# You have Air Conditioning???



## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

I've never had AC. Not when I was growing up and not now. Gananoque, being on the river, tends to keep slightly cooler than inland and our old brick house is well-shaded by trees. Windows open all night and shut down first thing in the morning. Maybe a week into a heat wave, it gets uncomfortably warm upstairs. Then we turn on the ceiling fan.


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

I think my wife would die if we didn't have it. I bug her and tell her she's going through 'the changes and suffering from hot flashes. She had recently set the schedule to 18 everyday. WTF woman! I think it was a bargaining tactic as I had set them all to 23. We've agreed on 20 now. LOL


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

Yup. Had window units in the apartment and now central in the house. Toronto summers don’t F around.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

fretzel said:


> I think my wife would die if we didn't have it. I bug her and tell her she's going through 'the changes and suffering from hot flashes. She had recently set the schedule to 18 everyday. WTF woman! I think it was a bargaining tactic as I had set them all to 23. We've agreed on 20 now. LOL


I can totally relate to this. 😆


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Portable unit that is struggling to keep up right now. Forecast possible 38 tomorrow. It's a dry heat though.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

I keep my house at 25 all year round.


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## blueshores_guy (Apr 8, 2007)

Yup. Central.
We live in an oak-savanna forest area just off the south-east coast of Lake Huron. Our lot has a couple of huge old oak trees, but it's mostly towering red pines. And, it turns out, red pines drop a lot of pollen. Really a lot. So, not wanting everything inside our house to have a thick coating of yellow dust, we shut all the windows and turn on the AC in early June. And the cars definitely live in the garage when they're not being used. Some years the pollen nonsense lasts for 6 weeks. Somewhat like the ever-present poison ivy situation, the pine pollen was not something we had anticipated before moving here.


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I hate having to close my windows in the summer. I used to wait as long as possible and sweat out some hot nights just so I could have my windows open. But in the last couple of years I've found my self being very sensitive to the heat. So even just a 2 or 3 day heat wave compels me to turn on the central AC
My wife used to bug me to turn it on when it got hot. She no longer needs to nag me.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I consider AC in our car a "safety feature". If I don't have AC, you *don't* want me on the road.
As for in-house, our basement tends to be several degrees cooler than the main floor, and probably a good 5 or 6 below the second floor. Given where our house faces, AC is pretty well compulsory. Which is ironic because, given that same facing, our driveway is usually the last one on the street to de-ice as winter comes to an end. We catch all the sun in summer, and block it in winter.

That said, we try to keep it off as much as possible, relying on open windows, curtains, and not generating heat inside.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

fretzel said:


> I think my wife would die if we didn't have it. I bug her and tell her she's going through 'the changes and suffering from hot flashes. She had recently set the schedule to 18 everyday. WTF woman! I think it was a bargaining tactic as I had set them all to 23. We've agreed on 20 now. LOL


I think of that commercial where the woman trucks out through knee deep snow looking mad, rips the the cover off the A/C unit, and then goes back inside the house.

We just had the same discussion btw. went from 18 up to 19.5. I couldn't get 20


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

First thing I did when I bought the house was install central air with a themopump. Helps the heating bill also.


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

The struggle is real. LOL 

The worst part is my jam room is in the basement and it can be 16 down there of she is feeling too warm.


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## dgreen (Sep 3, 2016)

one level home on 3/4 acre, no air conditioning... but we have been on our property now for 37 years and many trees existing and planted to shade our house and gardens. Never an issue with excessive heat , always cooler in the house thanks to the natural air conditioning that the landscape provides.


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

no AC in house

AC for car is 460 .... roll down 4 windows and drive @ 60 MPH


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## DrumBob (Aug 17, 2014)

My father was in the appliance business, so I grew up with A/C and have always had it, so yes, we have it at home all over the house, but window or wall units, as our house doesn't have the duct work necessary for central. My wife likes a cold bedroom at night and so do I. It would suck if had married a woman who was cold all the time. Summers can be very hot on the East Coast of the USA.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

fretzel said:


> The struggle is real. LOL
> 
> The worst part is my jam room is in the basement and it can be 16 down there of she is feeling too warm.


