How to Temporarily "Cool" House While Awaiting Repair

What appliances do you expect to be damaged?

I was expecting my 11yr old refrig and my older freezer to maybe go out. 97F @ 9:50PmPT, dog & I are alright.

With this excuse by a New fridge . Efficiency of Fridge has changed a lot in last 11 years and very soon ,you will recover the money.

Guest1947

It depends on your definition of very soon.

Based on the info here: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html

at $0.10/KWH the annual cost for an old fridge (pre 1986) is $179 and the annual cost for a recent fridge (post 2001) is $64. A difference of $115 a year. If you heat your house for as many months as you cool it using a heat pump for both, you don't need to compensate for it.

A typical fridge cost between $500 and $1000. It will pay for itself in 4 to 8 years.

If his present fridge is more recent than 1986, the savings are much lower and it might never pay for itself.

New appliances are nice but don't last as long as the old one did.

What is the cost for the environment / society to create more garbage when it is not needed? The trashed fridge is likely to be damages and release its freon in the atmosphere. The longer you delay this, the more likely a recycling infrastructure will be available to take care of it.

Have you cleaned the condenser coils recently--that would help. But, yes, the units will be running longer due to the heat.

What is the temperature outside at, say 9:45 pm? You might consider a ventilation fan drawing in cool air at night, then closing up the house (or the kitchen, where the refrigerator / freezer are).

(Actually, I prefer the fan to be blowing the inside air out--a predilection from my coal mining days)

Longer term: do you have a basement? If so, I'm guessing it is cooler (year round) than the living quarters--moving the freezer to the basement (with proper precautions for moving it) might be a good thing--cooler environment means less run time.

Dear rhkramer: COOL! An ex-coal miner. My hard-hat's off to you, from one of the sole proffessions where Red China's still buying our stuff (--the other export's scrap metal). I WISH I had a basement. Arizona has caliche--a type of chalk that varies in density,--some removable with a spade/shovel,--some needing dynamite, so that has "discouraged' basements, even though the square footage is the cheapest of any given house. Temps @ 9:45 are still in the 90sF. I've hooked-up a fan that'll probably keep them from failure. So now, I'm into comfort measures. Just need to get the aircon "up" again. It's too bad compressors can't be entered-into to then replace the wiring--a rebuilt (on one's workbench) compressor would help the handy among us, and "re-cycle" also. An "issue" might be the loss of refrigerant-gasses, but your local air-con store could collect those for a pittance (--plus, they charge a BUNCH to "re-charge" when it came to that). Come out West. Can still stake gold/other claims, but keep your investment low, in case the EPA people stop you for "enviro reasons (-prejudice against those ambitious enough to pan/suc-/shaft-mine)." The historic town of Jerome, sits on a huge abandoned dome where copper mining was active for decades in the last century. Gold, silver, and tourqoise was also found, --gold enough to pay for the all the equipment to mine the copper. Coil cleaning is a great idea applicable to my situation, Thanks. Off topic: --Bank/market/credit "retractions"(--or expansions ) are cyclic and deliberate, orchestrated by the Illuminati-remnant and their Globalist ilk. The Globalists intend to crash the Dollar AND the US economy, folding the US/Canada/Mexico into a hemisphere-wide Fascist super-state, under the U.N. "Universal Declaration" The Globalists feel the Lybia war is "necessary" to consolidate Islam under the Islamic Brotherhood on the way to the Euro-Caliphate.--Jek Silberstein

Re: COOL! An ex-coal miner. My hard-hat's off to you, from one of the sole proffessions where Red China's still buying our stuff (--the other export's scrap metal).

Thanks! ;-)

Re: I WISH I had a basement. Arizona has caliche--a type of chalk that varies in density,--some removable with a spade/shovel,--some needing dynamite, so that has "discouraged' basements, even though the square footage is the cheapest of any given house.

Yup, a basement would be tough. ;-)

Re: Temps @ 9:45 are still in the 90sF. I've hooked-up a fan that'll probably keep them from failure.

Fan sounds good! Too bad it doesn't cool down more at night.

Re: It's too bad compressors can't be entered-into to then replace the wiring--a rebuilt (on one's workbench) compressor would help the handy among us, and "re-cycle" also.

Although the failure results in electrical problems, I think the root cause is usually mechanical--wear and increased friction and such putting too much load on the electrics. You'd need tools to repair the bores and pistons (assuming a piston type pump) as well as rewinding the motor. Still, at the prices for new ones.

Re: An "issue" might be the loss of refrigerant-gasses, but your local air-con store could collect those for a pittance (--plus, they charge a BUNCH to "re-charge" when it came to that).

I don't think anybody in the HVAC field does anything for a pittance ;-) (No offense to anybody--nothing anywhere gets done for a pittance anymore.)

Thanks for the reply!

