I'm having the devil's own time researching my topic for today's entry. Fitting, because the temperature in our kitchen has just passed 31 degrees Centigrade: the only logical conclusion I can draw is that we are slowly descending into Hell.
We have three ceiling fans, three standing fans, and a Honeywell "Twindow" fan currently operating in our home. I've determined that the ceiling fans use about as much energy as a 100-watt light bulb and the oscillating fans about twice that. What I'm trying to determine is just how much energy I'd be using if I replaced all of it with central air. A lot more, I'd suspect.
Not that this is an option for us--at least, not a feasible option. To install central air, you need central heat, and we have electric baseboard heating. Installing forced air gas would cost somewhere between seven and twelve thousand dollars.
I'd do it, except I've asked around to find out what people who have forced-air gas are paying in utilities each month. The answer surprised me and will probably shock you. Yes, we are paying more on a monthly basis...by an average of about ten dollars. Assuming the difference in pricing between electricity and natural gas remains constant, the work would pay for itself through lower utility bills in a little over a century. I plan on being worm-food long before that point.
Yes? You there, towards the back of the roasting peanut gallery, you had a question?
How much is my comfort worth to me, you ask. Good question.
I can't deny it really has been uncomfortably hot everywhere above basement level for the past week. (The temperature down there is currently a more bearable 22 degrees.)
We are a family that sleeps with the bedroom window open and at least one fan running on the coldest of mid-January nights, so this kind of heat is especially stifling to us. And yes, in my more selfish moments, I long for the kind of cool comfort that central air provides.
Selfish? What do you mean?
Just what I said. Central air conditioning is monstrously selfish. By running it, what you're saying to the world is this: I don't give a fart in a glove how hot you are...because I'm nice and cool.
Surely you're being irrational here---
Look, just what do you think central air does with the heat it extracts from your house? It pumps it right outside, that's what it does. As if it wasn't hot enough out there already. But who cares, right? You're cool. That's what matters. (I take that back if you have one of those neat newfangled central air conditioners that uses its waste heat to heat your water supply...now there's intelligent thinking!)
But I'd MELT without my central air!
Yup. Like we're melting now. Hey, no problem...go ahead and use your central air. Just don't pretend it's a zero sum game. And when you tell your friends how much you love summer, don't forget to mention to them how nice and un-summery you keep your house.
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