Air Conditioning This Summer?
This might be our last summer in Torino. Last summer it was hot, hot, hot and to cool myself down I took 2-3 cold showers a day. I don’t remember exactly but the temps must have been around 90+F. It was hard to sleep at night and the month of August was the worst. We live on the 4th floor and I don’t think that helps either.
This year we hope to get an air conditioner. There have been a few warm days so far but nothing that an open window could not fix. The main problems with getting an air conditioner is where to put it and the cost. So we put in our bedroom only, they we’ll be sweating while watching movies in the living room and or nephew who plans to stay a month with us in July won’t get much cool air. Hmmm dilemmas. Other obstacle is the price of electricity. Not many people have clothes dryers for this reason alone.
The way the electricity is billed in Italy is by estimation. They estimate that a family of 2, 3 or 4+ members will used “X” amount of electricity and they bill you for that “X” amount. I have never had someone come to read our electric meter in the year or so I have lived here, although someone has come to red the gas meter. So as we don’t use much electricity we have “guestiamated” that we have a 600 Euro credit with the electric company which they are supposed to credit us when we move and close our account with them. Part of me feels like using that credit on the electricity consumption of an air conditioner and part of me feels like saving it for when we move out.
Deme’s apartment in Seattle had central air and I had a cool basement I could retreat too when it got too warm in Seattle, which it does not too that often. I am not so worried about the heat of the day, but when it comes to sleeping, I like it cool.
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posted by Gia-Gina @ 1:22:00 AM
9 Comments:
Eek. I don't blame you a bit! Sitting on the equator in my air-conditioned house I have nothing but sympathy for anyone who has to sleep without it. When we lived without AC in Australia, we used to get wet and then flop on the bed without drying off and try to fall asleep before we got too warm again- but I hope you decide to cool your bedroom!
I guess these delimas we face here too. We live in a new place and can only put the aircon in the bedroom. I do hope it will cool our place down. Luckily we have a balcony that gets sun in the morning so it should be nice for the eves. Good luck!
Where would you move though if you were leaving Torino?
We have AC. Of course it is one of those giant ones that sits on the floor with hose going out the window. They cost a lot of money and we would only turn it on when the heat was too much to handle. The worse part is that it can only cool down one room (we have 2). SO to get from the cool living room, you have to walk through the heat. These are times when I really miss America.
Cyn
Cyn,
I know how you feel, there are just so many conviniences that I miss about the US.
ooh, i wish we could have AC. It sounds like even when you get it, though, it will be a dilemma about where to put it, etc. I agree with Cyndi: lots of things to miss about the US.
-Jackie
I'm with you on the A/C dilemmas! Although in hot and humid Thessaloniki you just can't live without it in the summer (plus I'm spoiled).
We had A/C but it was an old unit so we just replaced it. One half of our apartment gets reasonably cool while the other half gets nothing. But as long as the living room and bedroom get it what else matters?
As far as cost goes here, having the A/C on all the time (and I mean all the time) for a couple of months only seemed to add about 30 euros to our electric bill. Now, 30 euros is a small chunk of money but it surprised me, I thought it would be more.
It has been 3 long years since I've lived with air-conditioning. I can't even remember what artificial cool air feels like ;-). That is one of the things that I love most about San Fran, though. The natural air. Yet, if I lived in an area with sweltering summers, I know that I'd be praying for any type of respite, even air-conditioning units. Good luck with that!!
We got 2 units installed 2 years ago. But we can only use one at a time and before we turn it on we have to turn off everything else electrical! Hopeless!!
I've heard this summer is supposed to be similar to the summer of 2003, triple digit temps. Felt like dying that summer. This year my husband's sister is talking of giving us her portable a/c unit. Yeahhhhh!!!
Ann
http://www.blogcharm.com/amborg
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