Pneumonia Weather

Georgia is a weird place to live in the winter. It will be so cold one day that your heat pump will run almost non-stop only to be followed by several days of weather so warm you will be tempted to run the air conditioner. It’s what old timer’s call “pneumonia weather”. Of course we all know that changes in temperature won’t cause pneumonia, but it does make keeping your house comfortable a challenge and figuring out how to dress a nightmare! No worries really, it will be so hot here in a few months that this dilemma will seem like a bad joke.

Your view on why the earth is warming is undoubtedly tied to your political beliefs, but there is real evidence that it is, whether caused by man or God. I really don’t think this has anything to do with the mild weather we have had this winter because I’ve seen many just like this one over the years and truly believe it is just part of some kind of cycle. But how we react to this change defines us all.

I commented on a Facebook post this morning for the sole reason of getting in the thread of comments that will follow. Anybody that claims never to do this either doesn’t use Facebook much or is lying…or there is the remote chance that I’m just crazy. “I had to turn on the AC and its February” is how the comment read. I really don’t intend to pick on anyone personally because most of us live in homes of similar construction, but if after one day of 75 degree weather you have to turn on the air conditioner, your home has problems. It is obviously not properly maintaining enough of the heating or cooling you are pumping into it; if it were a cooler, you would throw it away. The power companies make it seem cheap on their itemized bill and I’ve overheard people brag about it. “Ten dollars a day to live in comfort is cheap”. Maybe, but what if you had to put ten dollars’ worth of ice in your refrigerator to store food? What if you did this even when it was below freezing outside? That doesn’t sound cheap and it’s really the same thing.

I understand that if I were not a man (at my advanced age) I would feel differently on the issue of air conditioning. The mercurial body temperature of women my age and older is truly a sight to behold. I’ve gotten up in the night and witnessed my wife on top of the covers, spread eagle looking like she was taking a break in the middle of making a snow angel. Sorry for that image, but I do try to understand. I’ve often thought that having cold flashes would have been a much nicer way to end ones reproductive cycle, but unfortunately I don’t make the rules. If I were to ask what menopausal women did before one-touch climate control, the answer would be either “who cares” or “go to hell” and both answers have merit. But why not simply open the window, turn on the ceiling fan, and shed some clothes! I believe getting up and turning down the thermostat (while cursing life and your oblivious spouse) often brings as much relief as the temperature change itself. But honestly even if you must have air conditioning during these times setting the thermostat in anticipation of these events is not going to help anything; it will only cost you money.

When I built my current home the builder told me that my new windows did not come with screens. “You have to order them separately and they cost extra” were his exact words. Like any other red blooded American man I like to save a dollar anyway I can and at the time I was happy that my builder had tried to do so by not ordering the screens. But after three years of the HVAC running during moderate weather (spring and fall) to keep the temperature at a constant level, I knew I had to make a change. I will credit my wife for my knowing that I needed to make this change, but regardless of the reason the change was made. Luckily my builder still had the screens in his warehouse and I got them for free. I noticed that the boxes had my name on them so I asked him again why he had not installed them on my home when it was built. He didn’t seem to remember the conversation we had about the extra cost and reluctantly told me that by leaving the house closed up tight I would have less sheetrock problems; fewer “nail pops”. So I’m paying the power company roughly ten dollars a day, on top of my mortgage, just to keep my house looking nice? Not anymore; not when I don’t have to.

Living in Georgia, I understand the amount of time that one can live comfortably with the windows open is short. The key to staying comfortable in your home is simply keeping the air that you paid to condition air inside your home. With proper air sealing and insulation (and ceiling fans only when you’re under them) you will eliminate many of the days when you run the heat at night and the air conditioning in the day. Think of your home as a cooler, the tighter and better insulated it is the less ice you will have to buy.

Much of the need for temperature control is rooted in psychology and what we perceive as comfortable. In the winter you run in to a home that his heated to 68 degrees and start shedding clothes, but set it to 78 degrees (the summer AC temperature) and it feels like a sauna! Set it to 68 degrees in the summer and you’ll watch television in a coat! Bear some of the responsibility and dress accordingly. Don’t you remember the first thing your mother told you when you complained of being cold? “Put some clothes on!”

I know this is an over-simplification of energy usage and I meant it as such. I’ve taken many classes and I read books, articles and blogs on this topic whenever I get a chance.  Believe me when I say that fine tuning (and agreeing on) usage and savings is a science in itself. This is not a one size fits all topic and you will be second guessed at every corner. But a little here and a little there combined with a healthy dose of common sense will save you money and keep you comfortable.