A/C - It's a Beautiful Thing

[JenBayles]

I arrived home from work yesterday to discover the power had been out since 1:20. This on one of Houston's typical summer upper 90, humid days without a breath of a breeze. Ugh. Turns out a transformer blew behind our house and the techs were tromping back and forth for 2 hours trying to get it sorted out. They took off to do whatever they had to do to get it turned on, and in another hour..... HOORAY! We have ignition - for all of about a minute. Another transformer down the street blew.


Power was back around 11:30 but they had to take it down again to make final repairs and didn't finish until 2:30 a.m. I am a total wreck today, but do I ever appreciate my air conditioner!

[Miss Mary]

I hear ya! We lost power for 6 hours yesterday. Severe storms and some suspect straight line winds wreaked havoc - trees down, a few on our street, a school nearby had a dozen very old trees come down, thankfully none hit the school. But the school was having it's roof resurfaced (tar we think). So there holes in several places and sure enough, now a few classrooms had water damage.

We were about to sleep in the basement Jen. It was pretty hot in here and muggy outside.

Just when I was organizing my candles, getting them all ready, the power came on!

A/C is a wonderful thing. We had one glitch, when the power came on, Jim couldn't get the A/C to kick in. For about 5 minutes there. We were sweating it - literally, but voila, it kicked on! Whew...

I know you were dying w/o it though - I don't think I'd survive your Texan heat.

Mary

[azskyman]

We have occasional blackouts and brownouts here in Phoenix...often during the summer. A few hours without A/C and we realize just how reliant we are on it here.

We would not have the equivalent of 60-90,000 new residents every year in this state without it...and, quite the opposite, one hot summer with nothing more than fans and evaporative coolers, and the trend would go the other way in a heartbeat.

[Miss Mary]

Steve - we have friends who have lived in AZ for about 2 decades. They've lived w/o A/C all these years. Wife is a vegetarian, back to nature type. Husband could go either way we get the impression - to have A/C or not. They have an add-on to their furnace/fan, something about a huge sponge that you fill with water and it cools the house at night?

All I know is we still can't believe they exist without it out there. The husband popped into Cincinnati (where he grew up) this past weekend and after he left, we all said the same thing - can you believe that family exists in the desert w/o A/C. I just said if we ever visit them, it will not be in the summer!

Mary

[JenBayles]

Mary - I believe what you're describing is a "swamp cooler", which is very common out in desert areas. Uses evaporative cooling to drop the air temp by about 20 degrees. Not for use in the humid areas of the South though, as we're already so humid down here the water-filled air would never evaporate and you'd never feel the cooling effect.

[Brent]

Our Central Heat and Air unit's fan went out about 4 weeks ago... on the first hot day of the year. You don't realize how much you enjoy it til you don't have it.

[GalvestonDuck]

Funny that Poppysky used the term "reliant" to describe our relationship with electricity -- the major power company here in Hou/Galv is "Reliant."

A/C -- my choice for greatest invention for the comfort of man. I could do without light (since we have the sun for several hours), without indoor plumbing, without TV, and without a phone and still be comfy as long as I had A/C. Not that I'd want to though!

[Brent]

A/C -- my choice for greatest invention for the comfort of man. I could do without light (since we have the sun for several hours), without indoor plumbing, without TV, and without a phone and still be comfy as long as I had A/C. Not that I'd want to though!

[MomH]

I realized during our summer storms last year that I could do just fine without A/C as long as I didn't go in and out of it. However, I also realize I was able to change my lifestyle when others can't. Daughter and I would get up earlier than usual and do anything needed in the way of work around the house. Then we spent the rest of the day and afternoon reading, playing games, napping, etc. with a fans on in the living room. We would eat a late supper and again do anything needed. At night, we opened all the windows and slept naked (don't bother to picture that, I'll soon be 65, ugh). I managed to live without A/C for the first 29 years of my life -- maybe that is the difference between me and you young "whippersnapper." I didn't grow up with it.

[Pebbles]

I realized during our summer storms last year that I could do just fine without A/C as long as I didn't go in and out of it. However, I also realize I was able to change my lifestyle when others can't. Daughter and I would get up earlier than usual and do anything needed in the way of work around the house. Then we spent the rest of the day and afternoon reading, playing games, napping, etc. with a fans on in the living room. We would eat a late supper and again do anything needed. At night, we opened all the windows and slept naked (don't bother to picture that, I'll soon be 65, ugh). I managed to live without A/C for the first 29 years of my life -- maybe that is the difference between me and you young "whippersnapper." I didn't grow up with it.

LOL Love your post! I appriciate AC but we leave ours very high ... 78 to 80. My kids are in and out constantly and thus don't want to 'shock' their lil bodies. But it is amazing how cool your house remains when you run ceiling fans also. We leave ours running on low. I remember reading somewhere that your house feels 10 degrees cooler when running fans. And even with the fans running our electric bill is much lower then with the AC running alone.

[StormChasr]

Were it not for Air Conditioning, Florida would have been home to 16 million alligators, instead of primarily Yankees, and some expatriot Southerners.

[Persepone]

I'm jealous of that nice warmth!

It is 56 degrees and the temperature is falling! This is NOT beach weather! And the forecast for the rest of the week is not much warmer...

Hey, it is supposed to be summer! It is June 15th! I'm sitting here wearing a sweater and debating whether to fire up the kerosene heater...

So enjoy all that warmth!

[knotimpaired]

Days like today I wish I had a/c. It is 89 with a heat index of 94. Wind is howling at 1 mph. lol.

Normally we have constant trade winds of 10-15 knots out of the east. If Cycloneye is experiencing no wind also, I cannot imagine what the streets of San Juan feel like right now.