Wait.. No A/C's? (Seattle: to rent, home, to live)
Seattle areaSeattle and King County Suburbs
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Having been born and raised in Western Washington, I had the opposite experience, i was very confused the first time I saw a house with central air conditioning.
I loved having central AC when I went to AZ on vacation last year, it was so novel and cool(no pun intended). I really missed here it those few nights in the summer when it never really got that cool overnight. I have to blast several fans and basically sleep with no blanket or clothers on when it is 85 degrees in the house at 11 at night. As you can tell, I am not really a heat person.
This is true! San Francisco and Seattle are two cities in this country where the vast majority of homes (and many apartments too) can get by without a/c. I live in a second floor apartment with shady trees outside and have NEVER needed an a/c unit. Would I be more comfortable with one for those few nights of summer that get pretty warm? Sure, but if I open the windows and run my Cinni fans it's OK. If I was in a unit higher up or one with lots of direct sun I would want one though...even here in Seattle.
Having been born and raised in Western Washington, I had the opposite experience, i was very confused the first time I saw a house with central air conditioning.
Confused? Like you have never heard that other locations had heat and sunny weather? Never turned on your tv? Never heard of AC? I mean, the stores, restaurants, malls and offices all still have AC in Western WA.
Confused? Like you have never heard that other locations had heat and sunny weather? Never turned on your tv? Never heard of AC? I mean, the stores, restaurants, malls and offices all still have AC in Western WA.
As in, I had never heard of or seen a house with central air conditioning, exactly as a I said. When you're a kid, you dont think of these things. Sheesh.
We just bought a split-level house in Redmond which has the original 30-year-old furnace and no AC. I plan on doing the windows open / fans on thing (after we install some fans!) on those hot summer days. After TX hopefully it won't be that hot, to us, but then we were used to having the AC cool us down. Only a few days a year could the AC not keep up (they tell you to only expect 20 degrees of cooling, and sometimes if it's 110 out all day, getting it "down" to 90 inside isn't helping that much).
But here's the thing that bothers me. If it's hot, then everyone has all their windows open. And everyone knows that everyone else's windows are open. That's a little scary, seems to me. Anyone that wants in your house need only approach with a box knife and they're in, silently. Am I just paranoid? I wonder why that's never mentioned in the "just leave the windows opened" talk. I lock my car doors. I lock my house doors when I leave and overnight. Scary to think about leaving them all open all the time. Even just the upstairs is very easy to get to from the street... my little guy in his room all alone?... bugging me and it's not even warm out yet.
Confused? Like you have never heard that other locations had heat and sunny weather? Never turned on your tv? Never heard of AC? I mean, the stores, restaurants, malls and offices all still have AC in Western WA.
Come on now Jenbar, Samsmom posted something about her husband who had grown up in the South had never heard of homes without A/C and I don't see you saying anything about that...why if someone had never heard of homes without A/C would it be so hard to believe that someone had never heard of homes with A/C?
Last edited by seattlerain; 03-25-2008 at 09:48 PM..
We just bought a split-level house in Redmond which has the original 30-year-old furnace and no AC. I plan on doing the windows open / fans on thing (after we install some fans!) on those hot summer days. After TX hopefully it won't be that hot, to us, but then we were used to having the AC cool us down. Only a few days a year could the AC not keep up (they tell you to only expect 20 degrees of cooling, and sometimes if it's 110 out all day, getting it "down" to 90 inside isn't helping that much).
But here's the thing that bothers me. If it's hot, then everyone has all their windows open. And everyone knows that everyone else's windows are open. That's a little scary, seems to me. Anyone that wants in your house need only approach with a box knife and they're in, silently. Am I just paranoid? I wonder why that's never mentioned in the "just leave the windows opened" talk. I lock my car doors. I lock my house doors when I leave and overnight. Scary to think about leaving them all open all the time. Even just the upstairs is very easy to get to from the street... my little guy in his room all alone?... bugging me and it's not even warm out yet.
That's a logical concern, Jenlion. I lived many years in a split level house in Redmond. What I did was opened all the windows just before the sun set, let the air circulate a bit and by the time I went to bed after watching the news, closed the windows and it was usually cool enough for me to sleep with a box fan going in the bedroom. On a real hot day I'd leave the windows open a bit but they'd be on the second story and I wasn't worried about somebody breaking in. However, yes, if you're worried about that, you should button the house up tight after turning in and leave fans going ...or buy a portable a/c unit.
Come on now Jenbar, Samsmom posted something about her husband who had grown up in the South had never heard of homes without A/C and I don't see you saying anything about that...why if someone had never heard of homes without A/C would it be so hard to believe that someone had never heard of homes with A/C?
I would say samsmom's post is more believable than nightjars'. It's more reasonable that a house would have both heat and AC than just heat. After all, Seattle does have a summer. The notion that one doesn't need air-conditioning was popular in Denver, too, when we first moved here, even though it regularly gets into the 90s in the summer. And I think that is true if you're not in the house during the day. When my kids were little and went to day care, the house would stay cool on the days I worked. When they got older and stayed home and went in and out and in and out, etc, the house would be stifling when I came home from the office.
I would say samsmom's post is more believable than nightjars'. It's more reasonable that a house would have both heat and AC than just heat. After all, Seattle does have a summer. The notion that one doesn't need air-conditioning was popular in Denver, too, when we first moved here, even though it regularly gets into the 90s in the summer. And I think that is true if you're not in the house during the day. When my kids were little and went to day care, the house would stay cool on the days I worked. When they got older and stayed home and went in and out and in and out, etc, the house would be stifling when I came home from the office.
Than you have obviously never been to the PNW. I would guess that 95% of homes here don't have AC. I know exactly one person that has central AC. It's reasonable to believe that someone who grew up in the PNW has never experienced an air conditioned private residence.This isn't the Front Range, it doesn't regularly get into the 90's here, maybe once or twice a year if that. It can get uncomfortable in the dead heat of August, and there are days when I curse the lack of AC. But I still wouldn't pay for it to use it those few weeks a year.
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