It's hard for me to really fathom just how cold it is here in the Portland area right now. I mean, my thermostat currently says 14, but what does that even mean? When you get to a certain point, it's really just "too cold to go outside."
This is amazing to me, especially considering just a few short months ago I was whining about how freakin' hot it was (see the whines here and here).
No more of that whining now. I used to think it being super cold was better than it being oppressively hot because a person can always get warmer by throwing on another layer of clothes or something, but it's very, very hard to cool off.
Scratch that - at 14 minus some bunch of wind chill you really can't warm up.
It's so cold the dog doesn't want to walk out into the grass to use the facilities because the concrete she has to cross hurts her paws. I feel bad for her, but it's not like I really feel like teaching her to use the toilet at he moment. Or ever.
I was watching the news last night and they teased an upcoming story about how to keep your car protected in this extreme cold (and yes, I know extreme is relative - but this isn't Alaska). How about park your damn car in the garage?! It amazes me how many people - who have garages, not everyone does - leave their cars in the driveway or parked on the street. Why? Because they have too much crap filling up the garage! Seriously...you are never going to use it. I know it cost money and you hate to get rid of it because it would be admitting some kind of failure in your own head, but the garage is for parking your car!
Sorry, no sympathy if your car doesn't start because you can't put it in the garage due to too much junk.
I work in a building downtown for my day job. Regular office building, full of cubicles. I'm lucky enough to have a window cube, facing the Willamette River with what really is a spectacular view of Mt. Hood. If this was an apartment, they'd be charging me a pretty penny to wake up to this view every day. Anyway, the building was built in the 70's, I think, and it doesn't heat very well.
Yesterday afternoon I was typing emails with frozen fingers. My fingers literally hurt from the impact on the keys because they were so damn cold. How is that even acceptable? I mean, I can walk into the bathroom - about 20 feet to the interior of the building - and literally be hot.
I guess I could wear gloves, but have you ever tried to type in gloves? Yeah, that ain't happenin'.
And the wind - wow. I could probably handle the cold without the wind, but that East wind chills your bones. I used to think that was just a saying, but after these past few days I see the truth behind it.
I walked around downtown Portland and the Pearl District a bit on Saturday morning while Wifey got her hair did, going to The North Face store, Kenny and Zuke's (cheesecake and pastrami! - not together), and then the opposite direction up to Melt on 21st and Johnson. It was about 28-30 when I started, maybe 33 by the time I was done. I had on layers, four on top and two on bottom, as well as gloves and stocking cap, and I generally managed to stay warm. Walking helped, as did the occasional stop in warm stores, but when I was in full contact with that wind it was amazing how much it literally hurt to take it.
I have this Windstopper jacket from The North Face that kicks a ton of ass - it works, get one - but of course that only covers my torso and arms. The pants I was wearing did an okay job, and my stocking cap kept my head and ears warm enough, but the gloves felt the wind go right through them. Moving kept my fingers warm enough...but my face? Moving a lot doesn't do much for your nose, lips, and eyes when faced with a bitterly frigid east wind that apparently is coming straight from the Arctic Circle.
I wear glasses, and even that didn't help much. My eyeballs were in pain when that wind blew, and my nose was chilled numb in about 1.4 seconds.
I could handle all of that, except for the pain in my eyes. I have never felt anything like that - not skiing or snowboarding, or anywhere else. Of course, then I'm wearing goggles - maybe that's why. Should I have been wearing those around downtown Portland on Saturday? Quite possibly.
The whole point I want to make here is it's cold. The weather people tell me it's the coldest it's been in a long time. This is also the year of the hottest summer on record, when it hit 107 in July.
Seriously, what the hell is going on here?! These are epic temperatures in Portland, and they can't be blamed on something like El Nino or La Nina currents. How many other calendar years had 85 degree swings in the temperature within a few months?
Again, I don't know if this has to do with global warming, but no matter what anyone else tries to claim the temperatures in Portland are getting more extreme. It could be normal, it could be something that has always happened, but it clearly does not happen often and it's not something that can be explained away by 10-year currents like the Spanish girl and boy. This is something bigger.
