T he last thing on my mind in case of "shift" is being too hot.You must be joking.One time I Had to work in 45 C for for few wks and it was different but survivable because I had to.Are we really that spoiled? I rather worry about being very cold , being out of fire wood.
Henry

No I'm NOT joking Henry. Heat, lack of air, ventilation, and dehydration are just as much a concern as cold & It's not just all about me, (or you) or only in a SHTF situation, I also have much loved family pets (including security dogs) and their wellbeing to consider. Did you work in 45 C temperatures with a thick fur coat on? Our climate here may be very different to yours, we have extreme humidity at times which is very draining of energy when combined with heat. If I only had limited access to my private water supply I would also want to conserve it as much as possible, not be wasting it to try and keep cool. As for heating, I have no concerns about our situation, our home is extremely warm & we live on 10,000 acres with a constant supply of firewood always ready and available year round.

Also another thing to take into account Henry, if I may.
No Henry, I'm not pickin' on you. 🙂
Just trying to bring some attention to others being different and require different things.

Some people can not handle heat as well as others. We are all geared differently. 🙂
I am one that can't handle high heat but strange as it sounds, I can handle more cold.

As for my furry and feathered friends. I rely on them to either protect me or feed me. They also don't do well in the heat.
So some consideration for them, as working partners, I see to that they can be as comfy as possible, even if that means shading them somehow from vast heat.
I have had heat stroke and I have seen others with it, both human and animals. It's not a pretty thing.

I should also add, that I have taken in critters that where showing heat exhaustion and also when in danger of freezing.These are some things one might think about in a shit times as well as now. Can you bring them in? Have a spot to put them in, safely? Have you got safe back up area (s) that are protection for those critters you count on?

One thing that really worked for us this past summer was using emergency mylar bags over the windows. I just cut them open and taped them to the outside of the windows, primarily just the ones that the sun hits. They pretty much reflect 100% of all heat. And it blocks out most light too. We did this on our slider door, worked wonders. Just had to remember to wear shoes when your stepped onto the patio - almost burned your feet off! Another addition was to hose down the patio - helped the cool down when the sun went down.

We did this same type of thing with dollar store thin mylar emergency blankets...the heat here was record breaking...this worked surprisingly well. I cut to fit the windows in the dining room and to fit the two steel doors with windows that got the sun as well as the one upstairs bedroom window...it was a revelation how much cooler we could keep the house doing this.

If you believe something to happen ,prepper for it.You know the temperature few ft under ground is lower and steady.Make nice little underground bunker.You can actually dig it by hand very easily .( you have to know what you are doing)Excellent exercise.I know people that in remote area dug whole basement under house by hand.(usually doing work like that you do not have to worry about diet or exercise)That is my thinking I like logic and hard work.Always got me ahead in life.
Henry

It would be great to have an underground bunker henry, and definitely cooler, but unfortunately most New Zealand terrain is not ideal for this sort of structure. We have a large amount of earthquakes and alot of rain in our area.

I think one of the more prevalent mantras of most preppers is "Not just survive, but thrive".
Personally I am not prepping to to the bare minimum, to just survive and be uncomfortable, or suffer unnecessarily.

If you can identify something that you see being a source of discomfort, why wouldn't you do what you can to mitigate it, instead of spouting that you could "tough it out".
In that case, you might as well give up all the modern conveniences you are "spoiled" with right now, because they are just making you weak.

The amount of "simple solution", know it all, tough as nails until the hammer falls rhetoric on this site is getting tiresome.

Props to anyone possessing the foresight to see what issues they might face, and to come up with reasonable and practical solutions to them.

I think one of the more prevalent mantras of most preppers is "Not just survive, but thrive".
Personally I am not prepping to to the bare minimum, to just survive and be uncomfortable, or suffer unnecessarily.

If you can identify something that you see being a source of discomfort, why wouldn't you do what you can to mitigate it, instead of spouting that you could "tough it out".
In that case, you might as well give up all the modern conveniences you are "spoiled" with right now, because they are just making you weak.

The amount of "simple solution", know it all, tough as nails until the hammer falls rhetoric on this site is getting tiresome.