Yeah, my little office/music room can get pretty cool on some days. We haven't had to blast the AC yet, but I was letting the house cool off at night in the winter (better for sleeping), so I was seeing 17-18 down here some mornings when I'd come down to start work. My wife comes from a place that's considerably warmer than here, so she rarely complains when it's hot!


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

@jdto she should enjoy this weekend then of you're in the GTA.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

fretzel said:


> I think my wife would die if we didn't have it. I bug her and tell her she's going through 'the changes and suffering from hot flashes. She had recently set the schedule to 18 everyday. WTF woman! I think it was a bargaining tactic as I had set them all to 23. We've agreed on 20 now. LOL


You my friend are a very brave man.lol


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

marcos said:


> You my friend are a very brave man.lol


LOL I was out of striking distance when I changed. One of the guilty pleasures of wifi.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

We have a window shaker and a few fans to recirculate the air. It removes the humidity and thats what we like. The only time i put on the car AC is when i get stuck in traffic and its like 30 and humid, other than that, i enjoy the breeze with all the windows open. To each his own.


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## wraub (May 21, 2021)

Central air, almost mandatory where I live. It gets to 115 F here for days on end in mid-summer, last year over a hundred straight days above 100 F.
Ice water can only do so much.


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## Rollin Hand (Jul 12, 2012)

It just gets too humid in Ottawa to go without, in my opinion. I gerw up in a drier, cooler climate. I have to have my AC.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

fretzel said:


> @jdto she should enjoy this weekend then of you're in the GTA.


Sure looks like it, eh? And yeah, we're in midtown Toronto, so we'll be getting our steamer this weekend. The funny part is, she'll still complain about the heat outside, but usually doesn't mind the house being at like 25-26 inside.


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## Paul M (Mar 27, 2015)

My furnace failed last night; the blower motor is done. Outrageously expensive for a dc motor, and unavailable for months.

Sooooooo, the good news is I can get a new furnace in the summer. The AC portion is still fine, so they will just install a new furnace in the same space. My choices for install were monday am, or about 3 weeks from now.

My marriage won't survive a lack of AC, so this is what I must do. <heavy sigh>


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

Apparently we didn't come to an agreement. I changed them all back though. Wonder how long until she notices?


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## BobChuck (Jan 16, 2012)

Thermo/Central. I can't sleep during the day without it. Way too noisy outside to keep the windows open ...plus the sun.


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## GuitarT (Nov 23, 2010)

I absolutely hate the summer heat. My life in July consists of going from my air conditioned house to my air conditioned workplace in my air conditioned car and back again. Repeat.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Two window shakers, one in the master bedroom, one in the living room/lesson studio, both on the same floor. We used to have a large church and trees to the east that shaded the house for half the day but a storm removed those so the place really heats up now. There used to be a large maple to the west but it too is gone. Shade made a huge difference. The shakers do a decent job of cooling the whole first floor but the noise gets annoying. I generally put them in around May 24 and store them by Thanksgiving.


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## Pierrafeux (Jul 12, 2012)

Frenchy99 said:


> First thing I did when I bought the house was install central air with a themopump. Helps the heating bill also.


Same for me, thermopump is great......


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Pierrafeux said:


> Same for me, thermopump is great......


We live on granite so idunno. I see some people selling them but I'm interested in your experience.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

jb welder said:


> It's a dry heat though.


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## Gavz (Feb 27, 2016)

Central A/C in the house because the wife & kids, I like being outside when its hot. When I drive by myself, I like to drive the car windows closed like a sauna. I grew up in Norway, the summers were short...you appreciate the heat more.


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## Moosehead (Jan 6, 2011)

Hell yes, central air all summer long. Too hot and humid here without it.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

yup.
The downside of a modern house with a lot of windows, is it turns into a greenhouse when the sun is out...good in the winter, awful in the summer.
the other downside, is there arent very many walls to hang pictures on, so a lot of our pictures stayed in boxes in the basement when we moved here.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

Paul M said:


> My furnace failed last night; the blower motor is done. Outrageously expensive for a dc motor, and unavailable for months.
> 
> Sooooooo, the good news is I can get a new furnace in the summer. The AC portion is still fine, so they will just install a new furnace in the same space. My choices for install were monday am, or about 3 weeks from now.
> 
> My marriage won't survive a lack of AC, so this is what I must do. <heavy sigh>


no new guitars for you this week 😟


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Managed for years without it, but during a heat wave last year we decided to get a portable unit for our bedroom - but they were sold out. Picked one up earlier this spring and set it up yesterday - I suspect that it will get some use this week.