Maybe we just haven't lived around here - the Portland area - for enough years to see the full cycle. I'd buy that, but there is literally no way to prove it (I suppose advanced scientific research can tell us these things by examining rocks and the like, but to my knowledge that hasn't been done).
Is this a natural cycle, one we just haven't been around for the full circle on? Or is it something more, perhaps being contributed to by man's love of creating greenhouse gases? Or is it literally a one-time aberration? Can we ever really, truly know?
The one thing I do know is it's really f-in cold. And we've got two more months - at least - of this crap to get through before it starts to really warm up. I so need to win the lottery and move to Maui.
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
12/08/2009
7/29/2009
This and That - While Loving Air Conditioning
Funny - I just got an email from a friend who lives in the Phoenix area, telling me he feels sorry for me. Why? Because the Northwest is getting hit by heat the likes that has never been recorded. Oh, and he'd like me to note it's supposed to be 114 in his fair town today.
And he feels sorry for Portland?!
Well, there is no other way to put - it sucks in Portland right now.
Monday was 103 - broke the record for that date.
Monday's overnight low was 74 - broke the all-time record for any date.
Tuesday was 106 - broke the record for that date (was "only" 101).
Tuesday night's overnight low was projected to be 75 - yep, another record. (Apparently it only got to 71...oh well.)
Today (Wed) was originally projected to be 108, but has dropped to 107. 107 would break the record for the date, but 108 would be the hottest Portland temperature ever recorded. (The actual temp only reached 106 - how sad! I have to deal with this hell and we don't even get an all-time record for it?! Hell, 107 was the day's record, so we hit 106 and got nothing but misery...)
If current models hold true Portland will be over 90 degrees through Monday or Tuesday, which would be a string of nine or 10 straight days. Only once in recorded history has Portland had a string of eight such days.
And in other news, it was 126 in my attic yesterday. I think that's a record - though I might have to update that this evening based on today's heat.
I think it's safe to say I'm happy the air conditioning was fixed last week. Even though it is functioning perfectly now, it's just too damn hot. I was getting worried when my downstairs was 78 last evening (instead of the set temp of 74), but the cold air was blowing. It's just too damn hot outside for the air conditioner to keep up. Thankfully once the sun went down the temperature inside the house started to decrease as well. At 9pm last night it was 87 upstairs in the office. Fun times.
I'm blowing the max AC in my car on the way to work. At 7am. That's insane.
My mother-in-law is staying with us through this heat wave because her house doesn't have air conditioning. She went home to water some plants last evening and her thermostat registered 88 - on the lower floor of the house.
Yep, it's a scorcher. In the words of the weatherman: "This will be the kind of heat wave you tell your grandkids about."
Well, I won't be telling MY grandkids...I think you need kids for that to happen, if I remember correctly. I could be the old guy telling someone else's random kids at the park...but that probably has no good outcome. Plus, what kids care about weather anyway?!
There is one good thing about being stuck at home because walking outside - even to the car - has me dripping sweat off the end of my nose, and that's getting caught up on my favorite kind of pursuits. That's right, the sedentary kind!
What I'm Reading: Just finished up Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue. While to most people a history of the English language and how it got that way doesn't seem that exciting, it was actually really interesting to find out how words came to be, and how they morphed over the years. Plus, Bryson can make just about anything interesting, and he can make the normally interesting hilarious. If you have never read him before, check out A Walk in the Woods or The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Or any of his other books - you can't go wrong.
Next up is Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour - based around his first television series on The Food Network. Two chapters in and I'm loving, just like all his other books. Interestingly enough, I never saw this show but it apparently has no life at all on DVD, possibly because of how much he disparages the Food Network. No Reservations - one of the best shows on TV - is all over the place, but not A Cook's Tour. If you like Bourdain's show you must read Kitchen Confidential.
Oh, and after that, who knows? I have some newer books I'm on the waitlist for at the library, plus the 50 or so of my own books I haven't read yet.
