apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have the same problem, plus the fact that my kitchen is on the south-facing side of the house, so it gets direct sun as well!

Even when we're not cooking, the kitchen is warmer than the living room, but when the oven is on, it is easily 10-15 degrees warmer.

In the evenings, keeping windows open on both sides of the house (townhouse) works pretty well, but that is only because we've been having a fairly mild summer so far (Virginia).

I use my toaster oven instead of my big oven, and only cook quick meals that can be done with little heating. Also, if I need to bake I do things in smaller portions -- a meat loaf done in muffin tins needs half the cooking time.

We have to keep the AC on. It's been regularly in the 90 degrees here in Georgia lately. We had a long, mild spring though, and that really allowed us to open up our windows, turn on our ceiling fans, and take advantage of the transoms in our old farmhouse.

Funny enough, our kitchen used to be a separate building, attached to the house through a dogtrot. But sometime in the past a previous owner turned that area into a sunroom. It's beautiful but heats up fast because of all the windows.

My kitchen has a window and we put a basic square fan facing OUT so that it acts like an exhaust. It feels cooler and really helps draw out smoke/steam/smells.

If it's warm out and I need to bake or even just have something boiling on the stove, I open a back window and stick my box fans in the kitchen window facing out. The added benefit is that any smoke that would normally set off the smoke alarm (whose bright idea was it to put that thing about two feet away from the stove?) gets pulled out right quick.

I live in the Bay Area, though, so it only gets really hot occasionally.

My kitchen gets direct sun so I keep the blinds closed on that window and just blast the A/C. As much as I try and not turn on the oven when its above 100, that isn't always feasible. But I do try and do the majority of my cooking earlier in the day.

I try my best not to cook anything that requires frying, standing over hot oil is bad enough when it's not 90 degrees inside.

Other than that I keep the dining room windows open and a fan pointed in my direction.

Our kitchen windows face west so we get a lot of hot sun in the afternnon, great in the winter, miserable in the summer. We grill a lot in the summer and have a door to exit the kitchen to the balcony where the grill is kept. We've also placed an umbrella on the balcony just outside the kitchen to provide a bit of shade and a rotating fan sits in the kitchen propping the outside door open to bring in the cool ocean breeze in the afternoons. It works nicely.

oh gosh, I'm the only one whos cooked in my underwear?

The crockpot and counterop grill are great summer options, they dont heat up the apartment too much.

if its unbearably hot we just go for sandwiches and salads

I cook in my underwear too. It's been averaging 100F for the past month here, so I just have to deal with it being unbearably hot. I try to turn my oven on only once a week (or less) and get everything out of the way on one day.

I have a tiny kitchen with no a/c, nowhere to put a fan (believe me, I have tried), and the window is so small that opening it barely makes a difference.

Not only do I cook in my underwear (I add an apron if I'm cooking anything that could splatter and burn me), I restrict all cooking to after 8pm, when it finally starts to cool off.

I was just thinking of this last night, as I had the oven cranked to 400 degrees, and the cooling system (heat pump working in the opposite direction of winter) cranked high. It seems a little decadent. For some reason since it started hitting 80 degrees here I have been on a baking binge though. Go figure.

I have roller screens on the outside of all my windows. The screens keep the sun off the glass and stop the greenhouse effect inside. I can get my house and kitchen 20F cooler just by blocking the sun from the windows. When it gets really hot, I only use the microwave and a portable, 5th burner outside in the garden shed. Once the outside temp drops,Ii put box fans in the windows and pull all the cooler air into the house. The fans are left on for the night. It's noisy, but it's comfortable. I try to close up the house once the inside temp is the same as the outside. Today, it was 94F outside and 74F in my south facing kitchen. I'm a firm believer in outside screens over the windows and not heating using the stove/oven.

I mostly stay out of the kitchen: everything goes on the grill, and we eat lots of salads. Occasionally I'll use the slow cooker--though that puts off a fair amount of heat as well.

If you even try to touch my oven knob between July 1 and September 15, I will kill you.

I use my oven regularly throughout the summer, and my kitchen is 3 ft wide by 10 ft long...so not much in the way of circulation in there!
I've gotten used to sweating while cooking, very appetizing, I know.
I put the exhaust fan on, I point a big box fan into the hallway (oops, I mean kitchen) and I also run the AC.
And inevitably, I set the smoke alarm off every single night.

I can't cook in my underwear...I always burn myself! Danger!

We crank the AC.

We live in Texas where it has been over 100 for 17 days already! I don't bake at all when it's that hot but if I have to, like last night we were craving enchilladas, I have found a solution to help. We have a very cheap ugly box fan that we position outside the kitchen and have it blow the air from the other room(s) into the kitchen. It is very high powered, and loud but makes it bearable in the room without turning up the air really high.

I have three old fans like the one in the picture, they are awesome to look at, but usually they prove too dangerous to run with old wiring, and in my house the finger chopping off of children who just can't resist.

We just had that very issue last night! Our window sized fans are too big for the windows in our kitchen, but we open all three of them (YES! THREE!!!) and ones in other rooms. The fan in the living room goes on, but last night it was still muggy.

We've had relatively cool summer on the North Shore of Boston, so the cooking hasn't been awful. Last night was the first time I was really sweating.

COLD BEER. That's my key to success. Even if it's hot, I'll care less after one or two.

Emily

It's about 104 degrees outside during the day. I keep the house at 82-84 degrees while I am at home. I know this sounds super warm but when you compare it to what's going on outside, it's drastic. I know I am saving quite a bit on my electric bill. I just wear less clothing.

I definitely try not to use the oven too much during the summer :)

Argh, this is my biggest problem.
Though my tiny nyc apartment has a/c, there are no vents in the living room/kitchen, and when the oven or burners are on it is boiling. Oh and did I mention it has no windows? Yeah.

Seriously hits 85 degrees in here when I'm cooking.
All I can do is use the toaster oven whenever I can, and we have a fan set up but it does very little unless you're standing right in front of it. Plus sometimes it blows things away that I need. Oy.

Amy
Baking and Mistaking

I only turn the oven on about once a week; everything else gets reheated or cooked quickly on the stovetop. I try to do the bulk of my cooking that one night. And wear very little clothing and keep the fans running.

I'm glad I"m not the only one! we have a galley kitchen, with a window at one end and our door at the other. There is virtually no air circulation, though I have one of those window fans in the window, the kind with two fans that you can adjust to input or exhaust. It helps a little.

I haven't done a lot of cooking since it got warm this summer (just a few weeks ago) but I imagine we'll start eating more salads soon.

A/C, underwear, and a cold beer. I am a very classy lady.

Unless friends are coming over, and then it's just the A/C and the beer.

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