When I got home from Europe last summer, my air conditioning didn't work. It was plenty hot out, and it was plenty hot in.
The a/c never did a stellar job. It couldn't keep up with the Sacramento heat. I'd leave the house open all night (you can do that with a pitbull!), and then close the doors and windows and turn on the a/c around 9am. On those triple digit days the a/c would run all day long, never shutting off, and by night it would be 85 degrees in the house. And that's when it was working!
When it didn't work, it was miserable. So last summer I had my HVAC system completely replaced. It was quite expensive, at least by my standards (almost 5 digits!), but I want to be comfortable in my house. Part of the problem was determined to be the size of the air intake, which now is about twice the size it had been since the house was built (in the Kennedy administration).
Today the temperature topped 100 degrees, and when I got home from work I turned on the air conditioning. It didn't take extraordinarily long to cool the house down to 75 degrees--and then the a/c turned off. A little while later it came on again, returned the house to 75 degrees, and turned off. Ah, I thought, this is how it's supposed to work!
I do prefer to be comfortable in my own house. It's so comfortable in the house that I took a 3-4 hour nap after work today. I'll probably be up half the night watching Netflix or something, but I'll be comfortable!
Ah, first world problems! ;-)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously -- California life would be largely unlivable without working A/C. And the fact that it's not running desperately the whole day trying to keep up with the heat should do wonders for your electrical bill, too.
so there's another win.
Insulation is your friend and doesn't require electricity.
ReplyDeleteI have an attic full of insulation meeting the highest residential standard for *new* homes, and my house is older than I am! And a house full of double-pane windows.
ReplyDeleteBut 108 is 108 no matter how you look at it!