What I'm Watching: We watched Revolutionary Road on Blu-Ray last week, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett. It was a pretty well done movie - the acting was good - but I just didn't find the story all that enthralling. Horribly depressing yes, and I can see the pathos in the characters, but that doesn't mean the story is automatically a must-watch. The movie we watched before that was The Reader, a movie that was acted just as well but the story was more compelling. Yes, apparently it was a Kate Winslett phase.
Netflix has since sent us The Watchmen, but we haven't carved out 3+ hours to watch it yet.
On TV we are watching the aformentioned No Reservations and America's Got Talent, plus Mental and Better Off Ted. Superstars - lame but oddly compelling - and the Terrell Owens Show are being grabbed by the DVR as well.
Maybe by the end of the summer we'll get to some of the HBO shows we have on DVD...The Wire? Entourage? The Sopranos? Have Season 1 of all of them (and Season 2 of The Wire), we just haven't gotten to them yet.
Maybe I need to take a vacation to catch up. :)
We also tried a couple of food places last weekend, neither of which merit their own post. We drove west out Baseline Road towards Hillsboro from a place we stop at regularly - more on the Mutt at some later date - and found a coffee place called Insomnia and a pizza place called La Bella Vita.
Insomnia was fine - got a mocha, my staple - but nothing special. They serve Sleepy Monk Coffee, which can be found in Cannon Beach, OR, and they do a decent job of it - it's just not special enough for me to go out of my way for it. Also, we picked up a cookie as well, one of the fresh baked goods they carry (from a local place whose name escapes me now). It was, well, not that great. Wifey can do a better job with her eyes closed.
At La Bella Vita we picked up a personal sized BBQ chicken pizza. It was mid afternoon on a hot day, but it was also completely dead. I mean completely - as in no one else in the place. I think our purchase barely justified paying the two employees working for the time it took our pizza to cook. If you click on the link you can see users on Yelp loved the place, but we weren't that sold. The crust was good - nice taste, good thickness - but it wasn't better than Pizza Schmizza, another local chain. The toppings were solid, but it wasn't as good as Pizzicato. Both of those places are closer to my house, so you can see where I'm going with this. Plus, neither of those places get better than three stars our of five for me, so that must mean La Bella Vita gets a max of two.
And yes, you should get a taste of what comes out of the home oven - we actually made pizza on Monday, and it was roughly a hundred times better with homemade crust, high quality meats and cheeses, and fresh veggies.
So if you happen to be driving by and need pizza or coffee these two places aren't terrible, but there is little reason to make a special trip.
And he feels sorry for Portland?!
Well, there is no other way to put - it sucks in Portland right now.
Monday was 103 - broke the record for that date.
Monday's overnight low was 74 - broke the all-time record for any date.
Tuesday was 106 - broke the record for that date (was "only" 101).
Tuesday night's overnight low was projected to be 75 - yep, another record. (Apparently it only got to 71...oh well.)
Today (Wed) was originally projected to be 108, but has dropped to 107. 107 would break the record for the date, but 108 would be the hottest Portland temperature ever recorded. (The actual temp only reached 106 - how sad! I have to deal with this hell and we don't even get an all-time record for it?! Hell, 107 was the day's record, so we hit 106 and got nothing but misery...)
If current models hold true Portland will be over 90 degrees through Monday or Tuesday, which would be a string of nine or 10 straight days. Only once in recorded history has Portland had a string of eight such days.
And in other news, it was 126 in my attic yesterday. I think that's a record - though I might have to update that this evening based on today's heat.
I think it's safe to say I'm happy the air conditioning was fixed last week. Even though it is functioning perfectly now, it's just too damn hot. I was getting worried when my downstairs was 78 last evening (instead of the set temp of 74), but the cold air was blowing. It's just too damn hot outside for the air conditioner to keep up. Thankfully once the sun went down the temperature inside the house started to decrease as well. At 9pm last night it was 87 upstairs in the office. Fun times.
I'm blowing the max AC in my car on the way to work. At 7am. That's insane.
