After an iffy spring, with some nights in May cold enough for me to want to turn on my little space heater, the weather has heated up and we are now in a full-on heat wave. My capacity for the heat amazes me. I haven't bought an air conditioner yet, mostly because of two factors: cost and installation. The building I live in now is old, with old, wood frame windows. I'm not sure how most window air conditioners would sit in these windows.
I took a trip to Home Depot and found out some information from a variety of helpful advisors. One was an employee, who said maybe I should consult with my landlord about the viability of an air conditioner in my apartment and whether I could get the maintenance guy to help me put it in. I was standing there looking at some models with another shopper, who actually asked my advice on what size she might need for her bedroom. Having a doctorate in indoor air cooling (mainly because I'd looked up a lot of stuff on the Web and watched some This Old House videos) I told her she might be fine with the smaller, cheaper one. I did give her the caveat that I'm no expert.
The Home Depot employee also was telling me about the portable kind, the ones that have a hose you have to vent out a window. She has one and said it works fine. The only thing is it gets a bit warm around the hose area. Also you have to empty the tray underneath which fills up with water, but a little buzzer goes off and reminds you to do it. "Like changing the baby's diaper," she smiled.
I liked that idea, although that model was a little pricier than what I'd had in mind. Then a guy walked by and threw out this nugget: "Those kind blow out your electrical!" He attempted to keep walking, but I asked, "Why would these blow out your electrical and not the window kind?" The other lady shopper and I made him stop and come back. Explain, please, sir. He said, "I don't know why, but I've had a lot of people tell me their electric systems just can't handle those. More than three people." I presented this information to the employee, and she said those people probably just had lousy electrical systems with too many lines connected.
I bought a fan. It's a pedestal type. It was a pain to put together, but it works okay for now. It's in the living room. The bedroom is still a steam bath at night, but apparently I can sleep in a steam bath. It might have something to do with having lived in New England for so long and being sick of the cold. I'm willing to go with the heat for now. We'll see how it goes. It's only June.
