No A/C in apartments? (Seattle, Bellingham: 2015, city hall, hotel)

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by tickyul

Really, a small window-AC, that will easily cool a small room, is about $130 at Walmart. Hum, maybe I am just out of touch with reality.....the benefits of such a purchase, in my mind, are very much worth it.

*You have to live in a place that allows it if you don't own your own home (some places don't allow it)
*You have to have the strength to get it home and the knowledge to get it installed correctly, or the money to pay someone else to do it
*You have to pay the increased electric bill
*You have to have the right kind of window OR the ability to jerry-rig something to make sure it fits properly and does its job- honestly, most of the homes I lived in had windows that wouldn't work with a typical a/c unit with significant alteration
*You have to have a place to store it when not in use, and the ability to get it out of a window again to wherever it's being stored

I just did a quick search and found only one or two at the price you mentioned with most costing more, but you're right that you can find one for that price. But there are a lot of other small factors that play into that decision and some people really can't do one or more of them. Also for some, the "benefit" of having a until for those hotter days aren't worth the "cost" (monetary or otherwise).

We're in an apartment now without the ability to get an a/c unit because they are banned. The windows we have would require significant work to get it to fit. Granted, it wouldn't take long for someone like my brother, who is mechanically inclined, to figure it out but it would take some extra supplies and some knowledge of how to do it. It's definitely more than just a few days of hot weather (we've had at least 7 days this summer over 90 degrees in our apartment and the hottest is yet to come) and if I owned my own place, I'd be working on how I could cool the place with something other than fans. We've made our own A/C a few times with a cooler and some ice and a fan

[tickyul]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

*You have to live in a place that allows it if you don't own your own home (some places don't allow it)
*You have to have the strength to get it home and the knowledge to get it installed correctly, or the money to pay someone else to do it
*You have to pay the increased electric bill
*You have to have the right kind of window OR the ability to jerry-rig something to make sure it fits properly and does its job- honestly, most of the homes I lived in had windows that wouldn't work with a typical a/c unit with significant alteration
*You have to have a place to store it when not in use, and the ability to get it out of a window again to wherever it's being stored

I just did a quick search and found only one or two at the price you mentioned with most costing more, but you're right that you can find one for that price. But there are a lot of other small factors that play into that decision and some people really can't do one or more of them. Also for some, the "benefit" of having a until for those hotter days aren't worth the "cost" (monetary or otherwise).

We're in an apartment now without the ability to get an a/c unit because they are banned. The windows we have would require significant work to get it to fit. Granted, it wouldn't take long for someone like my brother, who is mechanically inclined, to figure it out but it would take some extra supplies and some knowledge of how to do it. It's definitely more than just a few days of hot weather (we've had at least 7 days this summer over 90 degrees in our apartment and the hottest is yet to come) and if I owned my own place, I'd be working on how I could cool the place with something other than fans. We've made our own A/C a few times with a cooler and some ice and a fan

I am talking specifically about an area that is very hot in the summer. If you cannot figure out how to make your way in life, including making your living environment reasonable comfortable, that is pretty sad IMHO. Living in a very hot area and you cannot have AC or cannot afford it, wow.

Get a portable AC-unit if window-AC is not an option.

The benefits of AC are HUGE.....many of these areas that get up to 105-110-115 degrees for much of the summer, would have a LOT less people living there if it were not for the brilliant invention of
air-conditioning.

I am currently in Ridgecrest, Ca.........110-114-107, those are the kind of temps this area has. That is NOT uncommon for the SW. Yeah, everybody here has AC and/or a swamp-cooler.

[leastprime]

We allowed DS to take the portable 10K btu, AC. We discovered that with the porch doors open and the shade trees are enough to keep our Redmond condo cool enough. DS has in a Seattle townhouse, with no shading, big west picture windows, and exposed all day to the sun. His top floor bedroom gets especially unbearably warm and humid. His Airbnb's will appreciate the second AC in the house.

[josie13]

I've lived my whole life (5+ decades) without air conditioning in my home. The heat would have to be pretty extreme for me to suddenly install A/C now. We get by during hot spells with open windows and ceiling fans.

To me, summer is supposed to be warm, and winter is supposed to be cool. It seems natural for my house temperature to vary with the season. I used to think that everybody liked it that way, but now I know better.

At any rate, I haven't lived anyplace with really hot summers. Yet.

[angelenogirl]

First night in my new home. It was stifling in the old house. New place? I've had to turn the A/C down! Thank goodness for ocean breezes and shade trees. Ecstatic!

[USDefault]

Originally Posted by josie13

At any rate, I haven't lived anyplace with really hot summers. Yet.

Which makes the rest of your comment about not having to use AC for five decades irrelevant to those with "really hot summers."

[josie13]

Originally Posted by USDefault

Which makes the rest of your comment about not having to use AC for five decades irrelevant to those with "really hot summers."

Right. But this is the Seattle forum, and Seattle doesn't have "really hot summers." It has rather brief heat spells that come and go, like this year, but overall temperate summers never approaching what people endure in the South or the Midwest or the East coast. Or Southern California, for that matter.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

*You have to live in a place that allows it if you don't own your own home (some places don't allow it)
*You have to have the strength to get it home and the knowledge to get it installed correctly, or the money to pay someone else to do it
*You have to pay the increased electric bill
*You have to have the right kind of window OR the ability to jerry-rig something to make sure it fits properly and does its job- honestly, most of the homes I lived in had windows that wouldn't work with a typical a/c unit with significant alteration
*You have to have a place to store it when not in use, and the ability to get it out of a window again to wherever it's being stored

I just did a quick search and found only one or two at the price you mentioned with most costing more, but you're right that you can find one for that price. But there are a lot of other small factors that play into that decision and some people really can't do one or more of them. Also for some, the "benefit" of having a until for those hotter days aren't worth the "cost" (monetary or otherwise).

We're in an apartment now without the ability to get an a/c unit because they are banned. The windows we have would require significant work to get it to fit. Granted, it wouldn't take long for someone like my brother, who is mechanically inclined, to figure it out but it would take some extra supplies and some knowledge of how to do it. It's definitely more than just a few days of hot weather (we've had at least 7 days this summer over 90 degrees in our apartment and the hottest is yet to come) and if I owned my own place, I'd be working on how I could cool the place with something other than fans. We've made our own A/C a few times with a cooler and some ice and a fan

I hope you have kept it for this week, with 90s expected through the weekend!


With our two window units we find that the electricity use is minimal. A 1,000 watt unit, running 8 hours a day is about 8 kWh. At our current cost that's less than a dollar. We wouldn't ever run them 8 hours, however. The kitchen/family room unit goes on about 4pm, when it hits about 76 inside and runs until it's back to 70, or until about 9pm. The bedroom unit is on a timer set to start up 2 hours before bed time, and then I set it to go off about midnight. I had no problems getting them installed with plexiglass inserts on our sliders, but it is a pain to remove and store them in winter.

[angelenogirl]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I hope you have kept it for this week, with 90s expected through the weekend!

Impossible. It doesn't get above 70 degrees here in summer. Clearly you are an alcoholic on pills.

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I hope you have kept it for this week, with 90s expected through the weekend!

I am dreading it! We'll be bringing out that cooler soon....