My mother-in-law is staying with us through this heat wave because her house doesn't have air conditioning. She went home to water some plants last evening and her thermostat registered 88 - on the lower floor of the house.
Yep, it's a scorcher. In the words of the weatherman: "This will be the kind of heat wave you tell your grandkids about."
Well, I won't be telling MY grandkids...I think you need kids for that to happen, if I remember correctly. I could be the old guy telling someone else's random kids at the park...but that probably has no good outcome. Plus, what kids care about weather anyway?!
There is one good thing about being stuck at home because walking outside - even to the car - has me dripping sweat off the end of my nose, and that's getting caught up on my favorite kind of pursuits. That's right, the sedentary kind!
What I'm Reading: Just finished up Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue. While to most people a history of the English language and how it got that way doesn't seem that exciting, it was actually really interesting to find out how words came to be, and how they morphed over the years. Plus, Bryson can make just about anything interesting, and he can make the normally interesting hilarious. If you have never read him before, check out A Walk in the Woods or The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Or any of his other books - you can't go wrong.
Next up is Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour - based around his first television series on The Food Network. Two chapters in and I'm loving, just like all his other books. Interestingly enough, I never saw this show but it apparently has no life at all on DVD, possibly because of how much he disparages the Food Network. No Reservations - one of the best shows on TV - is all over the place, but not A Cook's Tour. If you like Bourdain's show you must read Kitchen Confidential.
Oh, and after that, who knows? I have some newer books I'm on the waitlist for at the library, plus the 50 or so of my own books I haven't read yet.
What I'm Watching: We watched Revolutionary Road on Blu-Ray last week, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett. It was a pretty well done movie - the acting was good - but I just didn't find the story all that enthralling. Horribly depressing yes, and I can see the pathos in the characters, but that doesn't mean the story is automatically a must-watch. The movie we watched before that was The Reader, a movie that was acted just as well but the story was more compelling. Yes, apparently it was a Kate Winslett phase.
Netflix has since sent us The Watchmen, but we haven't carved out 3+ hours to watch it yet.
On TV we are watching the aformentioned No Reservations and America's Got Talent, plus Mental and Better Off Ted. Superstars - lame but oddly compelling - and the Terrell Owens Show are being grabbed by the DVR as well.
Maybe by the end of the summer we'll get to some of the HBO shows we have on DVD...The Wire? Entourage? The Sopranos? Have Season 1 of all of them (and Season 2 of The Wire), we just haven't gotten to them yet.
Maybe I need to take a vacation to catch up. :)
We also tried a couple of food places last weekend, neither of which merit their own post. We drove west out Baseline Road towards Hillsboro from a place we stop at regularly - more on the Mutt at some later date - and found a coffee place called Insomnia and a pizza place called La Bella Vita.
Insomnia was fine - got a mocha, my staple - but nothing special. They serve Sleepy Monk Coffee, which can be found in Cannon Beach, OR, and they do a decent job of it - it's just not special enough for me to go out of my way for it. Also, we picked up a cookie as well, one of the fresh baked goods they carry (from a local place whose name escapes me now). It was, well, not that great. Wifey can do a better job with her eyes closed.
At La Bella Vita we picked up a personal sized BBQ chicken pizza. It was mid afternoon on a hot day, but it was also completely dead. I mean completely - as in no one else in the place. I think our purchase barely justified paying the two employees working for the time it took our pizza to cook. If you click on the link you can see users on Yelp loved the place, but we weren't that sold. The crust was good - nice taste, good thickness - but it wasn't better than Pizza Schmizza, another local chain. The toppings were solid, but it wasn't as good as Pizzicato. Both of those places are closer to my house, so you can see where I'm going with this. Plus, neither of those places get better than three stars our of five for me, so that must mean La Bella Vita gets a max of two.
And yes, you should get a taste of what comes out of the home oven - we actually made pizza on Monday, and it was roughly a hundred times better with homemade crust, high quality meats and cheeses, and fresh veggies.
So if you happen to be driving by and need pizza or coffee these two places aren't terrible, but there is little reason to make a special trip.
