Heatwave coming. My preparations

[LVSteve]

As of Friday we will be under an excessive heat warning lasting until Monday evening. This means the temperature is likely to exceed 112°F as measured at McCarran airport. They are forecasting a peak over the weekend of 116-117°F. That is getting nasty. The forecast shows temps in excess of 110°F for 6-7 days straight.

Temperatures in the Colorado Valley and the Lake Mead area could well reach 123°F and Death Valley has possible highs of 129°F.

What is interesting has been some of the advice on TV about your A/C. Obviously clean filters, condensers and evaporator coils are a must. Mind you, getting to the evaporator coils is well nigh impossible in most homes in Vegas. Better hope your filters were up to the task.

The other thing is that they warn AGAINST switching off your A/C when you leave for work in the morning. The consensus is that the fabric of the house becomes heatsoaked and you more energy than if you had just bumped up the the thermostat 2-3 degrees. The trick seems to be not to get behind.

Here a a few procedures or habits I have to beat the heat and give my A/C a fighting chance. For those of you who live in Yuma this may be a bit baffling, but the homes here were largely built for style with only passing concern to keeping out the heat. Short version, the building codes and construction methods used stink.

1) To maximise efficiency I shall change the filter upstairs on Thursday, the downstairs filter having only just been done.

2) On the hottest days I probably will not open the blinds, even on windows that have become shaded from the Sun. With what are laughingly called double-glazed windows here you can feel the heat so the blinds make an extra layer.

3) I will try NOT to open any of the doors that exit directly outside. I shall use the garage as a sort of airlock.

4) If I take my car out of the garage for any reason I will not park it back inside until 9 or 10 pm. Why put a 3500lb hot flat iron inside the structure of your house in this weather.

5) I will not do any laundry of over the weekend so as not to use the gas dryer.

6) I will not be using my oven or Griddler for a few days.

Now we just have to hope that the power company's gear can keep up.

 

[Onomea]

Well, Steve, it seems you have thought it through. Good luck to ya! (Cold brews in the ice box might come in handy, too.)

Dang! That sounds mighty warm!

 

[Harrison]

Wait till the government starts closing down electric power plants, in the interests of fighting global warming. Then we will really see warm, inside as well as out.

 

[Steely Dan]

Back in my youth I remember traveling to Lake Havasu to visit family.

Being an ignorant teenager, I decided to take my cousins bike and see what I could see.

Odd........no one out and about but me.

After a little bit, I realized I didn't feel right (dehydration) and turned back, barely making it home.

Not a good idea for a Tennessee teenager to be traipsing about in the Arizona heat.

I also remember my uncles locking hubs on his 4x4 just pouring out grease like oil.

All the windows was covered in aluminum foil.

Houses were built at night.

The heat was just overwhelming.

 

[BaaBaa]

We got rid of our dryer over 24 years ago. Actually we never replaced it when it died. I have an inside wooden drying rack instead. In that heat it would also provide some welcome humidity.

And check out solar ovens, we're borrowing one and so far it's great, a bit like a crockpot in terms of cooking. In fact dinner tonight will go in later today.

Keep cool.

 

[jaykellogg]

I suppose you could buy tint film for some of the windows. Low E is good but that requires you to actually change windows.

If you can arrange shade for your AC condensing unit that will help.

 

[charlie sherrill]

The temp here yesterday was 96* with humidity making it feel like 102* I worked outside in that for about four hours. I lost six lbs. even though I was staying hydrated. My clothes were sopping wet and I undressed under the carport to keep from dripping through the house. The last time I was in Vegas it was 100* at night. Another 17* would probably keep me inside.

 

[Gunslinger808]

Yup, it's supposed to be 120 here on Saturday.
Already got the tanks aired up, the wife and I will be spending the day at the lake diving.
We'll pick up dinner on the way home so there's no using any kitchen appliance.
And the generators gassed up in case of rolling blackouts.

On the hottest days I probably will not open the blinds, even on windows that have become shaded from the Sun. With what are laughingly called double-glazed windows here you can feel the heat so the blinds make an extra layer.

About 2 years ago we bought a couple sheets of that styrafoam insulation and cut them to fit.
When it gets like this we just put them over the inside of the windows.
It really does help!

 

[finesse_r]

As of Friday we will be under an excessive heat warning lasting until Monday evening. This means the temperature is likely to exceed 112°F as measured at McCarran airport. They are forecasting a peak over the weekend of 116-117°F. That is getting nasty. The forecast shows temps in excess of 110°F for 6-7 days straight.

Temperatures in the Colorado Valley and the Lake Mead area could well reach 123°F and Death Valley has possible highs of 129°F.

What is interesting has been some of the advice on TV about your A/C. Obviously clean filters, condensers and evaporator coils are a must. Mind you, getting to the evaporator coils is well nigh impossible in most homes in Vegas. Better hope your filters were up to the task.

The other thing is that they warn AGAINST switching off your A/C when you leave for work in the morning. The consensus is that the fabric of the house becomes heatsoaked and you more energy than if you had just bumped up the the thermostat 2-3 degrees. The trick seems to be not to get behind.

