Air Conditioning and Education

Today I am grateful for air conditioning. I am not going to lie, the height of summer in Texas is not when you want it to go out – ever – but that is when it seems to happen. How does this relate to the education topic? Gratitude for air conditioning is gratitude for the education required to make it happen. I could stand and have a moment of silence remembering the history of this precious invention, instead, I will simply declare that I am deeply and profoundly grateful for the air conditioning in my life.

Yesterday, it was out with the old and in with the new. This is a repair (rather, replacement) we have been postponing for years. We knew it was coming. It was going to happen. The question was a matter of when not if.

Hello, Summer!

This past week has been a doozie in the temperature department. We were having seasonably normal temperatures for this time of year. I would say it was pleasantly tolerable for summer until this past week. We got HOT! And we got hot fast. There was no gradual warm-up to 100˚F+ temperatures, where you know it is coming, but you’ve acclimated to the increase over time. I swear this is the only way we endure the extremes. This year has consistently been more humid and that makes all the difference. I did not miss this humidity when I left it behind when we moved away from the Houston area in 2016.

Wednesday the AC appeared to struggle to keep up with the temperatures outside. This is not normal, there is some variance in the height of the day. As good as this invention is, they are only designed to cool about 30˚F below the outside ambient temperature (reliably). Last week we were pushing 103-107˚F and I set the AC to cool to 71˚F inside upstairs and downstairs. The indoor temperature is not a matter of discussion. Do not try to start with me. We pay the bill, if I want it cold, it is cold. I will hand you a blanket at the door if you visit.

By Thursday evening, the inside downstairs temperature had risen to 77˚ and the humidity level had also risen indoors. It was clear that something was not “normal” because the difference between the “cool to” setting and the ambient room temperature was not more than a 3˚F difference.

Time to take action

I texted our trusted AC repair guy, John Maple, with Marine HVAC. If you are in the greater DFW area, contact him when you need AC service and repairs from an honest repair guy.

Alas, I digress…it was 105˚F outside when the AC gave up its fight.

Fortunately, he put us on the schedule for Friday about mid-afternoon.

The blessing was that he arrived in the late morning.

Unfortunately, he did not have good news for me. It was hot and humid and getting worse. I had to call Ben who was in Glasgow, Scotland on a business trip to deliver the bad news. Delivering the AC replacement “bad” news over the phone sounds fun, doesn’t it?

There was no denying the need for the repair. It was not going to improve. We knew it was coming. It was time.

The blessing is we did the inside components of the AC during the height of the pandemic. That was when we were told the outside components would need to be replaced eventually. At the time, we up-sized our internal components from a 4-ton system to one that could handle a 4 or 5-ton outside unit. He advised us, “Run it until it dies and hope it dies in the off-season.”

The bad news is that it was Friday and we would have to wait until Monday morning for the replacement because that was the soonest he could get his hands on a unit. He put his name on the last unit the size needed. He was up-sizing us to the 5-ton unit because the 4-ton was not quite enough for our house’s square footage even running it as a 2-zone system.

The good news is that we would not have to wait more than a few days for the repairs to happen.

Ben booked a hotel stay for us. I am grateful for this man more than ever at times like this. He does not mess around, he just does what needs to be done.

The Elephant in the Room: Why so cold?

People always ask me how I can tolerate the low temperature inside my house. One word: acclimation! Once you get used to it, anything else seems unreasonable. No, the reality is that I have an easier time breathing with the cooler and dryer air that comes with a central air conditioning unit working overtime to cool a box with smaller boxes inside it. It is for my health. That is why it is not open for discussion.

I have fewer allergy problems. My asthma behaves itself more often than not (the past 3 months aside). Migraines are fewer or at least more tolerable. I experience less swelling in my body. The arthritis is not as severe and the body aches are less pronounced. I sleep better. The list goes on and on…

Do not get me started on the hot flashes. Getting older is not for sissies. I do not have hot flashes every single day, but when I get them, it is reasonably cyclical and will last for several days. If you have had an old lady hot flash, you understand. Jumping in the freezer should be an option. I joke about setting my AC to “meat locker” cold, but it is only “a little bit” joking. I have ceiling fans running in all the major rooms. There are oscillating fans running in some rooms as well.

When I have a migraine, I tend to run in “hot body” mode. People walking by me have asked if I am running a fever because I am radiating so much heat from my body. I can register a low-grade fever if you check using a thermometer. Body swelling is not uncommon with my migraines and cooler temperatures minimize this.

For Science!

Education does not have to be formal to be useful. I rely heavily on Grandpa Adams’s mantra about learning something every single day. Ben and I have learned (lessons for us) to relax and allow experimentation and exploration to happen in our home. This is not always easy when you have OCD (Ben) or hate cleaning up the messes (me). The boys have learned to, as stated in the book/movie, The Martian, “Science the s*** out of [things].” This brings Ben and me no end of smiles and deep appreciation for formal and informal education.

Ben knew we had a hotel room and I had checked into the hotel. What he did not know (from across the ocean) was that Kyle opted to stay at the house Friday night so that he did not have to drive back from Denton on Saturday morning to take care of the neighbor’s cat. This was his choice to endure the heat and humidity in the house.

I received a group text from Ben asking about the alarm alert he got on his phone about a window being left open at the house. He thought no one was there. Kyle responded to this text with a single word – science. That was the end of the discussion. I did explain that Kyle was at the house.

What I came home to…

The boys found our portable AC unit in the garage (under the mess of woodworking tools and other garage storage nonsense) and the hose for venting out of the window. This was intended to cool the garage for Ben’s woodworking, but he discovered we needed a bit more cooling due to the size of our garage. Kyle had set up the dehumidifier (not shown). They managed to get the ambient temperature and humidity in the larger great space to “not unpleasant” status as long as you were just sitting and merely existing.

They knew I would be the one sitting in the rapidly rising temperatures waiting for the AC repair guy and they tried to make it as pleasant as possible for me. This is how you know your children love you. Notice the AC with the box fan? It is blowing at the back of my rocker. I could sit in that chair and enjoy the cool (but still humid) air. I have to confess, these are the things that let me know they are good people.

Cooling again…

I am calling the new unit “Beast.” It has earned the name. It is 50% taller than the old unit and compared to the old unit it is super quiet (especially at the end).

How long does it take to cool down a 3000 square foot house when it is 105˚F outside? A long time! It took approximately 12 hours to bring it back down to 71˚F with it running full throttle the entire time. That also included leaving the dehumidifier running for about 4 hours and the portable AC unit running for about 6 hours.

I am not going to lie, my power bill will not be fun to pay next month!

Air Conditioning did not happen in a vacuum

The existence of air conditioning did not happen in a vacuum. It was not one person associated with this invention that made our lives more comfortable. I am grateful for the people it took to get us where we are today. It took a variety of educational backgrounds to make it happen.

My gratitude extends to my husband. His education got him the posh job he has today. That made it possible for me to move to a hotel to continue my studies – in comfort. Yes, it was inconvenient to pack up all the sewing supplies and materials needed for 3 days. I needed to continue the forward momentum on my “CAD sewing project” and that would not happen when I was hot, sweaty, and miserable. I had a few breakthroughs sitting alone in the hotel room studying my pattern-making and pattern-alteration resources as I tried to solve my fitting problems.

Most importantly, I learned Kyle and Lance can and will adapt and overcome problems put in front of them if given the opportunity. While we focus on the selfish world around us, they let their light shine and thought about my comfort when their father could not physically make it happen from across the ocean. Learning your children are good people is priceless.