I know I was just complaining here not long ago about how bad our Winter was but WTF? Our swamp cooler isn't even unwrapped yet and it was 90 today. I think I lost 20 lbs just by sitting here at the computer. I'm waiting for the maintenance guy to come over right now and hook it back up. I barely slept last night because it was just too damn hot and stuffy. Oh PLEASE let him come over tonight or I'm going to sleep outside in the backyard.
Man, I'm glad I got that swamper going a week ago! It snapped from cold to hot so fast my head is spinning. Less than a week ago I experienced below-freezing temps out on the west desert in the middle of the night. Of course out there it regularly swings 30-40 degrees F. naturally between day and night.
Here in No Cal we almost hit 100 just a day or so ago, I feel for you... We don't really use AC just because how expensive it gets... We will have to once we get triple digits more than a day a week
Well really, we only have summer and winter... if you think about it, the spring and fall are really sporadic. I remember one year it freaking snowed in June. JUNE. So of course, we live in a state where we constantly have to dress and undress. LOL at least the mo's are uncomfortably sweaty in their g's. I just laugh whenever someone bends over and I see the tell-tale garmies.
Utah isn't the only place with strange temperature bounces. On April 10 2013 the high at Baltimore-Washington International Airport was 91. On May 14 the low temperature was 34. 30 miles farther north we had frost on the cars on May 14th so the overnight low was 32 or lower. I had to run an electric heater to raise the inside temperature up from 64.
My favorite was a few, maybe 5 years ago when I had to snowblow the driveway to get out and then after I came home from work it was 78 degrees, so I mowed the lawn.
Swamp coolers are different than air conditioning. My house has an air conditioning unit in the back yard. My brother's old house had a swamp cooler on the roof. Two completely different things.
Sorry, I should of been more specific but I didn't know someone would correct me on the proper distinction between an air conditioning unit and swamp cooler.
We have swamp coolers but we just call them air conditioning. We don't distinguish cold air from cold air.
An air conditioner works on the same principle as as a refrigerator. An enclosed gas is compressed and allowed to expand inside the system. As the gas expands it cools rapidly, which chills the air around the system. It works at any level of humidity in the atmosphere.
A swamp cooler uses water that is circulated through a large sponge. A fan blows air at the sponge, and the water evaporates, cooling the air. It is not a closed system and increases the humidity in the cooled air. Swamp coolers don't work in humid climates. They are preferred in the dry west, because they are much less expensive to operate. They don't have compressors.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2014 04:03PM by donbagley.
they are swampy and cost very little to run. But mine makes my house humid. Just a few years ago, they came out with "portable" air conditioners that you can roll from room to room and vent through a window. They run around $300. I got me one and it is so much more pleasant than the swamp cooler, but my ex did hook up the swamp cooler yesterday.
I work at home (and it sounds like Tupperwhere does)--and I was so miserable Monday.
The year I lived in Colorado, it was unseasonably hot there in May and June and it rained all through May and June here.
We're getting it here in northern NM, too. It's been a strange spring. The winds were a month late and it kept bouncing from glass-cutting nipple cold to hoochie shorts hot.
Personally, I love the heat and despise the winter, so hopefully it's here to stay.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2013 10:50AM by Itzpapalotl.
One thing I do like about living near the coast in southern California is that you only need air conditioning maybe 2 weeks out of the year at most, usually in September. The rest of the summer, while it might be in the 80's, there's natural air conditioning from the ocean breeze.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2014 03:49AM by adoylelb.