Monday, May 4, 2009

Hot... Really Hot.

We've had to re-adjust to our surroundings again. India is now hot. The temperature climbs above 40 degrees (104 F) nearly everyday. According to the Times of India we are in the midst of a heatwave - about 5 degrees Celsius above normal.

Life continues on here for the locals... there are still plenty of smiles during the heat of the day. But the pace of life has definitely slowed. The heat sucks away your energy and enthusiasm, and for me, it drains a little of the romance out of life in India.

The biggest change for our family has been learning to readjust our schedules. Lesa and I now walk earlier in the morning and we all swim in the evenings to cool down. An extra shower late in the day also helps - even the kids are volunteering to take showers now!
Unlike Texas, which also gets pretty hot in the summer, Indian homes do not have central A/C. If a room has A/C it is cooled by a stand-alone unit. Because we are trying to be more energy efficient, we run our units selectively. Its just not practical to run them in each room at once. The hotter it gets here, the more area-brownouts occur. When we are on power backup during a brownout, the system will only support two A/C units anyway.

So far I have managed to live with just ceiling fans running during the day. In the evening, when the family's all home, we are learning to live in one or two cooled rooms. To be comfortable through the night, we sleep with our bedroom A/Cs on a low setting... I'm sure by the time we get used to these new routines the monsoon season and high-humidity will arrive. We'll just learn to re-adapt all over again.

3 comments:

thenguyens said...

Wow. That IS really hot. Kudos to you for trying to conserve energy in such extreme conditions. Our heater turned on this morning. It was in the 40s (F of course). Austin in August will seem cool to you when you return.

David Hoster said...

My two week stint in India was in July 1971. I was 22 at the time and usually walked about six blocks before stopping for another Coke. Even growing up in Texas didn't prepare me for New Delhi in July. You have my sympathy.

HouseBoy said...

When the monsoon season hits later in the summer, the temp will drop into the 90's, but the humidity will soar. Thanks for reading and for your comments!