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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMy AC Died, and I spent about 20 hours without it.
This is in upstate South Carolina.
Ive got it back now, thank goodness. And the temp is now cooled down inside to where it is livable.
I have decided that if for some reason I couldnt have air-conditioning in the summer, due to carbon emissions or something, I will have to spend at least June, July, and August in Newfoundland.
captain queeg
(10,242 posts)Much of the US would be considered barely habitable without it. We visited friends in Austin one summer and I asked what the earlier settlers did and how they tolerated it. She said thats where the siesta came from, you couldnt even really do work mid day. Of course all the AC takes a lot of electricity and helps fuel global warming.
Demovictory9
(32,475 posts)raccoon
(31,119 posts)We had no AC in our homes. Or churches. Or schools.
When I was a kid, I remember only drugstores and movie theaters had it.
misanthrope
(7,428 posts)"Things were so much better, communities stronger when everyone sat on the porch to cool down. Then the air conditioning pulled everyone inside and now we're all strangers."
Yep, strangers not exposed to mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and yellow fever. Strangers with other health conditions alleviated by climate control.
Nostalgia is so, so alluring because it tells such pretty lies.
raccoon
(31,119 posts)I used to lament the demise of the fabulous 50's. Not any more. Now I think the music was the most fabulous thing about it.
misanthrope
(7,428 posts)Music: Pierre Boulez, Miles Davis, John Cage, Dave Brubeck, Olivier Messiaen, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Clifford Brown
Painting: De Kooning, Kline, Pollock, Rothko, Calder, Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns
Literature: Goldman, Steinbeck, Salinger, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Bradbury, Ralph Ellison, Beckett, Camus, Asimov
Martha Graham was still doing work. So was Merce Cunningham.
The Mid Century Modern design that flowered in that period has proved far more timeless than its detractors ever hoped it would be.
appalachiablue
(41,170 posts)ooky
(8,928 posts)It belonged to a friend who's parents were much richer than mine, and I remember being very impressed. It was 1962, and around the same time we got our first window air conditioner for our house, which was not built with central air.
moonscape
(4,673 posts)in an attic fan, though I'm not sure how much good it did.
Since I was a kid, I was either resilient or memories don't latch on to heat being as bad as I know it was.
One of the hottest I was though was on steaming day en route to college and Mom ran out of gas in the heart of SC. We sat on the side of the road for about an hour and I still remember that!
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)small mining town. During the 50s, we used to visit them in the summer months. Back then, nobody had air conditioning. Cars didn't, either, so we used to drive there at night across the desert.
What my grandparents did have, though, was a swamp cooler in a window in the living room. It used the evaporation of water and a fan to provide cooler air indoors. A cloth loop was dipped into water at the bottom of the cooler, and then a pair of rollers operated by a hand crank let you move the wet cloth up in front of a fan.
In the low desert humidity, the swamp cooler would lower the temperature in the room from the 100+ degree temps outdoors to something in the 80s.
I remember sitting in a chair near the swamp cooler as a child of 8 or 9, rolling up the cloth every now and then to get the cooling started again. That was my job while we were there. At night, the temperature went down somewhat, so you could sleep, but it was still in the mid-80s.
And that's how I learned about the refrigeration cycle and evaporative cooling. We finally go a portable swamp cooler for our old 1952 Plymouth station wagon. It hung out of the rear side window. I got to operate that, too, when we traveled to the desert.
AC is wonderful!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Spent a fair amount of my grade school life in E. Washington state desert temps,but as a kid you can shake that off pretty easily,esp. the dry heat.
What we appreciated were wing vents in the car windows.
Since us kids had to sit in back of early 1950's cars, driving in the summer desert heat was at least bearable when the wing windows focused cooler air into the car.
I miss those window options.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)was where I sad. It was my job to keep the cool air flowing. There was a string loop you pulled to pull the cloth through the water and then up so the air could flow through it. I guess I was the AC switch or something.
They were pretty common sights in desert areas in those days during the summer months. You had to refill the water reservoir, which we did each time we stopped for gas or something.
Where my grandparents lived, it often got up to 105-110 degrees.
leftyladyfrommo
(18,870 posts)with big fins. It was 110. No AC. And the back window in those cars was big.
We fried.
Nights were nice.
yonder
(9,673 posts)MineralMan
(146,329 posts)yonder
(9,673 posts)MineralMan
(146,329 posts)However, if you look on eBay, you could probably find one. Car collectors...
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)All those layers of clothing, made even worse by having to do cooking and kids and etc all day. And the summer air down here is heavy with humidity, physically weighing on one.
