it's 100 degrees in Boston today

^{Visual via @MartinClinton for @BostonTweet on YFrog}

Hanna and I have been debating all summer about whether or not to get an air conditioner for our bedroom. When the temps get above ninety and the humidity is high, the city holds the heat like nobody's business and it's so, so hard to sleep.

We'd just turned down the offer of a free a/c unit from my colleague and friend, Heather, in favor of fans and cold cloths -- but this past weekend has done us in. And we're going to borrow Heather's window unit after work tonight, in hopes of actually being able to get a good night's sleep.

Long-term, though, we have pretty serious concerns about the environmental effect of conventional air conditioning. I've been hunting around the web today, looking for some eco-friendly ways to get our bedroom down to sleep-friendly temps and humidity. I found a good essay on Green Living Tips that talks about some of the better options, but sadly a lot of the best include structural changes to buildings that, living in an rented apartment, we don't have control over. I was also disappointed to see that Evaporative Air Conditioners are, apparently, super-effective in arid desert environments but counter-productive in humid places like Boston (built on marshland!)

Bah.

So maybe the long-term solution is to move to Central Oregon after all, where we could enjoy the benefits of that High Desert air!

Any of you had experience looking for more eco-friendly air cooling options?