I really hate having to turn on the air conditioning before July. If summers are “normal,” I don’t turn it on at all. Open windows and fans are good enough. However, when the heat and humidity are both in the upper 90s, I’ll suck it up, turn it on, set it to 80, and deal with the electricity bill when I receive it.
Wednesday, and especially yesterday, were icky sticky. Last night’s t-storm, complete with hail, cooled things off a bit, but it’s still sticky outside. Going out rollerblading on Kiawah (Charleston, SC area), in August, for two hours, armed only with a couple of 12 oz. cans of root beer in a fanny pack is something I’m no longer up to doing. Now I need water and shade. I don’t need heatstroke.
Off-topic, but we had a skunk get into our veggie garden last night. It might have been the hail that snapped off some of the pea vine branches and crushed the runt of our Brandywine tomato crop, but it was the skunk that got its jaws onto our lettuce and spinach. As soon as I opened the gate to the garden, and went in, I could smell the skunk funk. That wasn’t insect damage. Grrrr! The corn, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, eggplants, and squash still look great, though. We do grow our veggies “organically,” but that’s more by default than by design. We’re not hippie-dippy crunchy granola types. I have no compunction about using weed killer on the lawn; I just won’t use it in the veggie garden. And, the chipper/shredder provides us with loads of mulch, which helps.
We had a very warm spring, now it has gone to cloud and rain and wind. I don’t think we’ve had a proper summer in the UK for a while now.
I’m cheap with the AC as well, although my kids hate it! We live near the shore, so why wouldn’t a fan be good enough?
I had the AC on earlier this week when it got up to around 100 degrees, but today it’s barely 60 out!
I think our time’s greatest minds should devote their time to low-cost air conditioning. Right now, the more AC you use, the more coal you burn, the more the planet heats up, the more you need AC, etc. Someone has invented a water-cooled unit that then uses some sort of salt compound in a filter to remove the subsequent moisture. But I haven’t heard anything else about that device.
I’ve always liked the old fashioned “swamp” coolers. They used less electricity and cooled better than the air conditioners I have owned over the years.