While I was trying to install my heavy old AC in a living room window on Thursday I dropped the damn thing out the window and it broke. It would seem that my tired old carcass is no longer strong enough to manage carrying the AC from the porch and wrestling it into the designated window - I figured this would happen sooner or later. So I went to Best Buy and bought a portable AC, which is on wheels and can be moved here and there and stored in a closet over the winter. Unfortunately I had to ask them to deliver it because it's too heavy for me to carry into the house and I'd probably drop that one, too; but I'll have it on Tuesday. And I managed to survive yesterday with the help of the upstairs AC (which is small and light enough for me to manage, at least for now), several fans and some cold drinks.

I didn't check, but the new AC is probably made in China. So it goes.

Those portable units are pretty nifty, but a little more pricey.

for an old lady who lives alone - you have to do everything yourself and it's kind of a drag if a lot of lifting and carrying is involved. I should have hired some neighbor kid to help but I thought I could still do it myself. Guess not. The portable AC was more expensive but it will be worth it if I don't have to deal with getting it in and out of a window.

decided to go for the window unit. It's in there, now, and all I have is a scratch on my arm. A nice long one from scraping my arm on the old one while carrying it out of the house. A mark of my work, I suppose.

generally stay in just one room of the house and so go w/ central air. I found that my central air for the whole house cost just as much as 1 window unit. I've been there, have had many years experience running a window unit vs. a central air unit in my rental units as well as my home. Central air, for me, hands down, has been the winner by far in that you are using more of your home/house during the summer months (have 3 dogs and 1 other person too).

This may be a preference depending on where you live too. I live in hot and extremely muggy St. Louis MO where humidity is literally off the wall (newscasters are saying humidity readings is one of highest they ever have seen). MN is probably just as hot, being this heat dome is pretty well over the central US heading towards the eastern part of the US.

One thing also, is that I did receive a $900 rebate too, on buying my central air (I have two central air units, one of which is a heat pump). Running both like in today's hot temperatures has been running $160 monthly, average, over last 3 years summer cycles.

Stay cool all.

Be cool man.

In 20 years, the Great Lakes region in the summer will be like what KY and TN is like now.

Imagine what the southern US and Mexico will be like then...

Southern businesses will close and relocate further north as operating expenses rise (water and cooling fees). And where will all those climate refugees come, I wonder? They'll follow the jobs.

is going to be in a heat wave for the next few days. I've lived in Minnesota now for 14 years, and the summer months are hotter than they were when I moved here. Along with that comes more severe thunderstorms. We have those rolling in tonight. But, we're on the northern edge of the big weather pattern that's moving slowly from West to East. It's going to be way worse south of us.

Climate change is affecting different regions differently. But, the overall trend clearly appears to be warming.

and blah blah, and besides it all stopped warming in 1998 and blah blah blah and there's all these emails about the fake hockey stick and blah blah and the satellite temperature adjustments were miscalibrated and blah blah

I found this article in case some fuckhead starts in on some garbage on temperature measurements:

Cost a pretty penny, but when I do the math it should save me many thousands of dollars over it's 20-yr lifespan.

Just checked my display, and it cost all of $1.16 to cool and dehumidify my house at a setpoint of 75F yesterday.

That's why I didn't have a central AC unit installed. We simply can't afford to lay out that much cash in a lump sum, and I don't like paying interest on borrowed money. Besides, we almost never use our entire house during the day. We're here all the time, but most of the time, my wife is in her office, which is a converted bedroom. There's a $99, 5000 btu AC in her window there, and another in the bedroom. Both are on only when we're using those rooms. I work in an office in the basement, which never needs cooling and not much heating.

So, we can selectively cool the rooms we're using, and that keeps the bills down. In the winter, the central forced heating does heat the entire house, of course. But, we partially close registers in rooms we're not using during the day and manually zone-heat our house. Doors are closed when we're not in a room.

It's not a big house at all. So, our heating bills aren't all that high. Since we're here, we can adjust things as needed for economy reasons.

About the heat in Colorado

whole house air circulation system. My thermostat has a setting for that. I never do, though.

That seems to be a technology better suited to areas of low humidity.

FYI, there were 20 mph winds yesterday and it still felt awful outside