Summer used to be my favorite season, probably because of the break from school, my birthday, and vacation season. But these days I’m pretty content staying inside and cool during the summer and saving my outdoor activity for the spring and fall. Unfortunately, we can’t stay cool where we live.
Remember last summer how cold it was? We were at Walsh and Sarah’s Faribault Fest in mid-July wearing sweatshirts with temps in the low 60s. This year we’ve been coming home to a painfully sweltering apartment every day after work. The old thermostat only goes up to 90, but the needle is well beyond that point. My guess is it’s over 115 degrees inside our apartment around 6pm after a day of the sun blasting through our big glass balcony door on the third floor. After running our 15-year old built-into-the-wall AC for four hours, the thermostat seems to fall a little below the highest possible reading, but still well above 90. If we leave it run all night while we sleep, we sometimes wake up to 85 degree indoor temps which seems pleasant by comparison.
I sweat non-stop every waking moment I’m in our apartment. A couple nights ago I moved one of our love-seats directly in front of the AC and it still provided no relief. Last night I had to take a cold shower after folding some laundry just to cool down for a couple minutes. By the time I go to bed my clothes are soaked and my hair looks like I just got out of the shower. We put in a maintenance call to have our AC inspected just to make sure it’s not to blame, but I think it’s just having a tough time cooling a 750-square foot space which has been exposed to the sun for 15 hours straight. We have a floor fan and ceiling fan running to circulate the air, but that doesn’t help much. I stopped using blankets in bed and have two fans pointed right at us, but until I fall asleep it’s still super uncomfortable. I went to take a shower the other night and my shampoo and conditioner were so hot they basically had the same consistency as water.
We can’t install our own window ACs because we don’t have proper windows. I thought of hanging a blanket over the big sliding door to keep it darker during the day. Anyone have any other ideas how to keep an apartment cool?
Ryan Glanzer Blog 
Cover up all windows. Just get white cloth and cover them all up. It might be dark but it should stop your apartment from heating up quit as as much. You might even go so far to buy some insulation and put it on all the windows under a blanket 😛
They also make portable air conditionings that can fit into sliding doors odd sized windows. They might be a bit spendy but you should see if you can do some research into them. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=-505060608004270756&id=pcat17071&type=page&ks=960&st=air+conditioning&sc=Global&cp=1&sp=&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q61697220636f6e646974696f6e696e67&list=y&usc=All+Categories&nrp=15&iht=n
I would say the best approach to solving the problem however, is Complain, Complain, Complain. Everyday show up at the managers office complaining that your air conditioning isn’t cooling your apartment. Make calls, eventually someone will bring it up to the right person and hopefully get it fixed.
Also maybe look into Metrosolar window films.
http://www.metrosolar.com/residential.html
“What Metrosolar does is affix plastic film to the window glass from the inside, using a special adhesive that has its own UV and infrared-filtering properties. The film can stay on the window for the lifetime of the window, and can be cleaned exactly the same way the glass would normally be cleaned. Windex, vinegar, etc. will not harm it. As I mentioned earlier, Metrosolar does such a great job that you don’t even realize it’s film on existing glass — it looks like factory-tinted glass.
The plastic can also eventually be removed — but it can’t be re-affixed.
I would imagine, however, that you would want to get your landlord’s permission before doing this. I ran the idea past the rest of the board members in my building, and no one had a problem with it. In fact, it would only have been a problem if the film “significantly impacts the exterior appearance of the building”. E.G., if the film blackened the windows or gave them a mirror-like finish from the outside. ”
http://www.washington-heights.us/yabbse/index.php?topic=5224.0
You could do like your grandma…she bought a portable air conditioner. You can take it from room to room and it really cools things off. Maybe if you sweet talk her, she’d sell it to you, since she’s always cold. My other suggestion would be to look for an apartment that has central air, or even a basement unit that would stay cooler.
I don’t understand why your landlord wouldn’t replace the shitty unit that you have? There is no way that your living room should be above 75 degrees if your AC worked properly.
All of the aboce.
#1 Cover all the windows, blankets, towels, tin foil, whatever it takes. Keep the sun out and the room darker and the temp will go down considerably.
#2 Bitch about the AC. It’s probably so old it just can’t cool good enough anymore.
#3 Check in to a portable AC unit. They are on wheels and can be moved from room to room. It would make sleeping much better.
Ha ha ha lolz Calif is so much hotter
Summer is for being home all day playing tetris. 🙂 Thats what i do atleast.
http://www.mytetris.info Check It Out.
if it’s hotter in than out, open the windows.