With rising temperatures and humidity, it got a bit stuffy in the house, so I cranked up the AC. God, I hated it! Here it is finally summery and I can open windows and smell and hear the world outside, and there I was like a head of cabbage in the fridge, isolate inside. Screw that. Windows went open, and I could finally breath.
We have absolutely no problem turning on AC, when needed that is. It can get fairly warm in our apartment, especially when we are using our clothes dryer, so we opened our patio door and it got worse due to heat from outside coming in. On comes the AC.
We have the doors and windows open and fresh air coming through the house. Both of us enjoy that time period in the spring and the fall when we can do this. Before long, it will be that Alabama Hot and Muggy weather, and we have to close everything up and use the AC and dehumidifier to even be able to breathe. When we get to that time of year, I try to only go outside in the early morning hours, when it is at least a little cooler, although still terrible humidity . Bobby does much better in the heat than I do, so he can spend more time outside in the summer. In the winter, it is the same thing in reverse. We can have the doors and windows open in the fall, and then it gets too cold, damp , and dreary to do that. My internal thermostat does not compensate for either heat or cold anymore, so all summer, I huff and puff with the heat, and all winter, I shiver and shake because I am too cold.
When I lived in California, I lived in apartments and they had central air so I used it. When I moved to Brownsville, Texas, I first lived in a condominium apartment with central air, so I used it. However, I worked at the Port of Brownsville and was not at all acclimated to 100-degree temperatures on a regular basis, so I had a heat rash that wouldn't quite go away by the end of a weekend when I had to start all over again. Finally, someone mentioned to me that the air-conditioned apartment and air-conditioned car were not allowing me to acclimate to the weather in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where temperatures are from 90-100 degrees year-round, and lower by only a few degrees at night. People who lived in houses there generally did not have air conditioning or they used it sparingly. When I moved from the condominium to a house, I didn't have air conditioning, nor did I generally use the AC in my car, and I spent twenty years there without a problem. A fan and some open windows were enough. Here in Maine, our summers are short and some summers, the high temperatures are in the low 80s and we only have a few days of that, so air conditioning would be kind of a waste. We do have a heat pump that has some cooling effects, though.
In Houston we run the a/c practically year round. The heat and humidity are oppressive. We can open our windows for a few days in the spring and again in the fall.
@Beth Gallagher , that's how it is here. Except that in the spring, the pollen is so bad that I haven't even opened them this spring. If I couldn't get another one, money couldn't buy my heat pump.
We have central A/C, but we don't turn it on until the indoor temp reaches the low 80's. Desert heat is dry and non-sweaty. When we have non-desert-dwelling visitors, we'll set it to 76. Hal
I really didn't care too much for AC because I froze every day when working at the hospital. 2015 when I was home all day for the first summer after being laid off the humidity changed my thinking about it.
Well, the cost to run it in a home, depending on how much it is used. In a vehicle, gas mileage brought down. In both cases, the cost of repair or replacement.
I lived in my house for nine years and have been unable to open a window. My wife is an open window gal, but me I apprec iate the A/C. However this is the first house we have ever lived in that had A/C (cold air). We've always had an evapertive cooler.