QuickTake:

A free workshop organized by nonprofits, the city of Eugene and the county’s housing agency provided low-income residents and renters with tips and tricks for cooling their home and keeping out smoke.

The snips of scissors and sharp rips of duct tape could be heard from a first-floor meeting room in the downtown Eugene Public Library Wednesday, June 10, where people hunched around tables to take part in what at first appeared to be an unconventional art project.

Using long pieces of heavy-duty tape, more than a dozen local residents carefully adhered 20-inch air filters to the back of box fans to fashion a do-it-yourself air purifier. The demonstration was the closing act of a free, two-hour workshop to prepare for possible record-setting temperatures this summer, beginning as soon as this weekend, and smoke from possible wildfires.

Wednesday’s event was one of two “Beat the Heat” presentations scheduled for this month, organized by seven local organizations — Beyond Toxics, UO Climate Justice League, Springfield Eugene Tenant Association, Cascadia Wildlands, 350 Eugene, Toolbox Project, and Fossil Free Eugene — as well as Lane County’s housing agency and the city of Eugene. 

The next workshop is set for 6 to 8 p.m. June 25. The trainings are geared toward residents most vulnerable to extreme summer weather, like low-income households, renters, people of color, and anyone who lives in older housing that hasn’t been sufficiently weatherized. 

“The burdens of the climate crisis are not equal,” Meredith Tufts, a coalition coordinator for Fossil Free Eugene, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “There’s folks in the community who are more impacted than others by things like extreme heat, extreme cold in the winter, wildfire smoke, all of that.”

The organizers baked in perks to encourage participation: Not only did the diverse group of attendees leave with DIY air purifiers, they received a $50 stipend, and those who entered to win raffle prizes brought home other heat-preparedness goodies. 

Tufts said the federal government’s rollback of grant funding that supported state and local programs for extreme weather preparedness underscores the need for community awareness heading into a summer with a high risk of wildfire.

“There’s just a lot of overwhelm and confusion and question marks for folks of either not knowing the programs are out there at all, or kind of having a big sense that they’re out there, but not knowing how to access them,” she said.

Meredith Tufts shows a MERV 13 air filter, near a row of box fans — ingredients to make DIY air filters.

Here’s a handful of tips and tricks to stay cool this summer: 

Prepare your home

Take stock of places in your home where heat and smoke might be able to enter, including gaps between and around windows, doors, chimneys, floorboards, walls and ceilings. 

Not sure where those spots might be? Look for spiderwebs, as arachnids are attracted to places with air flow, or the warm nooks where your cat likes to curl up, said Esteban Montero Chacon, the energy services director with Homes for Good. 

After identifying a problem area, consider potential mitigation measures. 

  • Cover windows and skylights — from the inside and, if needed, the outside. Up to 30% of unwanted heat comes in through windows; covering them can reduce indoor temperatures by up to 20 degrees. 
  • Block gaps using door and window snakes, cardboard or weather stripping. Permanent alternatives, which would need a landlord’s permission in the case of a rental, include caulk and spray foam. 
  • Run fans to circulate air. Put ice in front of the fan for extra cooling, or place a wet towel on the back for cool moisture.

If such tools aren’t making a difference in cooling and purifying the air throughout your home, consider sleeping on the ground floor instead of upstairs areas with higher temperatures, or set up a designated “cool and clean room” where you can better control the climate.

“That’s the one room that we really try to keep cool, and that we try to keep the air pretty clear, so that we have one space we can hunker down,” Tufts said.

Be cooking- and cost-conscious

When combined with smoke from wildfire and outdoor heat, cooking at home could make indoor temperatures and air quality just as bad or worse as those outside, creating further health risks to people with asthma or other respiratory conditions, Tufts said.

Especially if your home runs on natural gas, consider temporarily changing the way you prepare your meals by swapping your stovetop or oven for a microwave, air fryer or Instant Pot, which produce less heat and less particulate matter. If those aren’t options, position your pots and pans directly under your kitchen exhaust fan to absorb as much particulate matter as possible.

