Tag Archives: air conditioning

Baby, It’s Hot Outside

24 Jul

As of 7:30 PM, it is still 87F, down from a high of 93, and only supposed to go down to 77 overnight.

When my parents moved back to Bel Air from Ohio in 1968, air conditioning was becoming much more common, and the contractor had automatically included it in the plans for the new house. My dad crossed it off. He didn’t think it was necessary, and the contractor was only “thinking of his own pocket”, rather than what was actually needed. It took them over a year to sell the place, and even at that, they had to finance it themselves, interest-free.

When they moved to North Carolina in 1983, or thereabouts, the  Vicarage, which was a Victorian building with 20 foot rooms and 12 foot ceilings, had an absolutely ancient heating system badly in need of replacement.  My mum said if it weren’t for the fact that it was oil heat instead of coal, she’d have sworn it was original to the house. I asked if they were going to install a/c while they were at it.

“Summer time is supposed to be hot,” my dad replied.

I just stared at him. “Are you putting a furnace it this place?”

Harrumph.

Anyway, they had a new bath installed off his study, so they could stay there indefinitely, and not have to climb the stairs when they became infirm, so they didn’t need to worry about trying to sell it.

Man proposes; God disposes.

My dad accepted a call to a parish in the UK, then developed a brain tumor, followed by renal failure (He’d forgotten to take his HTN meds.), and they had to move back to Baltimore so they would be closer to my sister and me, and then try to sell the house. It was a lovely home, the sort of place that would appeal to a business executive, but trying to sell a house in North Carolina with no air conditioning meant a replay of the house in Bel Air.

They purchased a house here which dated from the 1930s, so it didn’t have air conditioning, but the doctor told my father his medical condition was such that he simply had to have a window unit in his room.  Much grumbling about that, I’ll tell you!

Well, considering the fact that it was 103F the day he was born, I suppose he was used to it right from the beginning.

 

 

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Here We Go Again!

8 Aug

I have written before about the fact that The Squire sets the a/c at “Arctic” while I prefer it a tad warmer. The unit in our bedroom has an actual thermostat, which I set at 70 at night, and then back up to 75 during the day, when nobody is in there.

Last night, I popped into the TV room to say good night, and just about turned into an icicle standing in the doorway. The Squire was watching TV, bare chested, with a blanket over his legs, which hurt when they get cold. (Do you see something odd in this picture?) I went back downstairs and got him a small heating pad, and while I was at it, grabbed a room thermometer, which I laid on the bed in the guest room.

When I got up this morning, it registered a cozy 65!

It went down to 62 last night, and left to my own devices, I’d have opened the windows and turned on the fan.  Heating the house with the air conditioner just doesn’t make sense, folks. However, some people feel this brings too much humidity into the room, and it’s not worth the trouble.

But don’t come singing to me when the utility bill arrives!

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Let the Games Begin!

28 May

It seems to be one of the Rules of the Universe that people who need ten hours sleep always marry folks who can get by on six. Pack-rats always end up with mates who toss out anything not nailed down. And, of course, people who like it cold marry people who like it warm.

I have low thyroid, and as a result, I am always cold.  The Squire is a one-man blast furnace.  One year on vacation, we stayed over night in a suite – the bedroom was large enough to hold a square dance, plus a small kitchen/living room combination. There was a noticeable drop in the temperature when I walked out of the bedroom. He could heat a small office all by himself. I sleep under a quilt, and he has just the sheet – and we are side by side in the bed!

We live in an old farm house, which was not built, so much as accumulated, and it is time to install the window air conditioners. This is always fun. We have one in the living room, which cools both that room and the dining room – really just one very long space, about 15 by 35 feet. There is a second unit in our bedroom, and a third in the room which serves as a guest room, sewing room and TV room.  Only the one in our room has an actual thermostat; all the others are cool, cold and arctic.

He sets the one in the bedroom at 69. I nudge it up to 75. He wakes in up the middle of the night and puts it back down, and so it goes. I’m sorry, but I simply refuse to spend the summer wearing a hooded house coat (with the hood pulled up), sleeping under the quilt and a blanket folded in half, while he snuggles under the sheet.

By popular request, he has decamped to the guest room for the time being.

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