I will add to Dana's comments about the fans that the Capital City Grange Hall has large, built-in fans over the stage, which blow out.  So by having fans blowing in the windows we have air moving through the Hall, carrying out the even-more-hot air that does its best to cool us.  In Vermont we are blessed with cooler nights than Atlanta, thank goodness, so the outside air is generally better.
I certainly am glad that we don't have to think about air-conditioning the Hall!  As Dana says, winter snow storms are more of a threat than summer heat, which we know won't last very long.
Tim Swartz, CDU dance committee
Master (with everyone's help)
Capital City Grange #469

On Sat, Jul 23, 2016 at 10:23 AM, Chrissy Fowler via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I've enjoyed reading this thread, and the topic of dew points came up in line last night when I was dancing in North Whitefield, ME - where there was zero evaporative cooling going on.  Steam bath contras.  Wowee!  The grass outdoors and the cool basement were well-populated during the break.  But my, what a fun night.
Chrissy Fowler
Belfast, ME

Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2016 17:35:40 -0400
To: organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
Subject: Re: [Organizers] When to cancel dance?
From: organizers@lists.sharedweight.net


Wow, what a idea — canceling due to heat! Here in the frigid north, we mostly have to worry about canceling because of snowstorms or ice storms. Guess we all have our own extreme weather to worry about.

I'm attaching the cancelation procedure that our organizing group came up with a couple years ago. The short version is that the person responsible for opening the hall that night makes the call about weather safety by Saturday morning, with help from other committee members if needed. We've only had to implement this once, and it was a morning of many phone calls between band members, committee members, caller, etc. (some of the band members were willing to drive through the snow and ice, the caller and other band members weren't, so it was tricky), and a pretty heart-wrenching decision overall. We've maybe canceled two dances in 15 or 20 years.

For what it's worth, we set up our fans so that some of them suck air in and others blow air out, to keep the airflow moving as much as we can. (We have 3 or 4 box fans in the windows on on each side of the hall, other windows and all the doors open, overhead fan on, extra fans for the stage and band.) I would guess that we often dance in 80+ degree heat with 80% or 90% humidity in the summer. Dancers are good about drinking water, sitting outside or in the basement to cool down, or going for a dip in the local swimming hole after the dance! (I like your popsicle and ice policy, Concord...)

Good luck,
Dana
Montpelier, VT

On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 1:34 PM, Jeff Kaufman via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 8:51 AM, Orin Nisenson via Organizers
<organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> I don’t understand the principle behind having the fans blow air into the
> hall. Are you not just adding the hot outside air into an already hot room?
> By blowing the air out the air movement will draw cooler air from the
> basement, or other cooler areas, into the main hall.
>

The goal is to move as much air through the hall as possible, since
the outside air is cooler than the inside, and the dancers are
constantly heating up the inside air.  There's not much cool air to
draw from other parts of this building.
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--
Dana Dwinell-Yardley
graphic design & layout
Montpelier, Vermont
802-505-6639
danadwya@gmail.com

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