Data-minded folks can measure the air quality inside their home with an air quality monitor, available for check-out from the Eugene Public Library. 

If you’re looking to cut utility costs, a kilowatt energy usage monitor, also available for check-out from the library, measures the energy expenditure of cooling sources like air conditioning and fans. Multiply that number by the price per unit of electricity on your most recent utility bill to understand what cooling measures might be driving up your expenses.

“Just do that math, or just compare the numbers and see, ‘Oh, this is how much my air conditioning uses versus the fan,’ and that helps you make some strategic decisions when you’re trying to save money,” Tufts said.

Make a DIY air purifier 

Alejandro Garcia with Beyond Toxics demonstrated to attendees how to create a DIY air purifier by attaching an air filter to the back of a box fan. 

Here’s how:

The back of a Lookout reporter’s DIY air purifier.
  • You’ll need duct tape, scissors, a box fan (usually between $20 and $40), and most importantly, a MERV 13 air filter (roughly $10 to $15 per filter).
    • MERV, short for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, is a filtration scale from 1 to 16. The higher the MERV rating, the finer the filtration. MERV 13s are intended for asthma and smoke; lower-rated filters are better to filter out larger contaminants like pollen.
  • Position the fan front side-down. (If you can’t tell which side is which, the fan’s logo is usually on the front, and the cord comes out of the back.)
  • Place the air filter on the back of the fan. The side of the filter with a lattice pattern should be on the inside, facing the back of the fan.
  • Cut four long strips of duct tape and stick one along each side where the filter and fan meet. Use your fingernails to press down on the tape to ensure a tight seal between the two layers. 
  • Don’t forget the corners! Use smaller strips of tape to close any gaps on the corners. Notch the ends of the tape with scissors and wrap each one around the corners of the filter and fan for an even more snug fit.

“Smoke that’s getting into the space will go through the filter, and the filter will capture that particulate matter,” Tufts said. The filters usually last about a month, she said, but their longevity depends on the level of air contamination.

Know your renter rights

Tim Morris, the executive director of the Springfield Eugene Tenant Association, delivered a presentation on renters’ rights to cooling, based on state laws.

Landlords in Oregon are required to make general repairs within 30 business days, repairs to essential services like stoves within seven business days, and fix immediate safety issues like a broken doorknob within 48 hours, he said. 

They are mandated to provide renters heating, but the same requirements don’t apply for cooling, he said. Landlords must allow residents to have a cooling device in their rentals, per a 2022 law, but they don’t have to provide them — with exception to buildings built after April 2024, which are required to provide cooling in at least one room.

But before installing your own AC unit, make sure to read the fine print: Tenants’ installations must not violate building codes or block egresses, he said. 

Landlords may also require that they perform the installation themselves, that the tenant pays an installation fee, and that the tenant removes the cooling system between Oct. 1 and April 30. 

“If a landlord did put in those restrictions, that they install it themselves, that there’s a fee, they are required to put that in writing before they have any restrictions in place,” Morris said. “You may also request a reasonable accommodation.” 

Use the resources

Take a look at the following links for local cooling resources.

  • A map of local cooling centers, parks with water features to cool off, community centers, and free pantries with refrigerated goods can be found here.
  • Find evacuation notices on LaneAlerts.
  • Learn more about how to safeguard your home from wildfire on the FireWise website.
  • Find your closest emergency water station, activated by the Eugene Water & Electric Board in natural disasters. In those situations, remember to bring your own container.
  • Monitor outdoor air quality through websites like Purple Air and the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. 
  • Apply for the county’s Weatherization Assistance program, which helps low income homeowners and renters reduce their energy use, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Don’t expect an immediate fix, as these systems have waitlists and limited funding, said Chacon, the energy services director with Homes for Good.
  • You can receive repairs or upgrades to cooling systems through the county’s Climate Crisis program, funded by the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

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Grace Chinowsky graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism. She served as editor-in-chief of the university’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, and interned at CNN and MSNBC. Grace covers Eugene’s city government and the University of Oregon.