Saturday, July 2, 2011

Temperature

The one thing I dislike most about where I live (besides the cockroaches) is that is heating/cooling system is incredibly inefficient. When I first moved here at the end of December, the entire house was freezing cold. We had the heater on, but all the heat was leaking out. It was so cold, all I could do was sit on the couch huddled in blankets and try to get warm. We eventually put plastic on the windows and that held most of the heat in. But the electric bill was so expensive that we turned the heat off early May to save money. It was still stormy some days, so it was back to being cold. 


Now, I would rather have the cold. We had a few weeks of the right temperature, but now that it's summer, it's getting to be too cold. We don't trust the swamp cooler in the house because it is incredibly old and dusty and we don't know the last time it has been used, so we are going without. It's fine in the morning and evening when we can open the windows, but in the middle of the day, it is basically torture. Today we couldn't stand it anymore so we went outside and ran in the sprinkler. 


Winter is too cold and summer is too hot. I like spring and fall. Although if I had to chose cold or heat, I'd pick cold. In the cold you can wear layers and bundle up. But when it's hot, there's only so much you can take off...

6 comments:

  1. Two words: tin foil.

    Two more words: in windows.

    You could even cover cardboard with tinfoil to stick in your windows so that you can 1) take it out whenever you want and 2) reuse it in the future. It's like a car windshield visor thing, but for your house. It's a pretty popular method of cooling in Canada...that or newspaper or whatever; just keep the sunshine from shining directly through the windows. And get a couple of fans to get the cool night air circulating through the house.

    You'll figure out how to keep it cool. I lived for 15 years without air conditioning. Next to no one has it in Canada. Also, we lived in Egypt with limited air conditioning...Idaho is survivable, I'm sure. :)

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  2. It's like that in our apt for sure. I like nancys cardboard idea except I just threw out several large pieces. Bummer.

    And your married now... You can take everything off. :)

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  3. @Nancy - Yeah it's livable. I've been in hotter places before when I really couldn't do anything about it (Nauvoo). For some reason the heat just got to me today. I'm just glad I don't live in Egypt or Arizona or someplace too hot. Idaho is just fine :)

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  4. I think I am the one who convinced you to the 'cold is better' side. :) I agree with the fans though. We had a couple last summer and they helped a lot. Windows open at night with a fan in the window, then blinds and windows shut during the day to keep things cool, then open in the evening. Works pretty well. I also agree with Diana :D

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  5. Even just science boards, which are big and white and not too expensive work well in the windows. You will notice the cooling immediately when you are putting them up.

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