When The Heat Index is 106 And Your AC Dies

[BC38]

Bought a new Buick LeSabre in 1972. Took the wife and daughter and
headed for New Orleans to an important conference. Just before El Paso
the A/C quit. It was 112. Stopped at several service stations. Couldn't
find anyone speaking English. Went on down the road with 4/80 AC.
Got it fixed at the dealership in New Orleans.
Must be a couple of Murphy's Laws. AC always quits at the hottest time.
Furnace always quits on the coldest night.

Nah, Murphy isn't involved.
The hotter it is the harder the AC unit works.
The colder it is the harder the furnace works.
The harder something works the more likely it is to quit working.

 

[crazyphil]

You got off easy 714. Absolutely have at least 1 capacitor on hand. My capacitor was good, unfortunately. $3700 later and it's cool enough to hang meat in my living room. Be sure to keep that window unit handy, A/C loves to quit at the hottest time. Last quit 2 houses ago, was the night of July 3, 1994, 3 days of sleeping on the tile. Joe

Barracks at El Paso (Fort Bliss) had swamp coolers. Spent most
of a summer there, and they about froze you out.

I always heard swamp coolers don't do any good when the
temp is over 90? That must have been bad info.

 

[crazyphil]

Nah, Murphy isn't involved.
The hotter it is the harder the AC unit works.
The colder it is the harder the furnace works.
The harder something works the more likely it is to quit working.

That makes perfectly good sense.

 

[Sistema1927]

I always heard swamp coolers don't do any good when the
temp is over 90? That must have been bad info.

Swamp (evaporative) coolers only work in areas of low humidity, like El Paso where I went to HS. You can expect between 15 and 25 degree differential, depending upon humidity. The good thing about El Paso is that the humidity is pretty much always single digits, so a 100 degree day can result in ~75 inside.

Here in Albuquerque most people (including myself) also use swamp coolers. However, our humidity is normally higher than El Paso. So, during this latest stretch of almost 100 degree days I have been seeing around 80 inside. During this monsoon season, when the humidity jumps up just prior to rain, it can get a bit uncomfortable, but only a couple of days a year. However, once that afternoon rain comes, things cool down very quickly. Here at 5000 feet altitude I always carry a light jacket in the truck. You can see 100 during the day, and a quick drop to chilly temps as soon as the sun goes down.

Another thing about swamp coolers is knowing exactly how much and where to keep windows open to maximize cooling. I have three windows cracked open in different parts of the house, the result of much trial and error.

We did install central (natural gas sourced) air conditioning at the church, and I have notified all of my folks to let me know if they have an AC failure at home so that I can fire it up and open the building. We might see as high as 104 by this weekend.

 

[Steve912]

I always heard swamp coolers don't do any good when the
temp is over 90? That must have been bad info.

It's all about humidity.

I remember looking at a cold aluminum beer can and realizing
it had a sheen of moisture, but not enough to form a drop and
run down the side. That was El Paso, in a "swamp-cooler-
conditioned" room. In Georgia, that same can would have had
a puddle of condensation, with more drops running down the side.

Swamp coolers worked pretty good in Kuwait, too.

Bosses bought a couple of big roll-around models for outdoor
use in Georgia. I laughed at that...sure enough, they ended
up expensive fans, without the hose & water.