Yes we did get some rains, over an inch from thunderstorms on Tuesday afternoon and a bit of a splash yesterday. It was briefly nice. But the trouble with rain in the summer is that it quickly steams back up into the air and the humidity increases even if the temperature has gone done.On my last post Heron at A Heron's View wondered if I had insulation and double glazing because they should help our house stay cool. We have plenty of insulation and all windows are double glazed. The real problem, as Angry Parsnip at Two Square Dogs pointed out,
is that in order to keep your home cool you have to run the air conditioning night and day. $$$$ This is an all electric house and it's about 3,000 sq.ft., to run the air conditioning night and day would cost a fortune. We do have a window air conditioner in our bedroom and we cool that room at night.
We try to balance between being frugal and being miserable.
Angry Parsnip also asked if we'd considered solar. The answer to that is no. We won't stay in this house forever, eventually we're going to need a single story house. As it is we almost never use the upstairs in the summer time. I would love to have 2 things in a new home, water heaters that heat on demand, right now we have 2 big regular ones that keep the water heated all the time. And I'd like to have individual room air conditioning, not window units but the ones they build into the walls so that we only need to cool the room we're in.
Today it will be around 94º and tomorrow 99º, but after that we're in for a break and it will be in the lower 80's for several days. I'm planning on dashing out and doing some weeding, the weeds have taken to laughing at me as I walk by, so they're going to get theirs.
I try to get everything I need to do done, done in the morning. We still walk before breakfast, I pick some cleaning task to do every day, I exercise and practice the piano. After that it's batten down the hatches and turn on the air conditioner.
Keep on battening and hopefully the next house you buy will have great AC and solar panels to make it cheap to run!!
ReplyDeleteI'm finding it hard to imagine that heat and humidity. It's cool and wet here. You'd prefer it but I long for some sun. We didn't even find any in Tuscany last week. Even when it was dry it was threatening to rain and then it was torrents.Have you always lived with this climate? Would you ever move somewhere more clement?
ReplyDeleteHoney, I lived in st Mary's Georgia as a teenager. You need the ac, I know you do!!
ReplyDeleteLove St. Mary's, such a pretty little town.
DeleteI know how you feel hot and cranky. Most homes in Tucson are single stories, the top floor is always a saunta.
ReplyDeleteIf we are lucky if this weekend will only get up to 116.
Lots of ice in the ponds for the critters.
Stay cool if you can.
Is it pool time yet ?
I worry about you and your crocodiles I know you understand them but I still worry.
Take care please.
cheers, parsnip and thehamish
Opps I forgot In Japan they have great room AC built in the walls.
DeleteIf I ever built the home I want I would only use them they are the best.
We have used our AC only one day so far this year. It usually cools off at night anyways. When we have a hot spell we will turn it on! That is a big house for two people, I thought ours was big at 1,800 sq ft...still too big for us :)
ReplyDeleteRight now our overnight lows are in the upper 70's, by July and August they'll be in the lower 80's, so not a lot of relief.
DeleteI can't imagine it, we don't need AC here only heating and I do know how expensive that can be. Hope you manage to stay cool.
ReplyDeleteI confess that every summer in KY I envy those who have central A/C--and can afford to run it! We have a portable A/C unit in this converted Amish house--J. says that any attempt to install central air would be a nightmare. We have fans in the bedrooms--but the upstairs is dreadfully steamy during the day. Fighting mildew every summer is a battle I didn't expect.
ReplyDeleteI find fighting mildew is a running battle here in the south.
DeleteIt's very rare that we would ever need AC, in fact, I had the heating on again the other day. Madness, it's June for goodness sake.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the increased humidity after it rains. IT is miserable here and we have months to go yet with this weather. Yuck!
ReplyDeleteMEredith
I have to admit it is really a foreign concept for me to have the air conditioner running 24/7 and to wake up in the middle of the night and hear it running, but then again I haven't lived in a true desert like Phoenix before. Lived other places where it was hot but it would go up and down and cool off at night, whereas here it does not. I have resolved to try to be somewhat comfortable and then budget accordingly the rest of the year after the hot summer months. We keep the house between 78-80 degrees. Got a bill the other day and it wasn't as bad as I thought, so maybe we will survive after all down here.
ReplyDeleteHubby heard a report about solar here and was amazed at what he learned. Here if you have solar panels the energy you produce you don't end up using. It does to the central poles so to speak and you may or may not draw from it. Based on how much you produce, you get a reduction in your electric bill. Thing is here the local electric company is fighting solar and now has a 90 day waiting period before you can install it, how convenient especially since we are going into the hot summer months.
They do give you an option of a time saving plan from 7 p.m. to noon Monday through Friday it is cheaper than 12 noon to 7 p.m. so they encourage you to conserve during the more expensive times. I don't run any major appliances during that time other than the air conditioner.
Got to do what you can to try to stay comfortable yet within budget.
betty