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## Strat-O-Mechanical (Feb 7, 2007)

We’re in an old, solid brick farmhouse built in the mid to late 1800s and currently use a fleet of five window shakers (4 tons total cooling capacity), which actually makes the house quite comfortable (and is a ton of work every spring and fall). The house has a boiler and radiant heat system that works very well, so I don’t have an air handler and ducting system to easily add central air. The aspiration is to eventually add a network of permanently-installed, mini-split air conditioners … but I can buy four 100W Two-Rock amps for the cost difference between the window shakers and the mini-split system (plus necessary electrical service upgrades).


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## Fred Gifford (Sep 2, 2019)

we live in the heart of the concrete city, without heavy air-con it would be like living in a blast-furnace ... not fun


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

No AC.
All window blinds on the south wall are closed all day.
Open windows at night, if cool enough. Ceiling/oscillating fans.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

fretzel said:


> The struggle is real. LOL
> 
> The worst part is my jam room is in the basement and it can be 16 down there of she is feeling too warm.


Our basement is a cellar -- unfinished, cold, low ceiling. But after a few days of heat wave, it's a handy reservoir of cool air. So I turn the furnace fan (only) on and can usually drop the temperature upstairs by a couple of degrees.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Rollin Hand said:


> It just gets too humid in Ottawa to go without, in my opinion. I gerw up in a drier, cooler climate. I have to have my AC.


I grew up in Ottawa. We had a cottage where we stayed all summer. (Dad, of course, stayed in Ottawa to work and mom cottaged with the kids.) I remember the feeling and smell of going back home in September -- hot and humid and smelled like shut-up house.


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## Midnight Rider (Apr 2, 2015)

Replaced my 1975 R-12 Refrigerant central air unit with a new 2019 13 SEER R-410A Refrigerant unit a couple years ago. Significant improvement in cooling ability and energy savings.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Well some years we wouldn't even use it.
and if we had one, it would have been on most of last week.

But most years it would only get used for a handful of days.

(Although it gets used in the car a lot.)


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## Alan Small (Dec 30, 2019)

oldjoat said:


> no AC in house
> 
> AC for car is 460 .... roll down 4 windows and drive @ 60 MPH


roll down windows?


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

Doug Gifford said:


> I've never had AC. Not when I was growing up and not now. Gananoque, being on the river, tends to keep slightly cooler than inland and our old brick house is well-shaded by trees. Windows open all night and shut down first thing in the morning. Maybe a week into a heat wave, it gets uncomfortably warm upstairs. Then we turn on the ceiling fan.


Could not live without it. I run hot. It‘s never cool enough for me. This week will be tough with humidex in the 40s. Yuck.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

oldjoat said:


> no AC in house
> 
> AC for car is 460 .... roll down 4 windows and drive @ 60 MPH


Unfortunately that doesn't work in Toronto and at those times in other populous places, where more time will be spent limited to under 20MPH than speeds fast enough to generate a stiff breeze.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Our house was built with a pool in mind, so it doesn’t have central air. The thinking was that pool wouldn’t get used if it was so comfy in the house. A good theory we applied for many years. But as my wife got closer to “the change” it became a different level of priority. All our windows are crank, so we couldn’t get a window rattler. We got one of those free standing units that vent in and out of the window. I rigged up something to use with the crank style. It’s not always on, as we still want to use the pool as much as we can, but it sure helps for sleeping!


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

When one goes much further south, a great many houses are built without basements. I understand it is probably cheaper. But given the cooling temperatures "downstairs" and the stifling temperatures in those regions further south, the absence of basements is perplexing.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

mhammer said:


> When one goes much further south, a great many houses are built without basements. I understand it is probably cheaper. But given the cooling temperatures "downstairs" and the stifling temperatures in those regions further south, the absence of basements is perplexing.


