Thank you for the loan of Summer. You can have it back now. I am done with it.
I HATE this weather. It isn’t so bad outside (downtown SF) right now…in the shade. In the sun it is miserable. I am in a very summer dress and have to put on a jacket and scarf when inside. The hotter it is outside, the colder it is inside (winter is the opposite, that is when I can really wear my summer clothes).
Yesterday I started my yearly panic over the heat. I decided I needed to actually do something about it this time. I would like to get an air conditioning unit. But it drys out the air and I always think the air is too dry anyway. So I decided to go with an Evaporative Cooler (i.e. swamp cooler). 15 degrees is enough, right? Turns out that the only place that seems to carry them is Home Depot and they have had trouble with them. And 15 degrees isn’t going to cut it in Sept. And then there is the question of where do I put it? AC units and swamp coolers are big. My apt is small (and full). And this thing will be used something like 6-10 days out of the year. Arggggg
My thoughts at the moment are to get a swamp cooler for now and look into getting a window mounted ac unit in time for Aug/Sept. I want it to be near my bed as I can retreat to there on hot days but the window is right near my head. Not a good idea here in shaky California. I don’t even know if my windows can take an ac unit. I am looking into having it near my front door (not great for the lack of thief entry but it might be a possibility) and plan to sleep on my couch during the times when I need it. I could uninstall it when the season is over and store it, right?
I keep feeling I am being silly about all this. What is the big deal over a couple of days of heat. You suffer and then it is over. Then I think back over how I really feel during those times. And see how panicky I get when it looks like it might reach one of those times. My reactions illustrate to me that I am not being silly, just typically hyper-sensitive. The affect of the heat is not just when it is hot. It has spread from there.
would AC unit + humidifier work? moisture to counteract the demoisturizing… it might even make the AC unit function more efficiently if it had moister air to process… I really don’t know though. I am kindof pulling this out of my ass.
I love cool-mist humidifiers. They sell spiffy lighted ones that look like little fountains. I love them. I think I am going to get one.
Last night at death guild my strategy was to douse my hair liberally with cold water from the bathroom several times during the evening. Not a very good long-term solution though.
Window shades…
You can get these window stickers to put over your windows to keep much of the heat and sun out of any direct room with direct sunlight.
It’s basically, this big grey *sticker* that you stick the entire length of your window, and you can get ones with shiney reflective surfaces on the other side so people can’t see in.
Damn…now I forgot what they’re called. BUT you can get them from Home Depot in their window covering section.
Re: Window shades…
They work like space blankets do.
I pretty much don’t get any direct sun as my apartment is downstairs and covered in plants. Sometimes it is hard to tell it is daytime. I couldn’t live in the upstairs apartments at any time of the year. It just bakes when the air temp goes up. Conduction vs. radiation. My main lighting source is fluorescent so that it doesn’t heat things up either.
Thanks for the thought tho.
a) you’re not being “silly” – I know what heat does to you… you have every right to be panicked.
b) a window AC unit will be 90% *outside* the window – so if you go shaky-shaky and it falls down – it will fall the other way…
c) It’s worth it. M & I bought one and kept just the bedroom cool the summer *after* the “summer from hell” and never regretted it.
d) yes, you can store it – yes, there’s a way to “jury rig” it into just about any window…
hugs!!!
Hanging outside the window…hmmm. That is a thought. I don’t know if I can mount it to the outside of the apartment building but I think I will look into this. The bedroom window is where it would be the most useful. And then I could get a humidifier for the headboard.
Hmmmm
Thanks
I keep feeling I am being silly about all this. What is the big deal over a couple of days of heat. You suffer and then it is over.
I’m glad you debunk that statement yourself, because the heat *is* miserable. The heat saps all my energy, energizes the plants into hyper-allergen producing mode, and just makes me rather miserable. I don’t like knowing that any sort of exertion will have my dripping sweat, and I don’t like walking out into a blast furnace. And I’m generally rather weather tolerant.
