I'm almost ready for air conditioning

[JMPRO]

I have lived here in the Fountain Valley/ Huntington beach area for over 40 years. Normally we get a pretty good ocean breeze and being only 7 miles from the beach it stays usually comfortable around here. This year is the first time I have ever wished we had a/c. It has just been hot and humid for weeks and makes sleeping upstairs almost impossible. I have been told its about 7 grand to do the a/c, right now I don't care what it costs-just do it.
Jerry

[TerryH]

We're about 20 miles inland from the beach. Our AC has not stopped running since July. Not used to this sticky-muggy-soggy humidity.

Who moved Atlanta's weather pattern to the west coast? We could use some of their recent rains tho.

[JavaBrewer]

Humm. I recall last summer being way more humid than this year. I actually got a window fitted AC for our master bedroom to cope. Pulled the kids mattresses in our room and made it a family camp out The AC is currently in the closet and I haven't yet been motivated to pull it out and setup. Knock on wood...September and first part of Oct are normally pretty warm...

We have ceiling fans in every room of the house. My SDGE bill (gas & elec) was $72 last month...for a 3900 sq/ft two level home! I am still toying with a whole house fan...

[Flatbutt1]

the whole house fan works wonders.

[red-beard]

Not here....A/C all the way!

[onewhippedpuppy]

No A/C? That's freakin' nuts! Funny topic though, we had the coolest summer I can remember. Several weeks of 70s and low 80s in August, absolutely unheard of. I'm not complaining though.

[Rot 911]

Why not just get a couple of window units for the bad days? They are fairly cheap and easy to install. You wouldn't be out $400.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

We live right on the beach and I've been needing to run a/c (especially in my back room) for about a month. Our place also gets horrendous solar gain in the late afternoon (indoor temps will jump from 72-73 degrees to 88-89 degrees in about 3 hours every day - no joke). Sea breeze helps somewhat but the back room needs an a/c unit since the breeze doesn't reach back there.

This is also a non-insulated, single-paned float-glass building maintained by the cheapest SOBs alive, which doesn't help. I've opened one exterior wall - it's old school 1920s construction - wood studs with metal lath and plaster. Not a single piece of insulation to be found.

[Mule]

There are houses in the mountains around Chattanooga with no AC.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

There are houses in the mountains around Chattanooga with no indoor plumbing either.

[JMPRO]

I am going to look into that whole house fan. I just wonder how noisey they are. The noise doesn't bother me because I take my hearing aids out at night but my wife complains about the noise from the cieling fan so she my not like that big 747 roaring in the attic. I lived breifly in an old 2 story home in Manhatten Kansas back in 66 that had an attic fan they turned on at night and all the rooms had louvered doors so the air could pass unobstructed through the house but alas so did the noise. The weather report last night was for at least 7 more days of this heat and humidity so I don't see this ending soon. I ran into Jhonny Mountain, our local CBS weather guy a few weeks ago at a Mercedes dealer instead of saying hi I should have punched him out.
I am working up a sweat just typing this.
Jerry

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by JMPRO

I lived breifly in an old 2 story home in Manhatten Kansas back in 66 that had an attic fan they turned on at night and all the rooms had louvered doors so the air could pass unobstructed through the house but alas so did the noise.

Small world, that's my hometown! But it's Manhattan. I'm headed there on Saturday for a KSU game.

[JMPRO]

My wife and I had to stop at Fort Riely on our way back to Ca. Manhattan was the only place we could find a room for a few days. It was a very nice little town and we might have enjoyed it more had it not been for the fact I was leaving for Viet Nam in a week or so and the bugs at night. We went to a show one night and parked our white VW right under a street lamp, that seemed like a good idea at the time. When we returned to the car after the show it was black. Totally covered with a gazillion of those little crickets Kansas is so famous for. The locals laughed and said "whadcha expect, you parked under a street lamp"
Jerry

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

There are houses in the mountains around Chattanooga with no indoor plumbing either.

Hahahahahahaha. You Californians are so superior. I suppose if you looked long enough and far enough back in the mountains, you may find one. If you do, they will know two things in that house that are apparently not common knowledge there in paradise, you don't put your mouth on another man's "Edited - language removed, Z-man", and a married couple requires 1 man & 1 woman.

[KNS]

Quote:

We have ceiling fans in every room of the house. My SDGE bill (gas & elec) was $72 last month...for a 3900 sq/ft two level home! I am still toying with a whole house fan...


I envy you... Those of you considering a move to our oven (Phoenix) might like our July electric bill: $270.00 - and we keep the thermostat at 78*.

[JMPRO]

I am trying not to be a complainer but like I said it has been so unusualy hot here that I need to do something even if its just the whole house fan thing. I put a new roof on a few years ago and went from wood shingles to concrete tiles and that seemed to help a little to keep the house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I am tring not to spend very much money on this house as we are still thinking about building a new house on our beach property and use this one as a rental so why spend a bunch of money just so the renters are more comfortable.
Jerry

[911boost]

When we moved to the Front Range in Colorado, everyone said we didn't need ac. Our house was brand new, and it didn't have so we said, "no biggy".

Yep, that lasted until my wife got pregnant for the first time, and she didn't like sleeping in the basement when it was really hot. So, I had a friend that worked for a local HVAC company, and he hooked me up with a brand new, really nice and efficent unit that had a small dent / scratch on it, that a custom home builder had refused.

I run the ac during the really hot days, and typically open the windows at night to let in the cool air.

Bill

[JMPRO]

If I build a new house on my beach property I am going to put a/c in it even though the locals say you don't need it. When building a new house the a/c cost is so small compared to the rest of it I think I would just do it anyway. The builder I will use always builds the air handling systems for future a/c upgrade anyway so the upgrade cost is not that high. The property is on a hill just 1/4 mile from the ocean so at least I will have a great view.
Jerry

[the]

Whole house fan is good. There is always going to be some noise with them, obviously, you have a huge fan drawing a large amount of air. But it's not like AC, where you have to keep it on. In your climate, where it cools down at night, it would work well. It blows all the hot air out of the attic and house, exchanges it with the cool outside air, and you can then turn it off (after a half hour or so).

[JMPRO]

We have our ceiling fan in our bedroom on a timer so I can set it to go off in a hour or leave it on all night. Most of these nights I have been leaving it on all night.
Jerry