New Mexico -- Is it for me?

[rwjoyak]

Originally Posted by Zoidberg

One thing that would be constructive in RE is a company selling a combined swamp cooler and heater thermostat for homes in mountain regions that use swamps (or swamps and A/C depending on the conditions). I have yet to see a swamp cooler controller with anything better than 1980 technology and any bells and whistles to save energy.

Amen. Given the diurnal temperature swing as well as sgnficant fluctuations in hot and cold temps during the shoulder seasons, I think such a combined thermostat could be a big seller depending on pricing.

[Mike Horrell]

Originally Posted by Zoidberg

One thing that would be constructive in RE is a company selling a combined swamp cooler and heater thermostat for homes in mountain regions that use swamps (or swamps and A/C depending on the conditions). I have yet to see a swamp cooler controller with anything better than 1980 technology and any bells and whistles to save energy.

We have two coolers, one of which is an auxiliary unit and just has simple controls.
The other is controlled by the same thermostat as our heating system. For us personally,
the thermostat is something of a joke as we only crank the unit up when it's hot enough
that it's going to need to run all the time, anyway, but it does have one and it does function.

[aries63]

Originally Posted by mp943

Because I want to stay away from Chicago, and when I moved up here, I didn't know what places would be good or bad. I did find a very nice community and haven't had any problems there. However, as one moves closer to Chicago (and into Cook County), rent becomes very expensive. So there is a cost of living factor here.


Another issue that some people have brought up is biking. That is one item I forgot to mention. When I visited my college town in Montana (~30,000 people), I saw more dedicated bike paths along the roads in that small town than I've seen in all of Chicagoland. It's rare to even see bike racks outside of train stations. From what others have mentioned, it sounds like ABQ is fairly bike friendly.

I also like to hear that navigating ABQ is also pretty easy. I can get lost in a paper bag with only one exit!

I get confused since the title of the thread is "New Mexico" but we've ended up talking mostly about Albuquerque. But I know what you mean, my dad took two trains and a subway to get to his office in mid-town Manhattan for 30 years and I told myself I would never put myself through that.

Albuquerque (as you must have noticed when you visited) resembles one huge suburb with a small, low-rise downtown. There are busy streets to stay away from but otherwise the biking is good year-round with a nice network of dedicated bike paths and lanes. Many people bike by my house every day on their way to work and home, many of my coworkers bike or walk to work (at UNM). Some of them biked to work from short and long distances right up to retirement age. I find the city very bike-friendly compared to other places I've lived (like Boston), although there are a lot of accidents and fatalities here.

[mortimer]

So as not to drag this into a "bike thread" please do a search
on [bike] [bicycle] [bike trail] [arroyo] [mulit-use path] and stuff
like that and join the discussion about biking in Albuquerque.

There has been a lot of material posted for you to read about it.