Here a a few procedures or habits I have to beat the heat and give my A/C a fighting chance. For those of you who live in Yuma this may be a bit baffling, but the homes here were largely built for style with only passing concern to keeping out the heat. Short version, the building codes and construction methods used stink.

1) To maximise efficiency I shall change the filter upstairs on Thursday, the downstairs filter having only just been done.

2) On the hottest days I probably will not open the blinds, even on windows that have become shaded from the Sun. With what are laughingly called double-glazed windows here you can feel the heat so the blinds make an extra layer.

3) I will try NOT to open any of the doors that exit directly outside. I shall use the garage as a sort of airlock.

4) If I take my car out of the garage for any reason I will not park it back inside until 9 or 10 pm. Why put a 3500lb hot flat iron inside the structure of your house in this weather.

5) I will not do any laundry of over the weekend so as not to use the gas dryer.

6) I will not be using my oven or Griddler for a few days.

Now we just have to hope that the power company's gear can keep up.

This is all due to those nasty old hoarders hoarding up all the cold air in the summertime. At the first sign of a little heat they go around gathering up all the cold air they can find and just hoard it away. It really makes this problem much worse.

I can't believe I just used the H word.


LOL I am a little giddy this morning as I just bought a new SS TALO Ruger Vaquero with 3.75 inch barrel chambered in .45 ACP. I have been looking for one of these for a while. Should have it in a week to ten days or so.

 

[LVSteve]

This is all due to those nasty old hoarders hoarding up all the cold air in the summertime. At the first sign of a little heat they go around gathering up all the cold air they can find and just hoard it away. It really makes this problem much worse.

I can't believe I just used the H word.


LOL I am a little giddy this morning as I just bought a new SS TALO Ruger Vaquero with 3.75 inch barrel chambered in .45 ACP. I have been looking for one of these for a while. Should have it in a week to ten days or so.

So before they go to Walmart to snag all the .22LR, the hoarders have been sneaking up to my A/C units at 0-dark-30 and stealing all my "coolth". No wonder my power bills have gone up.

Congratulations on your new toy.

 

[Cal44]

We had 110+ temps one day here in Sacramento a couple years ago.

I asked the checker in the supermarket if it was OK for me to bring a lounge chair in and sit in the frozen food isle that afternoon.

She said it was OK with her, but she wasn't sure what the boss would say.

The prediction is for 108 next week here.

If hit, that would probably be the high of the year.

 

[JcMack]

The only reason I stay here is the weather is (was) not so extreme, but as of late (last couple months) we've had a lot of rain. Not so much just rain, but rain with damaging storms. A lot of my friends live in Illinois within 50-100 miles NW of me. Floods there like I've never seen before. Due to continuing storms some in Northern Illinois have been flooded and reflooded for months.
The weatherman today said extreme heat in the southwest will have a cooling effect here over the weekend thus causing more storms.

 

[Out West]

103 here today. Sometimes I ask myself "why are you still here?".

Out
West

 

[Ilike9mm]

OP: sounds like you've got it covered. What do you in the case of "brown-outs" or complete power failure? Cuss a lot?

Story #125: I have an older Honda Accord, runs great. On a trip to PHX...it was so HOT; turned on the AC and the engine temp went (dangerously) up. Turn it off it went back to normal. Nothing wrong with the AC system, just so blinking hot it was beyond the cars ability to cool. Lesson learned.

 

[Rule3]

I wish you the best. It is brutal here already. Not as hot only 95 but with the humidity the humiture is just awful!

Good planing but unless your garage is is under Air, I do not agree with #4

I only wish I could get one car, let alone 2 in my garage

 

[kennyb]

yep...our southern humidity just makes it soooooo much more uncomfortable

 

[sophie]

It is 105 degrees here at the house today and 16% humidity. Last 5-6 days have been triple digit. Looking foward to the next 4-5 days, maybe low to middle 90's. No rain in sight yet. Gonna be hot and dry everywhere this summer.

 

[kozmic]

74* and a bit of a breeze here but it's humid (75%) so it still feels a little sticky. Rain is on the way and will be around through the weekend.

I feel for you guys. Those are ridiculous temperatures. Stay out of harm's way and be safe!

 

[Mike McLellan]

Record highs here as well. Fans are all sold out with no more on the way. Add to our 80 - 90 degree heat, a pall of forest-fire smoke that descended upon us this morning. It's supposed to get hotter this weekend.

 

[LVSteve]

OP: sounds like you've got it covered. What do you in the case of "brown-outs" or complete power failure? Cuss a lot?

Story #125: I have an older Honda Accord, runs great. On a trip to PHX...it was so HOT; turned on the AC and the engine temp went (dangerously) up. Turn it off it went back to normal. Nothing wrong with the AC system, just so blinking hot it was beyond the cars ability to cool. Lesson learned.

Brown outs. You got it. If the power stays off too long leave the house and go hide in a casino or mall. Believe it or not that is actual real advice from the local health folks.

Your car issue could be a sign that your radiators are partially blocked on the outside by road filth or that your electric fan is running slow/not at all. The was a piece on this subject on Motorweek recently. The fix for the gunk is to remove the grille and back flush the radiators against the normal airflow as best you can. Do not use high pressure water as this bend the delicate fins.