7/21/2009
Yes, 90 is Hot - It's Portland
People from all over laugh at us Northwesterners when we start to complain when the Fahrenheit hits 90 degrees. They think we are pansies, that we can't take it.
I was at the The North Face (that just reads weird) store in Portland on Friday afternoon when it was about 93 outside. There was a lady in there visiting town from Iowa and she was making snarky comments to the sales associate about how where she comes from this is no big deal.
That's great - I have no issues with that. The thing is, if I like that kind of weather I'd move to Iowa (okay, you're right, I wouldn't), but I like the weather here, where I'll put up with the rain for a few months for the right to have a milder winter and a milder summer. I'd prefer it to be right about 80; Wifey likes it the mid eighties. We both love the sun and trade winds in Hawaii. (Actually, if you don't like Hawaii I'm pretty sure that makes you the spawn of Satan - not that there is anything wrong with that.)
So yes, when it gets 90 in Portland people will complain, because this is not a climate or a people used to having to deal with consistent 90 degree days. It's like Californians complaining about the rain - people everywhere else will give them a hard time when they comment on rain, but they simply don't get that much, and when they do it's annoying.
Heck, there are a lot of Hawaiians in the Northwest - many of them come to our universities and end up staying because there are more job opportunities here - but they don't complain about the cold. They are just the ones you see bundled up in parkas when it hits 70. Heck, I saw some construction workers wearing sweaters and jeans on that 93-degree day - where they came from that's not hot.
So please, don't complain about Portlanders being a bit put off by extreme heat - we aren't used to it. And yes, for us, 90 is extreme heat. 90 for a week is horrible.
It's the same thing when it snows here. We get a little bit of snow on the ground and the city goes into panic mode. We get 4 inches and the city shuts down. People from the Midwest laugh at us because they deal with snow drifts six months out of the year, but again, we don't get snow. It snows about every 2-3 years here, and most of the time it's not much and melts by noon. But when it stays, it does cause problems because it's not something Portlanders make a habit of preparing for - why bother when the chances are it will be a waste of time and money?
That's like a Floridian buying and putting wood over his windows just because it's hurricane season, even though no hurricane is coming.
Now, I will say, it does seem like in the past few years we have experienced more extremes in my part of the world. It does seem like the summers have been hotter - more 90+ days - and the winters have been a little tougher - more snow, more freezing - but that really could just be my own perception. Or maybe it is Global Warming - I'm not a scientist, I can't tell you for sure. All I really know is how it feels - and doing what I do in my other writing persona I know from experience people are always convinced the here and now is always the worst/best/smartest/dumbest/hottest/coldest/insert-your-superlative-here. The truth is it's probably not - it's just what is most recent in memory, or maybe that is true from your experience, but that doesn't make any one thing the most anything.
Sure feels that way though.
This is all a long-winded way for me to say Garoken Energy has always done Wife and I right, and if anyone cares I'd recommend them for your heating and cooling needs.
When we first bought our first (and only) house we had some issue with the furnace and they came out and walked us through how to make sure it was working right, how to change the furnace filter (who knew furnaces had filters?!), and how to work the gas fireplace (looks like wood stove - not one of those fancy ones with a light switch). The tech guy was very pleasant and patient, and despite the fact I paid $120 for this information I thought it was completely worth it.
See, I like it when my heating and cool works. I would never buy a house without air conditioning, because as I noted above 90 is too hot. In fact, in my house, 75 is too hot. I can't sleep when it's that warm...at least not well. Considering the fact I only get 5-6 hours a night during the week anyway, I need that to be quality. And yes, I am picky about that. If you hadn't noticed.
Then about a year ago, just as it was starting to get warm in June, the house suddenly stopped cooling. We were thinking our air conditioner was broken or something, so we called Garoken again. They had a guy out that day and he went straight to the furnace. Apparently our furnace is old (house was built in '85, and it was installed then), they only last about 15-20 years, and ours had been fixed a couple times in the past. Basically the fan and some other pieces were shot to hell. He was honest with us - he said he could try and fix it but no promises, or we could get a new one. He recommended the new one.
