4 Ways to Stay Cool When It’s Hot as Heck
Y’all. It is hot out there.
With a heat index of 113 projected for today in Houston, Power Vac America headquarters is busy planning ways to stay cool.
When we’re cleaning an A/C unit in a house or in an office, we have to turn off the A/C. And if it’s over 100 degrees outside, it won’t stay cool inside for very long without the A/C running. In order to stay cool, even while we’re working on an A/C unit, we have to get creative.
Here are a few of our best tips for staying cool when it’s dangerously hot:
1. Put It On Ice
Our first tip is the most obvious: load up on ice in coolers.
Yes, the ice will melt fast in this heat. Yes, that means we’ll have to buy ice to replenish the melted ice when the crew breaks for lunch.
But in the meantime, our crew will be enjoying ice cold drinks and bringing down their core body temp every time they stop for a drink.
2. Load Up On Electrolytes
A few summers ago, a friend of mine had to be rescued by park rangers while he was camping in the Grand Canyon. A lifelong camper and backpacker, he was used to primitive camping and had come prepared with plenty of water and other supplies.
What caught him by surprise, though, was that the water just wasn’t rehydrating him. No matter how much water he drank, he just kept getting more and more dehydrated in the summer heat.
When the park rangers picked him up, they immediately gave him sports drinks to help him rehydrate. It turns out, our bodies need help replenishing the salts and electrolytes that we lose when it’s excessively hot outside.
Make sure you’re replenishing any salts that you are sweating out by drinking sports drinks or even children’s pedialyte.
3. Take a Break
Give yourself plenty of time to step out of the sun and heat and cool down.
Even if you can’t go inside to enjoy some air conditioning, getting out of the sun and into the shade will help you to cool down faster.
4. Leave the Polyester in the 70’s
Stick with lightweight, breathable clothing. That heavy polyester blend suit from the 70’s traps the heat close to your skin, making you sweat even more, and prevents that sweat from helping you to cool off. Even some cotton, like denim or other twill weaves, can be too heavy for the Texas heat waves.
Linen and lightweight cotton or lightweight sports blends will be your best bet for fighting the heat. And skip the black– instead, stick to lighter colors that reflect, not absorb, additional heat.