Hi All, first post.
The rule of thumb for Chin Death is Temperature + Humidity = 150.
I live in the metro Sacramento, CA area where it gets HOT during the summer.
We are not as scalding as Phoenix, Tucson, nor as Hot+Humid as the deep south.
We are subject to chronic power outages and/or loss of air conditioning in my area.
During the summer months, my two boys have a full size ferret cage that stays in my wife's sewing room during the day.
This 10' x 10' room is closest to the attic mounted heating/cooling unit, so it gets the highest air flow.
I have the attic ceiling insulated with thick R-60 bats to shield the room from attic heat radiation.
The outside wall gets sun until 10am, so I have a modest drop-down blind installed outside during the summer.
The walls are poorly insulated and the glass is single pane.
We run the house temp at 75~76 degrees, which keeps the chin room about 71 degrees.
I keep a shoe in the door so it stays cracked an inch or two. This lets the heat out.
As long as the A/C works, this is quite effective.
The boys' cage is covered at the top with a double layer fleece blanket my wife made for them.
This keeps The Penthouse sleeping area extra dark and cozy during the day.
It also shields their sleeping area from drafts.
When the A/C fails, I wrap the fleece blanket all the way around the bottom of the cage.
The top section is exposed, the bottom section is completely wrapped with insulative fleece.
I keep frozen bottles in the garage freezer for emergencies like these.
I put three 1 liter frozen water bottles (old soda bottles) on the cage bottom floor.
These sweat, and when combined with chin poop does make an icky mess.
A towel is advised under the bottles.
Using my Kodak photo thermometer, I determined the cage bottom stayed at 73 degrees when the room got as hot as 87 degrees.
This simple wrap is highly effective until a remedy is found.
Our A/C took nearly a week to get replaced, so I bought a $99 Wal-Mart General Electric window mount A/C unit.
This is a 5K btu unit that runs on 110v wall power.
I had to build a platform for the unit because we have the old style horizontal slider windows.
This modest window A/C kept the room at 74 degrees with the rest of the house well over 87.
As noted above, chins are ear-coolers.
Swamp coolers do not work, nor does blowing a fan on them.
Both will make them ill, or worse.
A modest window A/C will do a good job if you keep the sun off the walls.