Even now I see a lot of pre-A/C style houses around town, where there is a separate small shed like house for the washer/dryer, in recognition of how the steamy laundry process could add to humidity and heat in the home.
In rural areas, it was common to have a separate kitchen area for hot months.
While one can wax nostalgic for shady front porches and lemonade, it really does not get cool at night until past midnight in the summer.
Early fall days are great for lower temps, little humidity and porch sitting, many houses now have a back deck as opposed to a wrap around front porch.
One surprise in the South is how green it is, because trees around houses are valuable, and very common in most towns.
RockaFowler
(7,429 posts)I haven't been that hot since the hurricanes of 2004
We had every fan on in the house and even brought extras in to help us sleep. I took a cold shower and still was hot.
Florida is no place to live without AC. All year round . . .
Ohiogal
(32,057 posts)He claims you only need A/C in Florida for 3, maybe 4 months out of the year.
He went to college there for a year (Brevard Engineering School) back in the early 70s, so he is a self-proclaimed expert on how hot it gets in Florida year round.
I told him he and I could never live in Florida because I can barely stand summer in Ohio. Ive been to Florida in July a number of times and thought it was brutal.
We fight over the air conditioning all summer long. Its always too hot for me and too cold for him. I see no way the two of us could ever live in a southern state and not end up getting a divorce!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Mr.Dixie spends afternoons in his man cave/tool-shed outside,no a/c. It is tucked into a line of trees,
but still, gets hot. He manages to keep cool with fans, ice cooler of water,etc. as he putters around.
Then comes in at dinner time and complains the house is too cold, at 76 degrees, after all day in a heat index of 105.
Luckily, we have separate wings of the house, so I can crank up the window A/C in my bedroom at night,
and/or retreat to my den off that bedroom and stay cool with fans.
I think that is the secret to 20 some years of happy marriage down here in the South.
emmaverybo
(8,144 posts)fair sized room. Yeah, not the whole house, but you could keep a couple on on different rooms.
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)emmaverybo
(8,144 posts)JCMach1
(27,572 posts)hunter
(38,326 posts)... that was acting more as a dehumidifier than a cooler. Inside temps were only a few degrees reduced from outside, but the humidity was much lower.
At the time that was all the electricity we could afford.
It may not have been comfortable inside our small house shaded by trees but it wasn't sweat drenched misery.
I think if we ever again live in a place where air conditioning is a near-necessity I'd keep a small window air conditioner as a spare, even if we had central air conditioning. I might even buy a small generator powerful enough to run it.
We currently live in a place where nobody has air conditioners.
madamesilverspurs
(15,806 posts)There was just no money for the real thing. I was already in the habit of freezing water in 2 liter bottles, easy to toss into the cooler for car trips or fishing. Anyway, one hot summer day I put one of those frozen bottles into a dishpan and set it in front of my fan. It worked to cool the room I was in. (Also discovered, rather quickly, that a second dishpan had to be placed to catch the condensation drips.)
My current place comes with AC, but I don't use it. I generally have a fan going, the air movement is recommended for my COPD. So putting a chunk of ice in front of the fan doesn't add anything to my utility costs.
Anyway, just thought I'd share the idea for others whose budgets can't handle the cost of running AC.
.
Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)Cooling down my room right now. OMG it feels great.
Grammy23
(5,813 posts)Temps in the summer daytime where we live easily get to 95 + with high humidity. Parts for the repair had to be ordered which took a few days to arrive so if we had errands, we had to get into a super heated car, even though we had a shiny window deflector in the front windshield. Even with the windows down to let some of the hot air out, the inside temp was 110. Brutal. The blower moved the air around but it was very hot air, so not much better.
One day we drove up to buy groceries, a trip that is maybe 5 minutes away. When we returned to our driveway, our clothes were soaked with sweat and we staggered into the cool, dark house. The a/c in the house was working just fine. I think I collapsed into my recliner after I fixed a giant size mug of ice water. Im pretty sure a nap ensued and we just soaked up the cool air.
The a/c is fixed now, repaired by Cinderfella who is a retired vehicle mechanic and fleet manager. Air conditioning is one of those things we take for granted....in the south everywhere is air conditioned. Only when we have to spend time in an unair conditioned space do we get flashbacks to the good old dayswhich come to think of it might not have been so good after all.
If you are fortunate enough to have air conditioning, please remember how good it is not to have to suffer from extreme heat. And if there is a drive in your community to get a/c and fans for the elderly, give what you can to help out! Heat can kill and if it doesnt kill you can make life mighty hard.
