Home Sweat Home

So that’s what the noise my air conditioner made last Tuesday was! Of course, I didn’t find out right away. In fact, I was wondering if I’d hear the noise again, but no such luck. Thursday afternoon, the cold air stopped. Wouldn’t you know it, it happened during our second week (though not consecutive) of 100+ temperatures. I got a recommendation for a reliable repair company from the condo board pres. and phoned them. It was before five o’clock when I called, but the repairman didn’t phone me until 25 hours later, and then he said he’d call me Saturday, if he could squeeze me in. Guess who didn’t call me? I phoned him right after eight this morning, and he managed to find some time. The problem was that a piece (I can’t remember what he called it) broke off the fan, which he said he wouldn’t have been able to replace on the weekend anyway, so I guess I should count my blessings. That’s one. That I managed to get away with just $121 in charges is two.

Friday and Saturday, thankfully, weren’t too hot (only 95 degrees). In her blog, Maximum Verbosity, my friend Betty occasionally remarks about the vagaries of New Mexican weather. I have a couple to add. "You know you live in a desert when... 1) a ‘cold’ front moves through, and the high temperature is ‘only’ 95 degrees... 2) you walk into your home, note how much cooler it is than outside, and then realize that your thermometer reads 90 degrees."

I had my windows and my bedroom door open all night, with my ceiling fans on to stir the hot air (and hopefully encourage it to go outside). I managed to get some sleep, and I also learned how much the glass usually diminishes the sound of train horns. By dawn Sunday morning, I managed to drop my indoor temperature to 84 degrees.

That day’s forecast, however, was back to 105. I did nothing but lie on the living room floor under my ceiling fan, reading and watching my thermometer inch up to 90 indoors. Okay, maybe I cursed the absence of the A.C. repairman, too. Blessing #3: it wasn’t my electricity that went out, or else I wouldn’t have even had the fans.

One thing I had to get used to in New Mexico was the choice of "evaporative cooling" or "refrigerated air". Growing up in New Jersey, "refrigerated" was the only way to go. Many of the natives here call evaporative cooling "air conditioning". (First, it confuses the heck out of me. Second, it drives me nuts that they’re using an incorrect phrase.) The repairman, thankfully, had the sense to ask if I had "evaporative or refrigerated" before he came over.

For readers unfamiliar with the concept, an evaporative cooler is a relatively simple device. One part is a pump, which sprays water onto porous pads (kind of, but not really, like a sponge). The other part is a fan, which pulls outside air through the moistened pads, into the house. As the water in the pads evaporates, it takes energy (in the form of heat) from the air, thus cooling it. It sounds counterproductive, having been raised in the East, that you can cool the air while raising the humidity, but it works -- usually. One of the problems with a "swamp cooler" (a not-as-pleasant but concise nickname) is that its efficiency is compromised in humid weather, such as monsoon season. Plus, in my experience, it cools the air just about 20 degrees below the outside temperature, not too cool when it surpasses 100 degrees. (I should be grateful I don’t live in Phoenix or Needles -- blessing #4.)

My parents have air conditioning (refrigerated) now, but they had evaporative for several years. They could have the fan on high, low, or off, and the pump on or off. I naturally expected these options every place I went. Not so: my apartment had and my work has one switch, on or off. The last year I lived in the apartment, they switched to wall-mounted air conditioners. Sure I could choose a relative coolness gradient and fan speed, but, for some reason, the unit always ran, unless I shut it off completely. Haven’t they heard about energy conservation?

As soon as I moved in here, I replaced the old thermostat with a programmable one. I have it set for different temperatures at different times of day, which means that, at some points, it switches itself off. Finally, something logical!