That works great until it doesn't. A lot of Canadians depended on this mechanism instead of air conditioning, especially on the prairies which is semi-desert: high days, low nights and low humidity. But when your nighttime low is 27...

A side thought... it's quite incredible how we in "the west" have managed to make our lives flow with little impact from seasons, weather, and stuff like that. Just in general. Thinking about how people had it 200 years ago... it was so different.

> If you don't have AC there are things you can do to your home keep the temp low through the day. You essentially trap the cooler evening air and keep the sun out.

That's the normal way to do it, but it doesn't work when there's no wind and air temp doesn't cool down significantly at night. Even fans throughout the dwelling don't end up cooling that much overall, because they really only move the air that's in their path (unless you already have ceiling fans to create larger turbulences and better mix the air).

Agreed. In the weeks of no electricity after TS Ike I regretted taking my window plywood off. I had waited a few days and during those days the house was reasonably not cool thru the day but comfy. Without the plywood things got stuffy quickly (old original uninsulated windows).