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[divingbiker]

Can you close the vents in rooms you don't use and then close the doors to those rooms, so you're only cooling the ones you're in?

Like 7, I do this, too. I shut off my upstairs vents since I only sleep there. I have a small window AC that I run at night. In my old house, the cool air can't make it upstairs anyway, so it never really gets cooled off adequately for sleeping. The window unit is a lifesaver.

[Cataboo]

Can you close the vents in rooms you don't use and then close the doors to those rooms, so you're only cooling the ones you're in?

I only have a small 1BR condo so there's no wasted space to heat or cool.

Yeah, there wasn't wasted space to heat or cool when I was living in a 1 bedroom condo. I actually usually care way more about air flow than I do about temperature - if I'm in a room where the air is not moving, I find it stifling no matter the temperature. If the air is moving, I'm usually happy enough. But often I just had the fan on on the central air in the condo to get air moving.

Do you guys have way better vent covers than I do? Because I still feel heat and cold coming out of closed vents and I know a ton of people with 2 level houses/condos/townhouses that close all the vents on their lower levels - but that still doesn't mean that cold air comes out of the vents on the higher level.

The house has a lot of open space with a peaked tall ceiling. Those ceilings trap heat. So the kitchen, dining room, living room, foyer have that peaked ceiling - the thermostat is in a hallway just off that room. So any cooling pretty much has to do that entire area given that that is where the thermostat is. 2 bedrooms & the bathroom off that hallway. I did have the vents in the downstairs/basement closed off this weekend with the air conditioning on - the basement still cooled down. I can close a door to the basement utility room and for the computer room down there, but can't close off the downstairs living room.

But the temps were fine for me to sleep in my bedroom last night (even with a sheet & pajamas on) without ac. Sitting in my computer room using the computer has been fine.

It is 111 degrees in the sunroom during the day, but was fine yesterday evening and this morning - I get a cross breeze through it and I can quite often use that to cool the house down or use the heat in the sunroom to heat the house in the winter - on a cold sunny day in the winter, the sunroom will still get to 80-90 degrees in there (even if it's in the 20's outside) - and if I open the french doors to the sunroom, the rest of the upstairs of the house is heated to about 75. I just have to close off the doors before the sun goes down, 'cause temps drop rapidly out there.

I do have a portable AC that has a hose to go out the window for the sunroom - if I really get hot, I could put it in one of the bedrooms. I stuck it up in the sunroom this weekend for my guests. But so far I haven't really been too hot. If you don't constantly heat or cool your environment - you really do get used to it (yes, I do use my heater, frozen pipes suck ). People in asia or africa don't have troubles sleeping at night without AC.

[Selkie]

I'm sorry, but I don't go to work every day just to come home and suffer in a 90 degree house. I love my air conditioning and will gladly pay the electric bill.

Same here. My dad (the Original Miser) refused to get A/C until after my siblings & I grew up and moved out of the house. Pittsburgh summers can get hot/humid, and my dad was so cheap that he wouldn't let us even run fans at night (he claimed it might set the house on fire, but he was too worried about the extra few $$ it might cost--the man was an engineer at IBM, so we weren't exactly destitute!! ).

Anyway, that's probably why I gladly pay to run the A/C---too many summers spent sweltering. In addition, we have three big furry dogs---don't want them to suffer. Because our house was built in 1940, there's no insulation in the walls. The new windows we got this spring have made a HUGE difference, however, in keeping the cool air in and the hot air out.

Running ceiling fans helps, as does keeping the blinds shut.

DH and I went for a walk around noon. When the sun was behind clouds, it wasn't that bad, but being in the sun was brutal. Back to work tomorrow, unfortunately. I have packed a sweater because my office will be like a meat locker.

[ny biker]

If you don't constantly heat or cool your environment - you really do get used to it (yes, I do use my heater, frozen pipes suck ). People in asia or africa don't have troubles sleeping at night without AC.

I grew up without air conditioning, and we kept fans on all night so we could sleep.

My mother has never lived in a house with air conditioning, and she hates it when it gets this hot during the summer. She sits in front of a fan watching TV all day -- and she is not the kind of person who enjoys watching TV all day.

I keep my thermostat at 71 in the winter, which keeps the actual temp in my living room and bedroom at 69 on cold days. And I hate it. I hate being cold all the time.

I'm glad so many people get used to it but not everyone does.

[Cataboo]

Same here. My dad (the Original Miser) refused to get A/C until after my siblings & I grew up and moved out of the house. Pittsburgh summers can get hot/humid, and my dad was so cheap that he wouldn't let us even run fans at night (he claimed it might set the house on fire, but he was too worried about the extra few $$ it might cost--the man was an engineer at IBM, so we weren't exactly destitute!! ).

Running ceiling fans helps, as does keeping the blinds shut.

DH and I went for a walk around noon. When the sun was behind clouds, it wasn't that bad, but being in the sun was brutal. Back to work tomorrow, unfortunately. I have packed a sweater because my office will be like a meat locker.