Props to anyone possessing the foresight to see what issues they might face, and to come up with reasonable and practical solutions to them.

Woa...that one came way out of left field!
Seriously Phuqd, what triggered such an aggressive response?

Narrow thinking will not provide much comfort during difficult times.

I like to challenge myself with examples of possible scenarios and try to find solutions to problems in advance. This way I can really test them out and decide if they could be adequate. The replies to my original post have been extremely helpful and given me some great ideas that I am already putting into practice to see how they work out over this summer. I am very appreciative to you all for your knowledge and sharing your own experiences. 😀

Let's see if I can put in something useful here.
I like the idea of venting from the upper levels, warmer air will rise and air in motion will tend to continue up and out the vent.
Also, blockout shades will help keep out sunlight that would add heat inside the home, especially on the sides that get the most sun.
Other than that, if you can do some landscaping...
plant some thick, lush trees on the sun facing sides of the property. This will help block the sun from reaching the home.
Also to help, you may look into some 12v fans and get a small battery bank to power them. This could be charged by solar or wind generators.
There are lots of things you could do, it just depends on how much you want to invest in it.

Also to help, you may look into some 12v fans and get a small battery bank to power them. This could be charged by solar or wind generators.
There are lots of things you could do, it just depends on how much you want to invest in it.

Thanks Denob! I also just purchased a 12v portable air cooler/evaporator unit from Australia which arrived yesterday (no one I spoke to at AC companies had ever heard of them here in NZ would you believe)

http://www.transcool.info/

It runs off either mains power with the adaptor, plugs directly into the car cigarette lighter, or can also be used with solar. My husband is the electrical minded one in our home, so he is working on a deep cell battery, wiring and components today so it can be used without any of the former. It is very efficient, uses minimal water or can even be used dry if necessary, and is compact & lightweight 1.5 kg.

Also found some solar vent fans that are easy to install

Looking good! 🙂

Great little device same principle as the 12volt food coolers. I had not seen one specifically for producing cool air before. Nice find!

Great little device same principle as the 12volt food coolers. I had not seen one specifically for producing cool air before. Nice find!

I don't think so. If you're adding water it's an evaporative cooler. A swamp cooler. Higher efficiency to be sure.

I saw a house someone built where they took some 4" PVC pipe and buried 100ft or so 3ft deep out to an air inlet. Suck air through the pipe and the ground cools it before entering the house. Open some second story windows and that creates enough draw = no fan needed.

Well I stand corrected! Sorry Perfessor, I looked at the device and assumed (wrongly as it turns out) that it used the same principle as the 12volt food coolers utilizing Peltier diodes. I should have given it more than a cursory view.

You are correct it is an evaporative cooler. Thinking about it if it was a Peltier device it would not need to be so big. One of these 12 volt devices would work for the purpose required with a little modification.

I have been in situations of extreme heat & humidity where evaporative cooling fails completely because the air is already saturated with moisture. In these situations, even your sweat doesn't evaporate, hence no cooling effect. And, as OTG said, this can be very hard on animals too, dogs panting excessively, etc. I have learned from these episodes that I can't rely on evaporative cooling unless the unit also dehumidifies the air. Grace has mentioned that her environment is quite humid.

What I do love is perfessor's input re the person who buried a 100 foot pipe with air intake, lets the ground cool the air, etc. That's a gem there, thanks perf!

I have been in situations of extreme heat & humidity where evaporative cooling fails completely because the air is already saturated with moisture. In these situations, even your sweat doesn't evaporate, hence no cooling effect. And, as OTG said, this can be very hard on animals too, dogs panting excessively, etc. I have learned from these episodes that I can't rely on evaporative cooling unless the unit also dehumidifies the air. Grace has mentioned that her environment is quite humid.

What I do love is perfessor's input re the person who buried a 100 foot pipe with air intake, lets the ground cool the air, etc. That's a gem there, thanks perf!

No problem with this unit martha because it can be used without water in areas of high humidity. I have been trialing it over the last few days having had higher temp's and humidity...works great! Very happy I spent a little more than I anticipated to get the ideal solution for a number of situations...money well spent 🙂