Hmm. And retrofitting a basement would be challenging…


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

oldjoat said:


> AC for car is 460 .... roll down 4 windows and drive @ 60 MPH


That's how I gave myself tinnitus.


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## fretzel (Aug 8, 2014)

oldjoat said:


> no AC in house
> 
> AC for car is 460 .... roll down 4 windows and drive @ 60 MPH


The summer of 2000 was my first year working for the TTC. We still had old GM's in service back then. Some even had manual steering making hot days even more laborious. Anyway, one of the first warmer days I am driving along and getting hit with this breeze that I couldn't find out where the hell it was coming from. Apparently they didn't show us the floor vent in training. 

The gm's didn't have AC, so those vents were a blessing. As long as you were moving.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

House:









Car:









Maggs still needs A/C though. And a fan ....... time of life I guess.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

AC is a nice but not really required where I live. Sure there may be 12-20 days where I wish I had it but I just suck it up, go for a swim in the lake or take a cool shower. It’s not really worth the expense of the unit or the hydro bill IMO to avoid less than 3 weeks a year of discomfort and poor sleeping nights.

Growing up, we never had AC. My mother didn’t believe in it. She thought it was somehow unhealthy...even though her parents had central air. For me, it’s all about the dollars though.

I don’t really use my car AC either. Open windows are enough. I maybe use the AC an hour or two a year in the car, if working outside in the heat starts to cause the first signs of heat exhaustion. Mostly it just gets turned on now and then to keep it from seizing up.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Nope. Mid 80s in here, watching the hockey game in my underwear.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Have AC. 

I like it when it’s 100 degrees out, humid as hell and the air is like soup.


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## 2manyGuitars (Jul 6, 2009)

fretzel said:


> I think it was a bargaining tactic as I had set them all to 23. We've agreed on 20 now. LOL





Lincoln said:


> I think of that commercial where the woman trucks out through knee deep snow looking mad, rips the the cover off the A/C unit, and then goes back inside the house.
> 
> We just had the same discussion btw. went from 18 up to 19.5. I couldn't get 20


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

My little house has hot water baseboard radiators, plumbed with copper about 40+ years ago, and a two year old boiler. It works extremely well. The only issue of course is that it's not forced air which makes air conditioning a pain in the ass, hence the window shakers. We priced out the installation of a small forced air system to A/C the main floor and it was prohibitively expensive. 

I've been thinking of rigging up a floor standing a/c unit in the unfinished basement, taking air from a shaded window, and blowing it to the main floor through a register(s). I may actually have all the parts or could jerry-rig them, except for the a/c unit itself. The runs would be short and I would only need two between the unit and registers. This would replace or augment the window shakers and reduce the fucking noise somewhat.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

The warm weather (30deg C) has arrived here quite a bit earlier in the season than most years if memory serves.

My grand daugher was swimming in the back yard on May 24 and that's early by about a month.

On the plus side, we moved our bedroom from the second floor to the first and that is making a pretty huge difference in sleeping comfort. Now if our neighbors would just close their blinds or turn off their lights at night.
They must sleep with blindfolds on.


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## albaloney (Nov 29, 2009)

Wouldn't be without it. The humidity today in Mississauga is unbearable.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

JBFairthorne said:


> AC is a nice but not really required where I live. Sure there may be 12-20 days where I wish I had it but I just suck it up, go for a swim in the lake or take a cool shower. It’s not really worth the expense of the unit or the hydro bill IMO to avoid less than 3 weeks a year of discomfort and poor sleeping nights.
> 
> Growing up, we never had AC. My mother didn’t believe in it. She thought it was somehow unhealthy...even though her parents had central air. For me, it’s all about the dollars though.
> 
> I don’t really use my car AC either. Open windows are enough. I maybe use the AC an hour or two a year in the car, if working outside in the heat starts to cause the first signs of heat exhaustion. Mostly it just gets turned on now and then to keep it from seizing up.


When I was a courier, I did not have it in my delivery van, and I did not have it at home, so I very very rarely used it in my car. Maybe on the weekends, or if someone else was in the car with me.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

I swear I can see the gas gauge going down faster when the AC is on.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Didn't Myth Busters do an episode on this?? What burns more fuel, the A/C, or the "drag" caused by open windows...


