Holding Out

The temperatures here have been nearing 90 F for several days. I believe we even hit 90 F yesterday. Yet, much to the dismay of my 8 year old son, I have not turned on the air conditioning.

I have a love/hate relationship with air conditioning. I am so thankful we have it, and can't imagine living in a home with out air conditioning. (I know some of you brave souls do survive with out though.) It bothers me that this luxury has become a "need" in our society.

At the risk of sounding like my parents. . .I remember when we got our first car with air conditioning. I was in high school. My first home with air conditioning wasn't until I was married. Air conditioning is not a need, although I would call it a high priority want.

Part of my hesitation to turn on the air is frugality. Fresh air certainly is cheaper than the air conditioned kind, but my hesitation goes beyond the money issue. I just like fresh air better. Being in the air conditioning often gives me headaches. I can't explain why, I just know it does. The biggest reason I hesitate to turn on the air is because once it is on, no one, including myself, wants to go outside. We all want to sit in the nice cool house. The kids need to be outside to run and burn off energy. I need to be outside to tend to the garden and other things. When the house is cool, it makes the outside feel even more sweltering.

How am I keeping the house reasonably comfortable without air? It is cooling off nicely outside at night. I take advantage of this by opening all the windows at night. I need to get some window fans. This would help to bring the cool air in. In the morning, I leave the windows open until it starts to heat up outside, about 10:00. Then all the window get closed, and the blinds are drawn to keep the sun out. The ceiling fans are running constantly, in the correct direction. I avoid cooking and running the dishwasher during the day. When it is cooling off outside, I open the windows back up.

It does get hot in the house. About 3:00 yesterday it was 83F, but by then there are only a few hours left before it starts cooling outside, and I can open the windows back up. It doesn't seem worth running the air. At night, the house cools into the low 70's, making it nice a comfortable to start the day.

How long will I hold out? Hard to say. The ten day forecast is for highs in the upper 80's. It is also humid. I've noticed the last few nights it is getting later before the house cools off, and it is not quite as cool in the morning. If the heat is keeping us from sleeping well, then the air will come on. I hesitate to set a daytime limit, because how much heat I can tolerate depends a lot on what kind of activities we need to do, the humidity, and what time the house gets hot. For now though, we are holding out; going with out air conditioning, despite the pleadings of my eight year old son.

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