We found ourselves without air conditioning on a 94-degree day, with a heat index of about 100 degrees, thanks to corn sweat. Did you know corn sweating off heat actually makes it feel even worse? My husband was gone at a work conference, so it was me and my two kids, ages five and one, battling the Indiana heat. Here are my top survival tips if you are in a similar situation.
Make a plan and begin preparations.
Once you know roughly how long you will be without air conditioning, make a short-term plan first. In our case, having the unit checked by a warranty-approved tech would be about 28 hours after the unit failed. My short-term plan was to get two rooms cool enough to live out of. As it was a Tuesday, I knew that in those 28 hours, we needed access to laundry, a full kitchen, and close proximity to school. If we had a basement, this would’ve been a prime living location. Fortunately, we at least have a ranch house. We wouldn’t need to deal with second-story temperatures rising even higher.
Get working to cool that heat.
We have a roomy owner’s suite that could double as a hangout room. I obtained a window air unit large enough for a small room and a portable unit with a high enough capacity for a larger room. Thanks to YouTube tutorials, I quickly set up the portable machine while my one-year-old napped in that same room, thanks to multiple sound machines. I got the temps down by 5 degrees in about one hour’s time, and the little guy slept away without a care.
Determine what needs extra attention or preservation.
In our case, I put things that grow mold quickly into the fridge, like fresh bread. I put the laptop and any weather-sensitive items into the one cool room as soon as it was functional. Important medications or items should be prioritized quickly. If you plan to leave, consider what needs to be done to secure the house and everything in it while you’re gone.
Use your village
With my husband being gone for work, I had scheduled a family friend and trusted babysitter to come help me so I could take a couple of hours to breathe. I texted to warn her about the hot temps and to see if she was willing to still come over. That single bedroom was cool, but the rest of the house was a sauna. Mercifully, she was still willing to join us. I used the time to assemble industrial strength fans from Lowes (who knew some of those came fully unassembled?) We used one in the bathroom while getting ready for bed and the other in the kitchen to try to keep the pantry cool.
If something changes, decide on plan B
When the tech visited 32 hours into the episode, he determined that the unit qualified for replacement. He walked me through a five-step process required by the warranty company and explained that due to the holiday weekend, we would be looking at five additional days at a minimum until the new unit could be installed.
I now had more decisions to make: Do I take the kids and go to a relative’s house, Airbnb, or hotel? Do we just tough it out a few more days until the weekend, my husband’s return, and then flee to a hotel? I checked Airbnb nearby, and as it was a holiday weekend, any available were either tiny bungalows without big enough beds or third-story apartments farther than I would like from my son’s school.
Consider every possible resource.
While talking with my husband about the lengthy time until we could get a new unit, he reminded me that our neighbor, Richard, does HVAC work for his business. I called him. Mental note: Find out if your neighbors are HVAC specialists before signing up for cumbersome warranty plans.
He answered his phone and kindly offered to drive across town during his lunch hour. He was able to replace a part to get the unit running. After a few hours, that hurdle that we had waited more than a day for felt great to jump.
Be prepared to pivot if needed.
Later that evening, I noticed something odd. Our thermostat seemed to be displaying the wrong temperature. The main areas were still hot enough to make you sweat. Our Echo device, our five-year-old’s favorite gadget, confirmed that it was 81 degrees, but our thermostat kept insisting it was 71.
Be persistent.
Knowing that my neighbor had already dropped everything to help us, I wondered who else to contact. My sister went through a similar drawn-out home warranty process with her family while living in San Antonio. San Antonio is infamous for long, hot summers and resulting air conditioner unit deaths. She recommended a local company that has fast responses. I called them. They were out within a few hours and replaced our thermostat, which had decided to crash at the same time as our unit. (Both were end of life.)
The temperatures slowly began to drop, and by the next day, our home finally cooled enough for me to turn off our portable AC and the two industrial-sized fans that had been running nonstop. The saga lasted four days.
Would I Change Anything?
My biggest change will be to cancel our warranty once we get the unit. As I write this, it has been almost six days, and the new unit is not even scheduled for installation. The fact that I have followed up multiple times and done everything required on our end shows me how poorly these companies are run. Our neighbor made a quick trip to get the part and fix the unit within a half hour. Waiting for the warranty-approved company to finally come out and tell us we could get a new unit without actually helping move toward that goal feels so callous in contrast. The most significant change I would make would be to get a professional out the same day instead of waiting for the warranty-approved company. Next time, I will refuse to wait thirty-two hours even to be seen.
For more ideas about emergency preparedness, check out this post by another Indianapolis Moms Writer.