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Dunno....but I used the AC for an entire car ride today...because I had to make a few calls and I couldn’t hear a thing with the windows open on the 400. It was nice though. I may have just used up half my yearly car AC quota.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Quick test: "Big electric fan to keep me cool when I sleep…"
No prize but I'll be impressed.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

I nice condensed version on You-Tube... who'da thunk?


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

For the past few nights we have tried a dual window fan in our bedroom window. It's a fan I use in my office during the daytime.

I get up very early every morning and let my wife sleep. When I went in to wake her this morning, that room felt like it was air conditioned, significantly colder than the rest of the house.

Accordingly I ordered a more modern dual window fan that can assign each fan separately so you can have one drawing and one pushing, exchanging the air in the room. It also has a thermostat.

Central AC is fine. Window shakers render the windows more or less unoperational. I'm not crazy about that. I like opening up the house and fresh air et cetera. They beat laying in a pool of sweat, but I always hold back on putting them in.


This worked well.











This should work better.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

We have one of those duo fan units in an upstairs bedroom window and it works as intended. Two windows that open at the top help immensely in getting the hot air off the ceiling, and they're aided by being on opposite ends of the area, east to west, so that there's a good cross draft.

We have a couple of those little Caframo brand fans around too. They quietly move a lot of air in a small space, and they're made in my home town.





__





Home - Caframo


Caframo is made up of many individual brands, each serving consumers in different ways—all with a focus on innovative products for passionate people.




www.caframo.com


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Mooh said:


> We have one of those duo fan units in an upstairs bedroom window and it works as intended. Two windows that open at the top help immensely in getting the hot air off the ceiling, and they're aided by being on opposite ends of the area, east to west, so that there's a good cross draft.
> 
> We have a couple of those little Caframo brand fans around too. They quietly move a lot of air in a small space, and they're made in my home town.
> 
> ...



I bought a Dysan oscilating fan about ten years ago. It was expensive as all Dysan products are, but if I count the number of $30 fans I've thrown out over the years, the Dysan doesn't seem so costly.

It's quiet, and no blades. You can put your hand anywhere you like and not be harmed. It moves air nicely.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Doug Gifford said:


> Quick test: "Big electric fan to keep me cool when I sleep…"
> No prize but I'll be impressed.


No takers?


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

@Milkman We've looked at those as we've had extraordinary good fortune with two Dyson vacuums (one corded, one cordless). Thanks for the heads-up.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Mooh said:


> @Milkman We've looked at those as we've had extraordinary good fortune with two Dyson vacuums (one corded, one cordless). Thanks for the heads-up.


Not to derail but we just had a very negative experience with Dyson. We own three of their vacuums - but won`t ever buy another of their products.


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## PGuitar6 (Apr 21, 2021)

Getting central air was the best investment I ever made. Better than replacing ACs every couple years in my old non-efficient house.


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## Judas68fr (Feb 5, 2013)

We've got central AC, set at 24˚C in the evening when going to sleep. We sometimes set it to 25˚C during the day if it gets really hot but that doesn't happen very often. We usually just leave it off. We try to use it as little as possible, and open the windows when we can (Kingston).

That being said some days can be pretty muggy, so AC is nice to have. We also have a whole-house dehumidifier. Keeps that summer swampy humidity at bay without having to run the AC all the time, it's great!


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)




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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

allthumbs56 said:


> Not to derail but we just had a very negative experience with Dyson. We own three of their vacuums - but won`t ever buy another of their products.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Milkman said:


>


Yup - except in our case I fixed the power cord ($8.00) and we're firing on all three cylinders again. Dyson was all apologetic but they had "retired" our model (8 year-old DC25) and no longer provided parts or repairs. The great news though? Throw it in the trash and they'll give us 20% off on a new replacement. How's THAT for the environment? As I said, I rolled up my sleeves and did some fixin'.

Won't ever buy or recommend another ridiculously-priced Dyson product to anybody ever again.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

You guys with central air can gloat today if you'd like. It's 32 outside, 27 on the main floor of our house, warmer upstairs and cooler in the cellar. I'm mostly okay with that but I know I'm lucky to live in an old brick house with big trees shading it. Open the windows at night, close them during the day, and hope the nights don't get too warm.


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