Hi, this will be my first summer living in Cancun.. with how hot it has gotten recently.. how would you compare the summer to now? I hope its not much worse.. let me know I am very curious and would like to know how to prepare for it a little better. Thanks! rangehat:
I think it's been hitting about 31 (high 80s), with strong sun, and high humidity, the last five days or so. In terms of how it feels, this is about as bad as I remember it, last year, though the absolute temperatures will go higher, perhaps to 32-33 degrees C. (low 90s), July-August. I've been using my a/c for all but about two hours, of a morning, during this last stretch, here. [This is still not as hot as it gets in Texas, where I can remember one week, about 1976, when the temps hung around 45-50 degrees (to 127), basically like Saudi Arabia, on a good day.]
It is! You ain't seen nothin' yet! The buildings heat up so much that they hardly cool off at night. The water in the underground cisterns heats up so that even a cool shower isn't really that cool. Lots of people survive summer here only by running a/c most of the time. We make it running a/c only a few hours a day. But our house has an insulated roof to make keep it from absorbing heat. And our house is oriented so it gets a lot of cross-breeze. (When we moved here we rented a house that didn't get breezes and it was hell. Houses that are flush to the one next to them, townhouse style, are usually hotter that those that are standalone.) The key is to give on the idea that you don't want to sweat. You are going to sweat most of the time during summer. So wear clothes that allow for that comfortably. And stay hydrated. And take cool showers. And run the a/c when you need to.
Yes it gets hotter .I had a reminder last weekend in Merida- it was 39 degrees at 7pm.My eyes felt like they were boiling inside my head. I have recently started sweating when playing tennis but in the summer I sweat when sitting still. Luckily our house does have a good breeze , which is great as there is no way we can afford to run the a/c for more than 2 hours at night. The ocean is a great comfort during the summer .! Having said all that, I still would not swap it for miserable, grey cold British winters.
Yellowsubmarie, I don't know how you feel about hot weather, generally but, after laying aside the idea that you're dying if you're sweating, it can become quite a plus. I'm expecting to enjoy sitting in the baseball stadium, tonight, watching our local team, the Tigres, play in the warm summer night air. Most of the year, the weather here is, more or less, delightful. It's pleasantly warm, eight months out of the year, I suppose. This means you can sit outside much of the time, take an early morning walk and know it will be comfortably warm to do so. We spend as much time outdoors as our work, etc., permits, listening to the birds (we've even developed a special fondness for grackles, finding them to have interesting personalities), having coffee outside in the early AM, and a glass of wine in the evenings: I work, outdoors, table and chairs and laptop on the balcony, whenever possible. Enjoy.
Four of the almost five years I spend in Cancun were without a/c. I survived, but I felt like my insides were cooking most of the time. I have come up with about 27 ways to keep cool in those circumstances. I'm still not sure whether I was an extreme masochist or just really, really cheap. At least in Cancun, you can find your way to places with extreme cooling systems. In Valladolid, I truly thought that I was in the seventh circle of hell because there was almost no relief. This may sound more dramatic than I meant to be.
Oh heck yes the heat is yet to come. In the summer it never really goes away, the best option is to hit the ocean or a cenote, get dark curtains to block the sun out of the house as much as possible, fans, A/C, stay hydrated and wear very little clothing. Multiple showers a day help, though our cistern and tinaco get so hot that a cold shower is impossible, luke warm is about as cool as the water gets and that's in the morning, by night the showers are quite warm even with just the "cold" tap on. A couple of summers ago I kept saying to myself "It's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk". And so I tried to fry an egg on my front porch. It was a little runny, but it cooked! I much prefer the heat to cold!
A/C Just as Cancuncanuck suggests by her post, you might not choose a tropical climate if a/c had not been invented. We use ours, liberally, but still manage to keep electrical consumption down. I don't know if this could be a concern for you, at all, but bills of 5-6,000 pesos per two month billing period are frequently mentioned. Some ways to save on electricity, while enjoying the comforts of a/c, are included in CC's post- keeping the sun from shining into your home, dressing very lightly indoors, and not being afraid to take a couple of showers a day. A shower taken in the early afternoon- followed by a short nap in an air conditioned room!- can make it easier to face going out in the heat again, later. Make sure your refrigerator is not cooling your house, by checking the seal for leaks; likewise, make sure your house is not cooling your neighborhood by checking for leaks of cool air to the outside, which can easily occur around doors and windows, but also occurs in hidden places, like openings around pipes, etc. So, look under the sinks and other places where there may be openings to the outside: they can easily be sealed with wadded up plastic bags, if they're out of sight. Run your a/c at the highest, comfortable temperature for you: 26 degrees will use less electricity than 25, etc. Run the units on the lowest fan speed, so that the cool air just dumps out into the room, using your ceiling fans to get the distribution you need. Have them also running at the lowest, comfortable speeds (they may then use less than half the electricity they would otherwise use, on high). Turn fans off when you leave the room for more than just a few minutes, as they don't cool rooms- only people, who can feel and appreciate that breeze: same with the a/c, if you're going to be out more than just a few minutes. They don't use any electricity when turned off, and it doesn't take very long for an efficient system to cool a room, or house. Cool only the parts of the house that you are currently using, if you have minisplits, or other devices that allow you to selectively cool rooms of the house. If you have central air, and have a room you don't use, consider sealing off the duct to that room. Last, check your house and your applicances for shorts. You can do this very simply. Unplug everything, and turn off all the lghts; then, check your meter. It should not be moving. Plug in all your appliances, and turn them off (nothing on standby). Check your meter; again, it should not be moving. The meter turning under either of these conditions could indicate a short that is wasting electricity and costing you money. On the otherhand, if when you perform this test the meter is turning rather more rapidly, there is a chance a neighbor is stealing electricity from you. For this, you may need to check, outdoors, at night. First, go outside to see whose lights are on; then, turn off all the current to your house (circuit breakers, or master on/off, at the meter). If one of your neighbors home/apt has gone dark, call for an electrician, who can then disconnect them from your system. Enjoy.
Thank you guys for the information. Now gbchayctca.. what are some of these 27 ways you have come up with? So far in my home I have no curtains!! Ahh I will need to get some ASAP. The house only had blinds which no longer worked at all.. I have the bedroom a/c's which I have only used once during the night, and a room a/c that will be installed any day now for my living room.. So far I figure the more heat I deal with the better I will get used to it. My dogs and cat are becoming a bit of a concern to me thinking about boiling tempatures! Of course I dont want to run the a/c all day while I am gone and pay that much for electricty but I also dont want to come home to cooked pets. So what are some thoughts on pets while your not home.. Will they adapt better than myself and be okay if I leave them some fans.. or should I expect to leave our a/c on most of the day while away? Thanks again!
Yellowsubmarie, when you're away, put your pets in the room that is sealed best, so your cool air doesn't leak out, leave the ceiling fan on low, and the a/c set no cooler than, or perhaps even a little warmer than you feel comfortable at, and it won't get out of hand. (Be sure cool air from that room is not flowing out, into the rest of the house; for example, from under the door. If it is, you can put a rolled up towel in front of the door, to stop it.) If you feel your animals need to be kept even cooler than you do, you could see some big bills, but confining them to a single, room will help, either way. If you use a lot of electricity, you will be paying, ballpark, 2.3 pesos/KWH for all electricity you use above the subsidized rates. This can add up, fast.
