I did this earlier this summer in the courtyard of my building! The looks of shock and awe of the sidewalk traffic were unforgettable, it is a summer MUST!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/roundup/roundup-how-to-cool-offwithout-the-ac-082488

Didn't you read The Times article? Apparently going AC-free is a thang now.

I'm on summer #4 with no AC, very much on purpose. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I love it and would MUCH rather have the windows and doors open and enjoy the actual climate vs. being shut up in an AC environment.
My house is concrete superduper insulated and I have a white roof, so we only really ever want for AC a few days a summer. So far it's never been enough to tip the scales in favor of putting it in.
The problem with MN summers on those few ugly days is the humidity. It might stay a lot cooler inside my house by design, but that's only part of the problem when it's 99% humidity. Not much except AC can make that not suck.

Seattle is experiencing an unusually hot summer, and, having grown up about 300 miles away in Spokane (which is on the edge of the desert), I'm totally okay with it being hot. Here's the tried and true strategy for keeping cool, based on us desert-dwellers without A/C (95% of homes in Seattle don't have it, and an even slimmer margin has it in Spokane):

1. If it's over 75, keep the windows CLOSED between 10am and 5pm. It seems counterintuitive, but it keeps the heat from coming in from outside.
2. Keep the shades DRAWN in direct or reflected sunlight. Even if your windows are open, you want to keep that hot light from hitting you on its first or second bounce and heating up your home.
3. Shut off the rooms that are used infrequently. Like in the winter when you only want to heat the space you're living in, in the summer, you only want to cool the space you're living in. Shut the bathroom doors, the door to the attic, the door to the washroom, etc.
4. After 5pm on a 75* day, place box fans in your windows pointing outwards. 5pm is generally the hottest time of the day, when everything's been soaking up the sunlight for hours on end. By pointing the fan outwards, as the air outside cools off, you'll shove the warmer air from inside out and bring the cooler air in by displacement.
5. Leave your windows open in the early morning and evening hours when the air outside is cool. If you can handle it, leave them open at night, too, to help you sleep by continuing to cool down the house.
6. If you have a basement, consider moving your sleeping quarters to the ground floor of your home. Hot air rises, remember!
7. Use cool cotton or linen sheets, keep them washed and crisp, and it'll help your skin and your bed breathe.
8. Turn off as many electronics and lights as you possibly can. Take a few nights to have a candle-lit night or host a candle or torchlit bbq in the backyard or on the patio. Anything electric gives off heat!
9. Use WHITE or reflective fabric at your windows to bounce the light away from it and keep your place in the dark. Blackout shades and white sheers are both very good at this.

Good luck staying cool!

I hate heat, but I actually hate a/c even more. I much prefer open windows and fans, along with cold drinks and the occasional cold shower (really - no hot water.) We've been having an oddball cool summer in NYC and haven't even put an a/c in the window yet.

when i first moved to LA my place had no AC and those louvre windows so i couldn't install a window unit. I spent a lot of time in the dark...i think my electric bill for the entire summer was 20 bucks. When the AC breaks now - i go out immediately and buy a new one.

We have air conditioners, but still set up an inflatable pool in the yard every summer. We keep it filled only for a few days at most (we don't use any chemicals) and then use it to water the yard.

Even though it's just a little pool and we can't do much but hang out in there, it's incredibly relaxing and fun.

I like the heat but when I lived in an apartment in queens, I was too poor to afford an A/C unit. I had a large window fan which was on when I was home and I slept above the sheets with no clothing and it was disgusting and hot and sweaty and sooo hard to sleep well.
My advice for people with no AC- get one.

Up here in SF, it's more like "How to survive summer without heat & wool."

I'm about ready for some hot summer days!!!

I lived in a dorm that didn't have air-conditioning... it was awful and great at the same time! My favorite trick was:

put the box fans in the windows AND infront (and kinda below) a bucket of ice (its a dollar at most gas stations)!
Yay make-shift air conditioning !

I remember the long days as a kid with no AC in my parents' house. I had very long, very thick hair. I would put it up in braids or a ponytail, loosen a little hair next to my head, and slip ice cubes in there. My hair was so thick that it took hours for the ice to melt, and I stayed very cool.

Nights were the worst, though. The air got so stuffy. I'd try to sleep on the couch and my dad (who insisted on always shutting and locking the windows) would make me go upstairs. I would wet down a towel and take it to bed.

Today, I seem to survive with less AC than most others in my complex. (You can tell by the ones who have the constantly humming unit and the locked-down windows all the time.) Typically, I use open windows, breezy hangings, and a fan. But I do have a unit in the bedroom. I know I probably kill the planet, but I am emotionally okay with making the trees and flowers cry if I can sleep the night through.

