricity conundrum, let’s just say that our bill is high and we are in DAC and we do NOT have any air conditioning. I’m not sure that we will continue without AC. I’m amazed Nancy that you can stay out of DAC – get a subsidy – and still have AC at all. Now I know our problem has to be the pool pump and filter.
Oddly enough, here in Mérida, I know many who either do not have AC or only have it in the bedrooms. We had people for dinner last night and I have to admit the heat question never occurred to me. I worry about the mosquito problem and whether I can beat them back off the terrace/dining room. It’s been in the mid to high 80’s here lately, the heat isn’t bad although the humidity can get oppressive until it rains. We do have large ceiling fans everywhere and they really handle the heat, I wish they handled the mossies too.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Paul, Glad you are enjoying the cool and learning a lot!
Jonna, I wish you would blog about it, I think everyone would be interested. What is DAC? Maybe what happens when you go over the minimum? We are lucky that when the guy did the initial renovation on this place he put in two meters since our property has addresses on two streets. (it is L shaped, with our neighbor on the corner) They only let you do this if it is possible that there are two separate housing units. The second meter is basically for the AC and the first is everything else. The two bills for the last month (June) was 1,000 pesos or about $75. During most of the year it stays around 400 – 500 pesos so I assume that adding AC to sleep and occasional other times adds about 500 pesos to the bill. It’s worth it to us! In the states our winter heat bill was $300 additional per month at least. We just changed our refrigerator, I hope that lowers the bill a little. We also have 13 ceiling fans and two floor fans that are on almost all the time.
One of our friends who has a pool is having a second meter installed to deal with the excessive electric. We asked him how he could justify it to them and he said the way their house is set up they have kind of an aisle off their front door to a room and they said that could be rented. I think his electrician is well known at CFE so that helps too.
Some people in Maz complain about mosquitoes but I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve been bothered by them. I do get mysterious bites once in a while but I think they are no-see-ums. I know they follow your breath so more fans might be the answer at dinnertime?