I lived in Tucson during the 80's and 90's. It was a job thing, and once there, it was next to impossible to transfer out. I have an absolute hatred for the heat since I was a kid, so I guess that I paid for all my sins up to date there.
So, swamp cooling was all that I had there for the first 12 years and me being me, I made a science of it. I won't go into details so much except to say that most of the swamp coolers that I saw were very poorly maintained. That is most of the secret. I saw a house once that used an 'Upduct' where the air ran through the house and then into the attic and then to the outside. That was the best system that I ever saw. Having said all that, everything has its limits and somewhere around 100 degrees or so and the difference was felt. At 105 and above, you were pretty much screwed. Even with AC, the whole system must be designed to meet the cubic footage of the home, and you know damned well that doesn't happen in most subdivisions.
Rant over.
So, swamp cooling was all that I had there for the first 12 years and me being me, I made a science of it. I won't go into details so much except to say that most of the swamp coolers that I saw were very poorly maintained. That is most of the secret. I saw a house once that used an 'Upduct' where the air ran through the house and then into the attic and then to the outside. That was the best system that I ever saw. Having said all that, everything has its limits and somewhere around 100 degrees or so and the difference was felt. At 105 and above, you were pretty much screwed. Even with AC, the whole system must be designed to meet the cubic footage of the home, and you know damned well that doesn't happen in most subdivisions.
Rant over.
Wimps. High of 112F expected today in Davis, CA. Same as yesterday. It has 110 or higher several times already. Does cool off at night to mid-60s. Been a hot July.
It might depend on whether you are working inside or outside. I laugh to myself when my mom complains about the heat at the AC cooled nursing home in Eugene, OR. Then the rain, then the cold, all from an inside perspective
Once again.... no such thing.
It is the STANDARD that applies the bias of the viewer... it's known as the operating conditions used to take the measurement and then modify the data to allow deviations to the standard (after suitable observations and calculations ).
In electronics, simple measurements with lab equipment in a controlled environment are designed to be repeatable and within known, calculable errors ( there's an entire body of physics and numerical analysis devoted to error analysis). This is the reason why lab equipment is calibrated and at least one magnitude more accurate than the desired measurement accuracy. By and by this is the simplest known type of measurement.
Lab standard conditions are also well known... 70F, 65% humidity, sea level. A huge amount of effort goes into this, even for plain electronics labs. We had a heck of a time once getting a lab in Denver at those conditions, just to develop firmware!
But, take something as simple as measuring temperature on an OUTDOOR environment, specially on a global scale. It's is impossible to make the data coherent. It just isn't possible so there's a lot of necessary corrections to ensure that the conditions are "corrected" to a uniform environment.
Or take the old way of measuring gravity maps. You needed to know the altitude to make the correction, since gravity maps are made to be uniform at a "sea level" altitude. Today we use GPS to measure the altitude but years ago it far more difficult.
Again, it's not the "measurement" per se but the environment in which the measurement is made and the correlation to many related measurements.
Taking a measurement is easy, making sure the resulting data is valid can be incredibly complex.
Agreed.
You have to customize the system.
25 years ago, during our Reconstruction, we went to a four zone, dual HVAC, 8 ton system. Recently we redid it with five zones, variable speed fans, dual HVAC, 7 ton system.
You can feel the difference.
But then, our max temps have been 87F outdoors. But, it was humid, at 60%, which is one of the best things ACs are good at: drying out the air. I don't know that swamp coolers do that?
My mortgage (*) allows me to be a wimp. West of the 405 in The OC. We bought our way out of the excessive heat.
;-)
We're gonna be driving up to the Nortwest in two weeks... I figure it's gonna be HOT from Pasadena all the way to Olympia.
(*) OK, we've owned the house for 35 years... what mortgage?
That's over double the average for a 5 person house in the UK.
Here it's been another wet week (we had the full months allowance of rain in the first week of July). 14C* this morning when I took the kids to school. We are just waiting for the jet stream to move back north and then hopefully summer will arrive. last year it was record breaking hot and then as soon as the kids broke up for holidays it started raining and didn't stop until the day they went back.
*Note that temp suits me just fine. Shorts and T-shirt weather but not too hot.
We have been over 90F 21 days so far this year. Average year we are only above 90F for 20 days (usually in August).
Next week we are expected to hit 97. We are expected to be above 90 for at least the next 6 days before a front comes thorough and drops temps and (hopefully) brings rain.
We have been in "Moderate Drought" conditions for over a week.
When I replaced my 22 year old heat pump 6 years ago, the sizing recommendation was 2 Ton. I told them I insisted on 2.5 Ton. The sizing recommendations undersized heat pumps to push power demand off peak usage periods.
I do use a programmable thermostat, and ramp the inside temp up as high as 87F during the late afternoon.
Next week we are expected to hit 97. We are expected to be above 90 for at least the next 6 days before a front comes thorough and drops temps and (hopefully) brings rain.
We have been in "Moderate Drought" conditions for over a week.
When I replaced my 22 year old heat pump 6 years ago, the sizing recommendation was 2 Ton. I told them I insisted on 2.5 Ton. The sizing recommendations undersized heat pumps to push power demand off peak usage periods.
I do use a programmable thermostat, and ramp the inside temp up as high as 87F during the late afternoon.
It's been an exceptionally cool and wet summer here in the UK - I'd say this is the most miserable summer in 30 years.
Here on the Greek island of Aegina it was 39C in the shade this afternoon. Even now, at 02:00, it's 33C in the house. It doesn't really cool off a great deal at night. My laptop freaks out at 39C.
Back when I was just outta college (and living in apts with no AC) my trick for dealing with the heat was to sit around with my feet in a bucket of water. Put down a towel first. That helped a lot where I was, even when the tap was running warm it was still sub 90 degrees. Tho my wife says one time they were driving thru the Mojave and the tap water came out too hot. They ran a bath and put ice in it to cool off. I got one of those misters that you can attach to a fan, but haven't set it up yet.
Standardized measurements are part of 'The Scientific Method' 😎
( we couldn't decipher & delineate without them )
I agree and no sign of any improvement. One man's heatwave is another's dreekness.
You must have read "The Secret", where positive thinking & affirmations CREATE REALITY 😉
You keep missing my point.
It's how data is standardized that matters.
It's how the measurements are corrected from a raw measurement to a useable data point.
It's not the measurement that matters but the resulting DATA POINT.
Moreover, how we "decipher" and "delineate" (*) are part of the gestalt.
Once again, read Kuhn's book. It describes all of this in detail.
(*) Whatever that means.. normally we would think about how we interpret the measurement into a useful data point that somehow is used to buttress a model.
And the sky is Blue & water is Wet
( I don't have a good time with Climate Change deniers )
( I don't have a good time with Climate Change deniers )
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