Now, at this point I'm wavering a bit. I mean, sure, a new one sounds good, and what else will they tell me, right? At the same time the facts were clear - it was old. He told me it was MAYBE operating at 50% efficiency and the minimum they sell now is 75%. We opted for the new one, an 80% efficiency model (sorry, that's as green as I could afford). Garoken had a crew out the next day to install it and test it out, and it worked great. It was quieter, faster at heating and distributing the cool from the AC, and it should save me money in the long-term. If I cared enough I'd attempt to track that kind of thing, but it's not like I can really do anything with that information - what, I'm going to exchange it for something else? It's not like a shirt I don't like the fit of.
Then there was this past weekend. We were gone most of Saturday but noticed it seemed a little warm in the house when we got home. The thermostat was registering 76, then 77, despite the fact it's set at 74. Sleeping was a little warm, but we brushed it off. Then Sunday came - holy crap!
By late afternoon it was 80 in the house - I think it peaked at 82. It was almost 90 upstairs. The vents were barely forcing out any air. Obviously something was not okay.
After a restless sleep I called Garoken Monday morning, hoping they could get someone out by Tuesday (since it was supposed to be 93 on Monday). I was pleased that they had someone at my house by 1pm, on a day that would presumably be busy, with it being a Monday, hot, and people have their own issues and needing someone to fix things.
So it turns out the filter was way dirty and we need to change it more often (see how this comes full circle?!), and that led to some freezing of the AC unit because it was running constantly, trying to do what the thermostat was demanding of it and bring down the continually rising temperature in the house.
Ever wondered how a AC unit gets thawed? They flip the furnace to Heat. On a 93 degree day, that blows. Still, they got it all fixed up, gave the AC unit a once over, dispensed advice (you know, you really should change your filter), and now everything works great. It cost me $120, but it's something I feel absolutely grateful for paying, because now it's a decent temperature in my house, I slept soundly last night, and I don't have to worry about the possibility of buying a new AC unit.
Perhaps this time I'll learn that thing about changing the air filter...might save me some money...
I was at the The North Face (that just reads weird) store in Portland on Friday afternoon when it was about 93 outside. There was a lady in there visiting town from Iowa and she was making snarky comments to the sales associate about how where she comes from this is no big deal.
That's great - I have no issues with that. The thing is, if I like that kind of weather I'd move to Iowa (okay, you're right, I wouldn't), but I like the weather here, where I'll put up with the rain for a few months for the right to have a milder winter and a milder summer. I'd prefer it to be right about 80; Wifey likes it the mid eighties. We both love the sun and trade winds in Hawaii. (Actually, if you don't like Hawaii I'm pretty sure that makes you the spawn of Satan - not that there is anything wrong with that.)
So yes, when it gets 90 in Portland people will complain, because this is not a climate or a people used to having to deal with consistent 90 degree days. It's like Californians complaining about the rain - people everywhere else will give them a hard time when they comment on rain, but they simply don't get that much, and when they do it's annoying.
Heck, there are a lot of Hawaiians in the Northwest - many of them come to our universities and end up staying because there are more job opportunities here - but they don't complain about the cold. They are just the ones you see bundled up in parkas when it hits 70. Heck, I saw some construction workers wearing sweaters and jeans on that 93-degree day - where they came from that's not hot.
So please, don't complain about Portlanders being a bit put off by extreme heat - we aren't used to it. And yes, for us, 90 is extreme heat. 90 for a week is horrible.
It's the same thing when it snows here. We get a little bit of snow on the ground and the city goes into panic mode. We get 4 inches and the city shuts down. People from the Midwest laugh at us because they deal with snow drifts six months out of the year, but again, we don't get snow. It snows about every 2-3 years here, and most of the time it's not much and melts by noon. But when it stays, it does cause problems because it's not something Portlanders make a habit of preparing for - why bother when the chances are it will be a waste of time and money?
