The upstairs central air crapped out today. The repairman is coming, but he’s not sure when he can get here. It’s at least 85 degrees up there.
I’ve got a 24" box fan running in her room right now. But blowing around hot air is not making a huge difference.
Any ideas that would use normal household stuff (water, ice?)? I have vague ideas about using evaporation somehow, but it is currently 74% relative humidity.
Thanks!
I’m not sure on how to cool the room, per se, but when it got super hot in my house growing up, I would go to the bathroom, shut the windows, turn the water on as cold as it’ll go and let the shower run. It cools the room off pretty well, but, however, it won’t work all night and you obviously can’t do it in the kid’s room.
Another thing we would do is throw slightly damp pillow cases in the freezer for a few hours before bed. It would cool the pillow/our faces off enough to fall asleep.
I’ve heard of people putting a pan/bowl of ice in front (or behind??) the fan. Primitive air conditioning.
And according to my ex, who grew up without AC, it’s always more tolerable to be outside and hot than indoors and hot…
Box fan, cardboard, duct tape, cooler, ice. Make a trapazoidal vent so the only way the fan can get air is from the cooler. Make a channel in the cooler so the the air has to pass over the ice, make an intake vent at the other side of the cooler.
Thees not a lot you CAN do. The ideas above work alright, but I say evacuate the effected areas until help arrives.
Personally, i don’t find 85 degrees, with a breeze to be unbearable, but most people do. Get me in a room even slightly lower than room temperature, though, and I just won’t stop bitching.
Campout out downstairs where it is a little cooler.
Yup, we’re downstairs watching TV. I’ve got the fan set up behind a bin with a big bag of ice in it. I probably can’t manage NurseCarmen’s setup on my own, but it sounds awesome. If it’s still hot in an hour, I’ll see if we can do some more air channeling.
Thanks guys!
This is why cheap-o movie theaters were invented. ANYTHING that only costs $1 and is air conditioned will be an improvement!
The room has a window? Set up a fan so it blows the hot air OUT the window. Then set up another fan inside the room to circulate the air. Putting the bag of ice in a pan of water behind the second fan won’t hurt.
Assuming your location is correct, I would just open up all the doors and windows upstairs, keep the fan running, and get a cross-breeze going. It’ll cool down as it gets dark.
If the room has two windows, have one fan blow air in and another blow air out.
If it’s only the upstairs is hot, why not sleep downstairs?
this.
adding to the idea: 3" 90" PVC elbows glued up to form channels in and out of the ice chest. DO NOT USE DRY ICE. It evaporates into carbon dioxide and will displace oxygen in the room.
Set up a tent downstairs so he can literally “camp out”. 
Otherwise, have the fan blow the air out the window. Make sure the door to the room is open so it might “pull” the cool air up from downstairs. Not sure how well this will work. It depends on the location of the room and how far it is from the stairs.
On unbearably hot nights with the fan just pushing the hot air around, I’d wet down a towel or a t-shirt and sleep in that.
Send the kid outside for a bit to sit in the car, with the windows up, for half an hour or so.
When he gets out, the room will seem nice and cool and that breeze from the fan delightful.
What?
In all seriousness, just keep the windows open and the fans blowing. By midnight or so, it should have cooled down enough to sleep pleasantly. No pajamas, no covers.
For the future, stop blasting the AC. You can acclimate to warm weather quite readily if you let your body do so. 85 degrees shouldn’t be an issue at all.
It is quite a bit easier to cool off the kid than the room. Cool shower, don’t dry off completely, stand in front of fan, sleep without PJs. Once you get your core temp down a bit, and air blowing on damp skin, it will feel quite pleasant at 85 – as long as you’re naked!
Find a cheap hotel nearby and stay there.
In this economy depending upon where you are, on a Wednesday evening, you should be able to get a great deal.
Thanks for all the quick responses. The baby wound up waking up as well - I thought she would be OK, since her room has a big ol’ ceiling fan, but she woke up all sweaty at 8 or so.
So right now, in each kid’s room, I’ve got the window cracked, a wet towel hung up, with the bottom end in a bucket of ice water, and the fan in front, hopefully sucking in air that has cooled by evaporating water and dispersing it throughout the room. Baby is back asleep.
Best of all, my HVAC guy just showed up and found the drain pan was full of water, and is in the process of attempting to unplug whatever has plugged up the drainage line. 9 p.m. - this guy is a keeper! (I’m also very glad to hear that we don’t have a giant coolant leak which would require that we buy a new unit.)
My kids aren’t great sleepers when they’re not in their usual space, so I’m very thankful it won’t come to trying to camp in the living room.
I reckon I’ll set the temp a little higher than usual, and try to sneak in and put some covers on the baby!
Oh, and our bedroom is downstairs, so we’re sitting pretty. 
We used to put box fans on top of five gallon buckets of ice. It worked.