Heat wave

We live in the Southern Hemisphere, so mid-summer. We are experiencing a heat wave at the moment and my twins are sleeping so badly! Putting an aircon unit in their room is not an option for us. We use fans at the moment, but is just is not enough. Have any of you used a portable aircon unit or a mist fan. Does the mist fan not just increase the humidity in the room?

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

I think the idea behind the mist fans is that the mist is sprayed, then it evaporates in the wind. They install them at places like Walt Disney world, and other theme parks in FL, and they are amazing in that situation. I don't know about using one inside of a house though.

Good luck!

 

This was when mine slept in just diapers. Until they started taking those off then it was a onesie. I put a fan in their room, used blackout curtains during the day and watched the weather like a hawk- if a breeze started up at 4 and my house was oh, 110 degrees but it was 97 outside, it was time to open every window in the house to get that breeze in. If we don't install ac this year I will probably get them their own fans.

Weirdly, my boys did get used to it. When it got cold we had problems.

 

Thanks, I also do the same as soon as the temperature is cooler outside all the windows and doors are opened. Wish they could only sleep in daipers, but can't risk that anymore. I am also trying to make bedtime a little later to get the their room to be as cool as possible, but not so easy as they nap from 11h30 till 14h00 most days and are tried by 19h00.

 

Do you live in a hot humid climate or a hot dry climate?

I live in a hot dry climate and I've found that the evaporative humidifiers make a room feel cooler--the kind with a fan over a resevouir of water.
In a hot humid climate the recommendation if to remove all items that can trap humidity, like carpeting, overstuffed furniture, etc.

If you have a two story house you can also try sleeping downstairs, because heat rises AND the roof absorbed a lot of heat during the day the first floor will usually cool off faster.

We also work the windows, between 9 and 10 in the morning all the windows are doors are closed and kept closed throughout the heat of the day, the curtains are also kept closed all day with those windshield reflectors behind the ones where sun actually hits the house. Then at around 6 pm when the sun is going down, the house is opened and the windows are left open all night. We live in the mountains so we are lucky that the overnight temp is always low, it actually gets cold in the house around 4am, but we keep the windows up to fill up on cool air for the next day.

If you are home owners, you should think about making some modifications to your house for future heat waves as it's only getting hotter. Here is a useful site http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/passive_cooling.htm