That's like a Floridian buying and putting wood over his windows just because it's hurricane season, even though no hurricane is coming.
Now, I will say, it does seem like in the past few years we have experienced more extremes in my part of the world. It does seem like the summers have been hotter - more 90+ days - and the winters have been a little tougher - more snow, more freezing - but that really could just be my own perception. Or maybe it is Global Warming - I'm not a scientist, I can't tell you for sure. All I really know is how it feels - and doing what I do in my other writing persona I know from experience people are always convinced the here and now is always the worst/best/smartest/dumbest/hottest/coldest/insert-your-superlative-here. The truth is it's probably not - it's just what is most recent in memory, or maybe that is true from your experience, but that doesn't make any one thing the most anything.
Sure feels that way though.
This is all a long-winded way for me to say Garoken Energy has always done Wife and I right, and if anyone cares I'd recommend them for your heating and cooling needs.
When we first bought our first (and only) house we had some issue with the furnace and they came out and walked us through how to make sure it was working right, how to change the furnace filter (who knew furnaces had filters?!), and how to work the gas fireplace (looks like wood stove - not one of those fancy ones with a light switch). The tech guy was very pleasant and patient, and despite the fact I paid $120 for this information I thought it was completely worth it.
See, I like it when my heating and cool works. I would never buy a house without air conditioning, because as I noted above 90 is too hot. In fact, in my house, 75 is too hot. I can't sleep when it's that warm...at least not well. Considering the fact I only get 5-6 hours a night during the week anyway, I need that to be quality. And yes, I am picky about that. If you hadn't noticed.
Then about a year ago, just as it was starting to get warm in June, the house suddenly stopped cooling. We were thinking our air conditioner was broken or something, so we called Garoken again. They had a guy out that day and he went straight to the furnace. Apparently our furnace is old (house was built in '85, and it was installed then), they only last about 15-20 years, and ours had been fixed a couple times in the past. Basically the fan and some other pieces were shot to hell. He was honest with us - he said he could try and fix it but no promises, or we could get a new one. He recommended the new one.
Now, at this point I'm wavering a bit. I mean, sure, a new one sounds good, and what else will they tell me, right? At the same time the facts were clear - it was old. He told me it was MAYBE operating at 50% efficiency and the minimum they sell now is 75%. We opted for the new one, an 80% efficiency model (sorry, that's as green as I could afford). Garoken had a crew out the next day to install it and test it out, and it worked great. It was quieter, faster at heating and distributing the cool from the AC, and it should save me money in the long-term. If I cared enough I'd attempt to track that kind of thing, but it's not like I can really do anything with that information - what, I'm going to exchange it for something else? It's not like a shirt I don't like the fit of.
Then there was this past weekend. We were gone most of Saturday but noticed it seemed a little warm in the house when we got home. The thermostat was registering 76, then 77, despite the fact it's set at 74. Sleeping was a little warm, but we brushed it off. Then Sunday came - holy crap!
By late afternoon it was 80 in the house - I think it peaked at 82. It was almost 90 upstairs. The vents were barely forcing out any air. Obviously something was not okay.
After a restless sleep I called Garoken Monday morning, hoping they could get someone out by Tuesday (since it was supposed to be 93 on Monday). I was pleased that they had someone at my house by 1pm, on a day that would presumably be busy, with it being a Monday, hot, and people have their own issues and needing someone to fix things.
So it turns out the filter was way dirty and we need to change it more often (see how this comes full circle?!), and that led to some freezing of the AC unit because it was running constantly, trying to do what the thermostat was demanding of it and bring down the continually rising temperature in the house.
Ever wondered how a AC unit gets thawed? They flip the furnace to Heat. On a 93 degree day, that blows. Still, they got it all fixed up, gave the AC unit a once over, dispensed advice (you know, you really should change your filter), and now everything works great. It cost me $120, but it's something I feel absolutely grateful for paying, because now it's a decent temperature in my house, I slept soundly last night, and I don't have to worry about the possibility of buying a new AC unit.
Perhaps this time I'll learn that thing about changing the air filter...might save me some money...
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