SamKnause
(13,110 posts)I have 2 window air conditioners.
Both used.
My mother paid $60.00 for one, and a friend gave me the other one.
Last week the compressor stopped on the one my mother bought.
Today the one my friend gave me stopped working.
It is 83 degrees in the house and climbing.
It is 87 degrees outside with a heat index of 95 degrees.
Hopefully the situation will be remedied tonight.
A friend is going to pick up two new AC's for me tonight.
It will be money well spent.
raccoon
(31,119 posts)SamKnause
(13,110 posts)86 and climbing.
The humidity makes it so much worse.
I feel like getting in the refrigerator.
captain queeg
(10,242 posts)With such low humidity I could keep my place pretty tolerable and they are so cheap to run I left it in all the time. Lived in Oklahoma for a little while and got one there. It didnt work very well because as much as it looks like desert there are humid winds coming up from the gulf. So we had the worst of both, high temps and high humidity. Not to mention the scariest storms Ive ever been thru.
We never had AC growing up. No one did. With the exception of my grandma down in Florida. All her kids chipped in and bought her a window unit. Back then it was huge but kept her tiny house cool enough. Even as kids wed only go outside and play in the mornings and evenings. Otherwise wed hide out inside unless we went to the beach. I guess if youve never had it you dont think about it much but once I was older and got my first AC car I was sold.
Ilsa
(61,698 posts)anywhere in south Texas, around San Antonio in central Texas, etc. Those high temps are in the high 90s or higher with heat indices over 100. I guess there are worse places than there, too.
I'm glad you have your AC back! I know I'd be miserable without it.
MichMan
(11,971 posts)It isn't necessary to live in 68 degree sterile environments 24/7.
misanthrope
(7,428 posts)I can barely walk around inside without air conditioning during the summer.
DemoTex
(25,403 posts)They had to order a blower motor, so I won't get cold air until later in the week. My upstairs is unusable.
But the good news: the master bedroom and den are on a separate AC system. So at least I can sleep at night.
CDerekGo
(507 posts)Delivering mail door to door until last year. I don't care what dump says, yes, there is global warming. I had the Heat Stroke to prove it. No idea about use of A/C contributing to increase of Climate Change. I'd say all those years of use of coal for heat, for power generation, as well as use of fossil fuels for practically everything has done damage across the spectrum. Remember in the 70's when CFC's were used for Hairspray, but then found out to do damage to the Ozone? Nothing mentioned any longer about whether Ozone fully depleted or not.
Anyhow, reading article about if we as inhabitants of this planet, planted 1 billion trees, we could almost reverse the damage we've done to our Planet.
I'm not somewhere where I can plant a tree, but I do have over 20 different live plants growing for the Summer. When I return to my Florida home, I will be planting as many trees as I possibly can. Then when I sell and move to my next home, do the same.
Can all DU'rs with homes, make a promise to try and plant one tree this Summer?
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)As a matter of fact, if you plan to go out after 6pm, you would be well advised to take a sweater.
BooScout
(10,406 posts)...was when my AC died in Atlanta in the middle of mid 90s temps. I had to replace the central air unit and the company that installed the unit I wanted wouldn't take credit cards. After a couple of days without AC, I would have sold my soul for a new unit. It was hell on earth.
I honest to god don't remember being that miserable growing up in Atlanta with no air. I guess that must be why we kids liked to sleep on the screened porch so much though.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)Our AC went out and we had no money to fix it, so we sweated We finally had to bite the bullet when the furnace motor quit. We had to use the fan only feature to circulate air..
And even though we lived in a desert area, it does get pretty cool at night, so it was a relief to finally put some blankets away..
Our boys were happy to have temperature control after so long without it..me too !
LincolnRossiter
(560 posts)Well it didn't die, but the condenser was clogged and overflowing onto the basement floor whenever we ran it. Since the basement's finished, obviously this couldn't work. Home Warranty crooks couldn't get an HVAC servicer out for almost 24 hours.
My wife almost left me when I refused to relocate to a hotel. She's from Washington (State), I'm from South Louisiana and had spent the last couple years in the Middle East, so one of us was obviously better tooled to handle that particular ordeal.
Thekaspervote
(32,793 posts)Almost 3 days...ughh! Living alone at the time, I first thought I would go to my office and sleep, but police warned not to leave your property at night for fear of break ins. Temps were in the high 90s humidity 70% +
applegrove
(118,775 posts)raccoon
(31,119 posts)I could imagine myself there.