Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen for July 20, 2021

Wow, this is actually funny! ( to me)

Geez, sweaty hands.

Being from Georgia, I can’t imagine not having air conditioning. Then again, my grandmother’s house didn’t have it, and I spent half my childhood there. As an adult, though? Yeah, I’ll suffer through a few months of $200+ electric bills not wake up in a puddle of sweat every morning.

We have a whole house heat pump and a window a/c in the bedroom. Most days, I just open windows when I get up and both cool and ventilate the house. The heatwave last month was an exception; we actually used the A/C function during the day. One day Salem, OR was the hottest place in the USA! Broke the all-time record – 116F.

Where or when is this? Alaska, or the 1950s ?

when I lived in portland and seattle about 75% of the homes had no ac, also no basements. A couple of weeks ago portland hit 116

If you are just now looking for a/c units, you are probably too late…

yes, let’s get more a/c, so the power plants will have to produce more power; and emissions….sorta defeats the purpose, counter-productive?

In climates where heat waves are rare, a heat pump which can deliver cool as well as warm air makes sense. Ours kept us cool during the recent heat dome in the northwest.

I was once working in an uncooled auto garage in Kuwait, it was about 125 F outside. My laptop just announced it was too hot and shut down. We both went into the office for a much needed cool down.

Go for a high efficiency heat pump; handles both heating and air conditioning more than adequately. My wife and I have had one in our home for over twenty years, and we love it.

Where do they live?

Yes, heat pumps historically work better in temperate latitudes. But, the newer ones are much better now in the northern states.

This would be why I have a separate keyboard – much easier to replace than the laptop if I short it out.

I quickly learned that the best time to do preventative maintenance on your AC is when it’s cold outside.