We have two young ladies staying in an apartment near our house. One young lady is from a big city and the other is from the South. One of the most challenging aspects of living in Montana for them is learning how to use a window.
On a warm day in May I got a frantic phone call, "It's 80 degrees in here, and I can't seem to turn on the central air."
"We don't have central air. Do you think you could open a window?"
"Oh, I didn't think of that."
Then a couple of weeks ago I walked by the apartment at 7:00 am, temperature 53 degrees, to hear the air conditioner running. I thought it might be a fluke, but the next day at the same temperature the same air conditioner was running. So we had a talk.
We talked about air currents. We talked about air pressure. We talked about using a fan. We discussed opening two windows when you are using a fan so the air you are drawing in has a window that it can flow out. We talked about how a person living in a second story could need an air conditioner for an hour or so if the day has been warm and they have been gone - until the outside air cools down.
I never appreciated before that most Montanans have a special skill set: cooling off rooms without benefit of air conditioners. Wilbur and I purchased an air conditioner for days when we are choked by forest fire smoke. Choked means we have so much smoke we can't see the hill a quarter of a mile away. Terrible smoke means we can't open a window. Paying for air conditioners running when the temperature is 50 degrees does not make us happy.
3 comments:
I even knew how to open and close a window as a kid! :)
My kids know how to do it, too. And they are even southern kids. Hope those ladies are figuring out how to stay cool without running up the electrical bill.
I think it must be skill developed primarily by those in more northern parts of MT as well. I told my co-workers that I only had my air conditioner on for two weeks in July, and they looked at me as if I said I spent the summer cooking in a frying pan.
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