I actually go sans-AC voluntarily, mainly because I like to leave my back door open when I'm home so the dogs can run in and out. My house has a lot of tree cover, and I open the windows, turn on the fans, and shut the blinds during the day.

I have a 20" box fan in the spare bedroom turned to blow outside, like an exhuast fan. This brings the cool air in my bedroom window and the hot air out the spare bedroom window. By having the fan in the other bedroom it helps to keep the noise down in my bedroom.

I grew up in an area where it would be above 110 for a couple of weeks at a time. I live in an area where it is usually around in the 80s with a week (not all at once in the 90s) and a couple of days above 100.

We do not have A/C, however we have a swimming pool, an attic fan, whole house fan, and sun shades on the windows. If it hits a 100 or greater on the weekends, then we set up the inflatable pool, too.

We also use our kitchen and bathroom fans to help remove the hot air at the end of the day. We put fans along the front windows of the house to draw the cool air in and use the exhaust fans to remove the hot air. It helps. I don't open any of the windows until I know for sure that it is cooler outside than it is in the house. This usually happens between 7 and 10 pm. I bought a number of fans this year to test and the size of fan did not make a difference. It seems the higher the price, the more powerful and larger the air movement.

People think it's hot over 75?
WA HA HA HA HA HA!
I'd be fine without heat, but AC is life support in Houston.

is that Esme?

I'm in Seattle experiencing the aforementioned heat wave. On Monday i bought an inflate-a-pool on Amazon (all local retail was already sold out). In fact all local retail also has no window A/C units. We filled that thing up with icy hose water and both husband and our roommate lounged in comfort on our 105 degree day. I would have seriously done the same in our condo too. The pool would have fit on the parking strip perfectly.
Tonight is potluck at my house, everybody BYOB bring your own bathingsuit.

whytephoenix, laughing right along with you. There was a post on AT the other day with the OP talking about the killer heat in LA, I checked the weather in the paper and it was in the 70s- color me confused. Last year, Christmas day was in the 70s (or was it low 80s?).

I live for those cool "fall" days when I can actually open the windows and get a cool breeze! That's just insanity in summer though! There's rarely a breeze unless it's gonna rain and the humidity is stifling (not to mention we have been in the 100s daily). During the hurricane last year, I think it was actually in the 80s or 70s, but with no electricity, it was still uncomfortably warm.

My aunt has a farm a few hours from Houston and her 1902 farmhouse had only a window unit in 1 room that was on only at night. The windows & doors were always open all day and the fans on and it was fairly comfortable. However, houses in 1902 didn't have the option of AC, so they were built to circulate air. My aunt's had a dog run through the house, with rooms on each side that had windows on every exterior wall. Houses today are not built like that. Also, she has about 300 acres, so with all the open land & no concrete for miles, there was a much better breeze and it felt cooler than in the city. Oh I miss that house! :(

Just be grateful not to have a mother-in-law who makes you move her in July. Not to mention her refusing to turn on fans or air conditioning since as she put it the door was going to be open most of the time - and there wasn't a single beverage in the place besides tap water.

air conditioning is tarriffed beyond an average persons income here in Brisbane Australia, so I live through temps 90 to 110 without air conditioning every summer. Best tips are - visit places with great air conditioning (state library has great air-con and free wireless internet); see a movie during the hottest part of the day; live in a house that is off the ground for airflow; sleep during the day; go to the local pool and drink a lot. It's amazing how beer takes the edge off the heat.

I work at home, and, to me, there's nothing worse than having to sit in front of the hot computer all day in a hot apartment. Ick.

If I didn't have to work and had a swimming pool, I could live without AC. Until then, I'm keeping it.

The reason we are complaining about the 'heat' in Los Angeles is because our humidity has been 70% and it feels nasty.

Until 3.5 years ago I lived in Dallas where every building seemed to have their a/c set at 68 degrees. The summers there are brutal, typically 4 months of 95 temperatures and it's humid.

Now I live 2 blocks from the beach in a 1940's uninsulated apartment building. I have a window unit in my bedroom that runs most of the time. NOTHING is air conditioned in that part of town or if it is it's barely turned on. I miss central air conditioning. None of my friends have a/c and I find myself dripping sweat and feeling miserable when I go visit. Movie theaters are so warm that by the end the theater smells like a gym locker room. I can't even go to my neighborhood restaurants or bars to to cool off because none of them have a/c either.

I stay cool by hunkering down in my bedroom with all the shades pulled, eat popsicles and drink icy water.

I was just talking to my mom about the heat wave in Seattle. She and my dad duct taped the garden hose on a stick outside the non-sunny side of the house. They put a fan in the window so the cold water from the house misted into the house. Also, they bought a huge block of ice and set it in front of a fan. It worked amazingly well for them.

Plus they do most of the things bfootnovellista mentioned.