So, put simply, word.
There are AC units that sit inside on the floor, usually on wheels, with just a flexible duct to a panel that fits in the window for exhaust. That way you can move the heavy AC unit around a bit, as well as not have it lurking over your head.
Around $500-$800, pretty large (my apt is pretty small) and you still have to have a hose/tube to the window to vent the hot air. The image of the thing by my bed with the duct going over me to the window is funny, if I wasn’t so panicky.
Just to repeat: I bought a wheeled portable that’s only $300. The venting isn’t that big of a deal, generally.
As for a swamp cooler: it’s generally too humid in the bay area to use one effectively. Yes, it IS humid here. Just not as humid as in the northeast or the south. I grew up in a much, much drier climate: Sacramento. Interestingly enough, I’ve met people who thought Sacto was humid (they lived in Redding, and liked the dry).
When I hit Fry’s I didn’t see anything for $300 in the portable land.
As for humidity, it is around 30% when it is in the 80s and 80-90% when in the 50s. Marginal for a swamp cooler but not completely pointless.
I believe I read somewhere that beyond 60% humidity was where swamp coolers lost all value.
Sorry that they were sold out at Fry’s. They were going rather quickly on the day I was there.
*hugs* You have every right to fight against the heat if it makes you miserable.
From personal experience, a swamp cooler over your head while you sleep makes you sick. (At least, it made me sick.) So I’d recommend flipping around so it blows across your feet or putting it in the living room. Let me know if you want the dynamic duo to come and help you install it when you find one. Those suckers are very heavy.
It is all that moisture. You don’t do as well as I do with the moisture. Also, I wouldn’t run it when I sleep. A constant hum grates on me and I can’t go to sleep. It would cool things down enough so I could go to sleep.
What I would love is to have whatever on a shelf below the stuffed animals at the foot of my bed. But most everything wants access to air behind it. Pooo.
The portable ones aren’t too bad, probably until you put water in them. They are small, not house sized. Figure they will live on a floor or table/counter.
Swamp coolers are a really swell way to get bacteria and mold into your home. There’s a reason that nobody up here sells them anymore.
What about a fan?
The portable with the hose out your window would be a lot less hassle than a window-mounted unit; also, safer. You can always pull the hose out when you don’t need it, but it’s harder to take a big window unit out every time you leave your house.
There is a reason I no longer live in Stockton
Okay, there are several but the heat is a big one.
I’ve been faking it fairly well in my office with a fountain and fan blowing across it. Plus I like the fountain.
Re: There is a reason I no longer live in Stockton
In the past, I have jury rigged a wide box fan with an old humidifier sitting on top of it. Mist goes up, falls, fan blows it around. The fan died. New box fans are too skinny for the old jury rig. And it didn’t help that much. I couldn’t get it that close to the bed. I wish I knew how close the effect of the jury rig is to the things I am looking buy.
Three options
1. Borrow (long term) one of my room airconditioners; put it on the window as needed. I’m more than happy to help install.
2. Put in a ceiling fan. Helps, really!
3. Move to Washington. Just passing through, me, and the weather here is in the 50′s right now…
I’ll be back in a month…look me up if you want the airconditioner.
Re: Three options
1. I think I might like to take you up on this offer.
2. They help but not enough and they have always driven me nuts. Besides, clearance is an issue. I have to duck in heels and hats already.
3. Moving isn’t such a good idea. I had Seattle and Portland on my list of possibilities when I moved here. I tracked the weather, and it turns out that they are typically hotter than SF during the heat waves and average over 80 many times during the summer. Normal SF weather suits me fine. My only issue is during those few days a year where it is just too hot.
For the most part, I don’t worry about what other people think. I do have a hard time knowing what is reasonable and for that I check with outside sources. If I had everything the way I think it should be, I would not be functional (“gee, I don’t feel well, I won’t go to work, I never go to work” type of thing). The internal Gina doesn’t really have clue between reasonable and overblown.