Heat in the South and Southwest

[cmj8591]

We'll survive it just like we always have. Six months from now we'll be whining about the cold.

The most accurate statement in this thread.

 

[tlawler]

I'm old enough to remember when every home wasn't "air-conditioned", and in west Tennessee where I grew up, that meant that everyone was acclimated to hot summers with high humidity.

Now most folks are so used to being inside of temperature controlled buildings they have difficulty adjusting when mother nature gives us those hotter or colder days. JMO


Don

I grew up in Miami and we didn't have air conditioning in the school I went to and other than the window shaker in mom and dad's room, no A/C at the house either. We moved up to Central Florida when I was in fifth grade in 1971, and my new school had A/C and our new house had central air.

 

[Maddog 521]

A good unit, properly installed, seems to be the answer for heating and cooling, and if you already had a forced-air furnace, the ducting is already there.

One concern is that they still use a fair bit of power, largely, I think, due to the compressor, so backup power in an outage can require a big genny.

How big ("tons" of cooling) is yours and what's the power requirement? From what I've read, most run on 220v and require a 20A breaker or bigger.

It's a 4ton and 220v is correct. Our monthly bill is about 25% lower. The unit that it replaced was 21 years old and installed when the house was built. It was pretty much trouble free since we bought the house. We are happy with the new unit.

 

[Rich Richardson]

Still have snow near my house.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

A "break" in the weather here in Central NJ, 74 degrees now at 1018. We had another brief rain. Had a deluge over the weekend. I live at the top of a good sized hill, the ground here still somewhat thirsty.
In the 9th summer for the GE/Made in Thailand A/C I bought at Goodwill-paid $45.00. Came home on summer night years ago, found the PRC made GE I was using had quit. Paid good money for it-$20.00 at a yard sale. Got 300 days out of it. One plus side of using window units is if they
quit on you, you just unplug them, wrestle them out and install a new one.

 

[LostintheOzone]

1) Air conditioning.
2) Trips to Montana.

And 110+ has always been common here. When I first moved to Arizona 31 years ago I LOVED the heat -- the hotter the better. But the last three or four years I've grown to hate it. Old age, I guess. Not sure I can take it much longer.

I was waiting for someone to mention AZ. I lived and worked around Phoenix for awhile in the 70's. I was in my 20's at the time and was working as a surveyor. I moved away from there in 75 after working outside in the summer of 74. That summer they had 18 days of 110° plus. Night time temps never dropped below 90°.

Back in 74 most houses there didn't have the refrigerated air conditioning we have today. Evaporative units were on every house. Those didn't cool anything very well.

I think the weather patterns are changing though. Hotter and dryer here than normal the last few years. And people are just a lot softer and squishier these days.

 

[Eltioloco]

http://smith-wessonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=637503&stc=1&d=1689980908

It looks like it will be a "cool" 114 by 7:00PM.
Looks like a good day to stay indoors and learn a new song on the guitar, no hot licks today, just cool country blues.

 

[Derosa]

Oh, I am not worried about the heat here in Dallas, TX. Our famously well maintained ERCOT energy gestapo says that it has all the power it needs to supply us. Yup. Increasing population. Higher temperatures. Record prices. AND it has not built a new power plant in many moons. It is relying on alternate energy sources to keep us cool. Yup. They keep telling us not to worry as its Board skates to the bank. And folks pass out. Yup only in America will you believe.