One other thing I’ve learned by listening to my
highway-department employee son: The reason the plug of the old 12,500 BTU
window AC is getting hot was at least three-fold. First, the appliance was old;
second, it was trying to cool an area (three rooms) too large for its capacity;
and third, “You are using a 3-way bulb lamp on the same outlet!” which pulled
juice needed by the AC. Duh!
Solutions:
First, move the lamp to its own outlet! Done. Second, buy a new AC to replace
the old one. Third, add a 6,000 BTU window unit in the office to help with the
cooling. Done and done, thanks to Jodie and Robert from McClendon’s Appliances
in Benton.
Eighty
years ago when the house was new, each room could be shut off with French
doors. At some point, said doors were removed, which opened the living room,
sunroom (my office) and dining room into one larger space. With 8 children in
the house, the fewer doors to open and the less space needed for them when
opened, the better.
As if
that weren’t enough, the original swinging door from dining room to kitchen had
also been removed. Beyond the narrow kitchen was the breakfast room (now used
to temporarily store things bound for the back porch or the shed or for
recycling). In later years, it was Mom’s sitting room. A window unit on the
west would cool the room, but usually, she left it off. Even when her “help”
was smothering, she was comfortable, so it stayed off.
The
kitchen, with the refrigerator motor exuding heat, was never as cool as
desired, even with a small ceiling fan. But who stayed in the kitchen for any
length of time? Not me!
The
back AC finally bit the dust. Of course, it would happen during this season’s
extraordinary heat wave. But Son and Wife and Home Depot saved the day. And the
unit even has a remote!
I
shouldn’t complain about not having air conditioning. At least all of us have
access to electricity.
I read lately that some 300 million people in
India have NO access to electrical power at all, and another 300 million have
only sporadic access.
The
recent blackout in India affected about 670 million people, according to G.
Harris and J. Yardley, of the New York Times.
Of all the books of trivia I own, I decided to
investigate “air conditioning,” that modern appliance we think—at least grandson
Billy thinks—we could not live without.
In
Paul Dickson’s From Elvis to E-Mail: Trends, Events, and Trivia from the
Postwar Era to the End of the Century, there’s one piddling entry:
During
1948, “crude air conditioning systems show[ed] up with … hoopla—in
top-of-the-line Detroit cars.”
Fred Worth’s Trivia Encyclopedia had nothing.
But Reader’s Digest’s The Origins of Everyday
Things gave me two sentences. “The first true air conditioner, featuring
humidity control, powered ventilation as well as mechanical refrigeration, was
patented in 1902 by the American inventor Willis Carrier. AND
“The addition of a dust filter in 1906 to improve the
air in textile mills led to the term ‘air conditioning’.”
At least on this subject, President Obama is correct:
we couldn’t have our quality of air conditioning without the astuteness of
others before us.
c 2012 by Pat Laster dba lovepat press
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