I couldn't survive without fans - that moving air thing. I get car sick if don't have air blowing at my face, so often I'm driving around in the winter with the seat heater on, the heat blowing on my feet and my windows open.

We had window air units when I was young - at certain temps we were allowed to use them - otherwise it was the hang out in the basement (where my bedroom was anyways) or close the blinds & use fans. Fans really don't use that much electricity, I think - at least I use them constantly!

My brother tells this funny story about how when we were young and we used to go visit some family friends who lived in a double wide trailer in Alabama - that he always thought they were rich, 'cause they used their air conditioning constantly - which we weren't allowed to do 'cause of the expense.

My other brother just emailed to tell me that even his chihuahua wants air conditioning today - typically when he puts the AC on, his dog goes out to the un-airconditioned sunroom and sits under one of the skylights to stay warm or wants to stay outside. The dog hates AC.

[Cataboo]

I grew up without air conditioning, and we kept fans on all night so we could sleep.

My mother has never lived in a house with air conditioning, and she hates it when it gets this hot during the summer. She sits in front of a fan watching TV all day -- and she is not the kind of person who enjoys watching TV all day.

I keep my thermostat at 71 in the winter, which keeps the actual temp in my living room and bedroom at 69 on cold days. And I hate it. I hate being cold all the time.

I'm glad so many people get used to it but not everyone does.

Maybe it's partly genetics of where people's ancestors came from and what temps they've evolved to deal with.

I am definitely more likely to kayak in this weather than to bike - but then I already biked in this stuff at bike virginia and I'm giving my bum a break. When I do bike in it, I wait till later in the evening, stop to take pictures more and drink more.

I think I used to be colder more often when I was skinnier.

I keep my thermostat around 65-70 in the winter, 55-60 if I'm sleeping, 50 if I'm not home. 70 or higher if I have company. I do have a little vornado foot heater thing underneath my computer desk. I keep 2 down comforters on my bed, 'cause the best thing ever is snuggling under warm downs when the bedroom's cold around me.

I spend a lot of time hiking or skiing in the winter - and after a few days skiing in like 10-20 degree temps on the mountain, I'm always walking around outside in a wool shirt with a vest over it down at the base of the mountain in 30 degree temps because it feels warm to me.

But I also don't skimp on buying wool, fleece, or down stuff - so the clothing I'm wearing is usually fairly warm for what it is.


I spent 3 years in grad school in an apartment with 12 foot ceilings, rotting window frames (the original like 1900s windows) and electric baseboard heat - actually heating that apartment was close to physically impossible - so I just had a space heater on a huge extension cord that followed me around that apartment and heated the space right around me. Heat lamps in the bathroom for when I showered. 3 downs on the bed for when I slept. I bought my condo when the landlord wanted to raise my rent without actually repairing anything. The place had a ton of character though. And I was at school most of the time.

[beccaB]

This is the time for ice cream and beer, not necessarily in that order!

[kmehrzad]

I had the heater on in my office today.

[divingbiker]

I had the heater on in my office today.

That is just wrong.

[HillSlugger]

I had the heater on in my office today.

Most days in my office I have to wear a jacket and I'm still sometimes cold. It's such a waste of energy and $$

[kmehrzad]

Most days in my office I have to wear a jacket and I'm still sometimes cold. It's such a waste of energy and $$

Sad to say, but I had the heater on in my office again today. I think the cooling system is trying to compensate for the heat outside and doing a dang good job of it, too good for my little cube.

[7rider]

My bike locker at work is tucked off in a corner near these huge compressor-thingamabobbies. A.C. Units? I dunno. But whatever they are, they were running full bore today. In addition to being screaming loud by the lockers, it felt like it was 200 degrees down there! Blech, makes you motivated to really park-and-go!

[Zen]

Yet there are still people without power.
The grid is so old and outdated. There was a good piece on Fresh Air today with Joel Achenbach who has an article about it in the current Nat'l Geo

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=128360080

[Selkie]

The irony is that I went from spending the winter/spring in an office that was boiling hot (couldn't wear my winter clothes) to a new office that is colder than a meat locker. I prefer it to be cooler in the office but it's ridiculously cold (even the men are complaining). Personal heaters are verboten --fire hazards. We're supposed to move back to the oven office in the fall.

[Possegal]

Same here. My dad (the Original Miser) refused to get A/C until after my siblings & I grew up and moved out of the house. Pittsburgh summers can get hot/humid, and my dad was so cheap that he wouldn't let us even run fans at night (he claimed it might set the house on fire, but he was too worried about the extra few $$ it might cost--the man was an engineer at IBM, so we weren't exactly destitute!! ).

Oh my, are we related? Raised in the burgh, house really did keep us a bit cooler than any other place I've ever lived - thank heaven for those old brick houses. We never had AC and my father "didn't believe in fans", which I really never quite understood. Good lordy some of those hazy/hot/humid days could be unbearable!