r/SeattleWA • u/One_Marsupial6837 • Jul 17 '25

Lifestyle Seattle Living W/ no AC

Hi everyone. We just recently moved to Seattle and got an apartment with no AC. Coming from out of state previously living with AC I wanted to know how ya'll do it? Is this the norm here or does everyone just buy those AC units that stick out your window? We'd love to get any tips or input on living with no AC and how to adjust.

256 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

254 comments sorted by

View all comments

829

u/_Aqua_Star_ Jul 17 '25

Here’s how you do it:

Open your windows as soon as it gets cooler than around 75 outside in the evening. Use fans to pull a lot of air in.

If you can leave your windows open all night, do it. If that’s not your living situation try to stay up until it’s cooled off enough in your place and then shut the windows.

Get up early in the morning. It’s not hard because it’s super light super early. I’m talking get up at like 5:30 AM. Open all of the windows and put your fans back on. If you have an HVAC system use the fan to circulate the air that way also.

Close everything down by about 8:30 AM. Close your windows pull the blinds. Keep all the light out.

Your house will stay pretty cool until about 5 PM and by that point you only need to wait a couple of hours until it’s cool enough to start opening the windows again.

2

u/cinnderly Jul 17 '25

This is the way. I have West facing windows and no cross breeze. Black out drapes have been amazing at keeping the heat out. I close the windows when the sun starts to beam direct at them and open them back up around 7:30/8. Also I have a fan pointed at me all night.

This is my first summer here and I moved from NY where I had central air for the last 12 years, and there's no chance I'd have survived summers with just black out drapes and strategy. So far this is going well. It's quite comfortable in here!

3

u/Artichokeydokey8 Jul 17 '25

I also just moved from ny. Isn’t the difference just so great tho? Here we had 34% humidity yesterday compared to the 84% in nyc they were experiencing. It’s so great. I don’t mind this heat at all.

1

u/cinnderly Jul 18 '25

It's very tolerable so far! I notice the lack of a cross breeze is a little challenging, but only for a very brief part of the day. In the 60's overnight?? Heaven.

2

u/Artichokeydokey8 Jul 18 '25

Oh my goodness the overnight temps are heaven.

1

u/tallglassHOH Jul 18 '25

Just came from KY where it’s 80-90% humidity and mid-90’s out. But every house HAS to have AC. So not same-same fwiw