Ah. Now I feel the Summer. We’ve been having a streak (starting Monday, or that’s when I noticed anyway) of quite hot days here in LA and, as usually happens above a certain temperature, 
I’ve begun to be in danger of shutting down. I tend to get perpetually sleepy in such conditions, and wake up quite early in the morning (which is good for avoiding the heat with an early start), and so get to sleep relatively early. During the day I’m going at half speed if I don’t manage my temperature properly. I’m not a big fan of just switching on and blasting the air conditioning the whole day, so you can say it is entirely my choice to have these issues. Instead, I try to manage good airflow at times of day when it is possible, and shield interiors from heating up under the influence of the sun. It works pretty well, but there’s a point in the middle to late afternoon where things have build up to the point where I find myself sitting staring at my work for long gaps not doing anything although I was sure that I’d started a task… or procrastinating on something random (er… see image above left*) and then I know it is time to try something different to restore productivity. (I’m working out a lot of monotonous details in some geometry I’m doing for the Project and so it is easy to fall off the rails.) Splashing into a bath is very tempting at this point. Going off to work in one of my favourite cafe/remote-offices around the city is another attraction… but which one?
-cvj
*(Er… A very nice dipped ink pen that I found in a drawer, on low grade paper… click for larger.)
I meant a deliberate siesta!
I do some of that, to some extent. That’s the waking up early part I mentioned. See the sketch for the siesta part! 😉
-cvj
Can you adopt a Central American (and other similar-climate-culture) -type schedule, with work in the early morning and late afternoon, and long lunch break + siesta in the middle of the day? Or would that mess with the body clock too much? Or is that more or less what you’re doing already?
–IP
This morning, I awakened at 4:30 a.m., so by 5;30 a.m. I was hiking up Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It was wonderful hiking in the cool air. On the way down, I got a little lost and took a side trail, so by the time I worked my way back to the main trail, the sun was fully out. I ran into a man on the trail who asked me about how far it was to the crosses left where the firefighters died 16 years ago. He also wanted to know if it was a round loop trail. I told him that I’ve never found another (good) way down the mountain, and since it was getting late (7:30 a.m.) and I was hiking alone, I’d decided not to try this time. He said, “I wish I’d been on this trail a couple of hours ago. It’s already too hot.” Yes, it was. When I returned home, I napped through the hottest part of the day. I don’t feel guilty about that because I was far too productive during the rest of it. I don’t have AC–just some strategically placed fans.
In Pasadena, run the window fans all night, then around eight in the morning, close all the windows. By seven at night, it’s usually cooler outdoors than in, so throw the windows open and start the fans. No AC, except in real heat waves.
We’ve just had a heatwave and I found that sitting in a comfy garden chair with feet submerged in the childrens’ paddling pool sipping a large Pimms worked for me!
When I lived in Pasadena, the electric company gave me the advice that it’s actually more energy-efficient to run the AC continuously at a low setting (ie, warmer temperature), so it doesn’t have to work so hard when you do have it on. Well, the last part should be true, but I don’t know about the integrated power — I don’t recall my electric bills changing much when I changed behaviors.
It is mainly environmental, I suppose. I like trying to find ways to conserve, and don’t like cutting myself off from the environment too readily. Later in the day if it gets too much I do give in and clear out the accumulated hot air that is hanging by putting it on for a little while. Sometimes.
Yes, the kind of humidity you have ocher there means that what I am doing here would be pretty close to being insufficient…
Cheers,
-cvj
So is the aversion to continuous use of A/C strictly an environmental concern, or is there more to it than that?
I am also adversely affected by the heat, but find that the measures that you take are ineffective, so I go for the A/C.
Also, the Midwestern humidity may be a little harder to deal with than the SoCal dry heat.