You are correct, but a whole house unit is 2-3X what a replacement compressor is! As my house is in Foreclosure (--BUT, I DO have an attorney, and EMC-CHASE(--crooked-'Servicer') IS "guilty" of Racketeering, imo...), I am not finished PAYING for the attorney...so that prevents more than a compressor replacement, at this time. I may have segwayed into something "off-topic" by way of explaination? I AM "getting used" to NOT having aircon--I can imagine how Arizonans survived before Air-conditioning arrived in numbers about 1955. Too bad I can't berm my house, with many feet of earth, because up/down, "caves" are 58F, so its easier to adjust to 68F or so, only having to go up/down 10F per season. The 410A type of freon/clone IS more efficient, although line pressures are much higher(than the R-22 now in phase-out), so a two-stage 5-ton "outside" portion of a split unit like I have, would be a minimum of $3,000, about two grand MORE than I can afford. I think if the bank seizes my house, they'd go with a more expensive unit,--the quicker to rent it, and gain revenue. Maybe I'll be "innoculated" against bids due to no air? I...wouldn't buy a house in Az without working air, because it will HAVE to, by LAW, be fixed BEFORE occupancy, because a landlord can't charge rent unless everything's functional. I don't "need" any money if the banks would simply extend credit, but even when I paid the pre-HAMP payment, ON the amount & ON Time, my credit was submerging further, because HALF of the Servicer's operation does NOT "recognize" a partial payment,--even one SUGGESTED by the infernal Servicer! So then even a partial payment is considered: "low/slow/'no'" paying. I was TOLD to skip one payment to "qualify" for HAMP, when I already qualified for HAMP, having paid 46% of my retirement for over 3 years on Time/amt. EMC-CHAS SHOULD have "modified" me @ the very first. I STILL CAN pay, and therein lies the "racketeering" for which the Major bank CEOs should be, like Maddoff, arrested and charged, their assets auctioned and sold.

A fan, a towel, some means to wet the towel. Phoenix is pretty dry evaporative cooling should work. Place the towel on the in side of the fan air movement will hold it there. set up something to proved water to the towel. Gallon jug with petcock in the bottom to control flow. Plastic hose to towel.

More elaborate you can set up pump to spray a fine mist in air stream of fan.

great idea with the towel & fan, I use something similar when on my bicycle riding around in the heat (112F in the shade). I HAVE to run my computer, because I get great ideas and distraction from the heat. Spray'd be "safer" than a drip which could hit something electrical and short-out my fan. --Great Philosophy, "sliding-into" life's End!

Shut off as many electronics as you can. Keep the sun out as best you can. Open windows at opposite ends of a room to draw in a bit of a draft. If you can buy a swamp cooler I would highly recommend it. Also, Ozzb's idea will work greatly to keep temperatures down.

My refrigerator needs to be turned-down to maintain the same level of cool, when interior temps rise.

Buy a large used window air conditioner, then sell it when your compressor is installed. Or maybe someone rents them.

That's a very good idea, and I'd have to modify the window openings to hang one out, because I've only got tall, side opening halves, so I'd need an insert between the conditioner height and the rest of the window. This is STILL a great idea, and I may do that, buying/renting, Thanks!

Not all "window shakers" are wide; some units are tall and narrow.

Buy a used or new 5000 btu window unit. You'll need it in your new apartment, since the bank will foreclose anyway. They're very cheap. Is your lawyer in cahoots with the bank? It happens.

Some people that go to my church have a food ministry here in the high desert. they have 2 freezers and 2 fridge/freezers that are inside a 60s era single wide trailer. The trailer has Windows broken out, and the temps here range from -15 to 115 degrees f. I don't think you have anything to worry about!

Some HVAC installers will provide/rent-at-reasonable-price a portable AC if repairs or installations are backlogged during busy summer months (happened at my dad's when the HX of his AC unit sprung an unfixable leak last summer). Some big box hardware stores with rental departments may also have portables available in warmer climates. The portable units are free standing guys rolling on casters, and are usually good for cooling a few rooms of the house, with less-frequented rooms being closed off. Just remember that length of flexible exhaust duct gets pointed outside :P

A couple things:

1. Your appliances will not be damaged by 90 or even 120 degree temperatures.

2. You are fortunate to have a house that only rises to 90 degrees in 110 degree outside temps.

A few fans will make the house feel a little cooler. If you are really unable to deal with 90 degree temperatures, (in the 50's people though nothing of dealing with 90's in Arizona) then portable air conditioners/window air conditioners are the obvious answers. Buying a couple seems absolutely crazy to me for just a week's minor discomfort, but a couple of the bigger ones available at places like Home Depot would keep your house more comfortable, if it is not very large. These may be available for rent from the places that charge astronomical prices to rent furniture and appliances to people who don't realize that a couple months' rent is enough to buy such things.

Misters, swamp coolers, running through the sprinklers every now and then, etc. are all options.

Ventilating the place well at night to cool it down so that it takes longer to come up to temperature in the day could help a little.

97 degrees @ which point I went to bed with a hand-mister and a fan flowing over me. I can "tough it out" out. Good ideas, Thanks.

I DO have ceiling fans, and while they're not always in use, they are, NOW.

You might try opening the attic access hatch...which will allow particularly hot layers of air to go up into the attic. It will also provide a vent for your attic so that you don't get an oven layer of hot air up there.

I understand that you don't have much money. This is a pretty cheap solution. As are a "mister" and personal fan.

Rent a large portable evaporative cooler, mount it outside the house, blowing in one end and out the other. With your desert like climate the wet bulb should be low enough that you can take the edge off what be a oven like interior otherwise. Good luck and a speedy repair job on your AC system.

Lou Bindner

The portable evaporative coolers are a good answer. If you can't swing even that cost, try just wetting down your roof and the outside of your house, with a hose, a few times starting at early in the morning as you can. That is still evaporative cooling just on a different scale. It will make a difference.

Excellent idea!

it's my understanding that in area's of low humidity such as phoenix, an evaporative cooling sytem is effective and more effective than a conventional cooling system. i'm not not familiar with this type of system because i live in the eastern part of the usa where the humidity is normally high. you'll have to do your own reseach.

Have you got the silver stuff in the roof?

(Aluminium foil) - better than free air conditioning.