A tip if your A/C goes out.

[Ben E Lou]

Those rip-off rent-to-own furniture stores do serve one useful purpose. You can rent window units. I had no idea.

The repairman comes out to the house and informs us that it's still under warranty (yay), but that it needs a part that he'll need to order (ouch). ETA: five days. But he also mentions that rent-to-own places usually rent 'em. Sure enough, we got three of those suckers for a week for just a little over a hundred bucks total. Even better than that, rather than putting holes in the aluminum window frame, my wonderful bride actually let me use duct tape to secure the part that seals the window. So now I have three window unit air conditioners and duct tape. I could feel my neck getting redder and redder every minute last night as I got 'em all in.

I'm really glad we got this tip; having gone outside this morning, I'm pretty sure that this would have been the first night of the year where it would have been too warm and humid to have gotten by just opening the windows. That's what we had to try with the baby, since it took freaking *FOREVER* at the rent-to-own store. (I suppose with their typical clientele, an absurdly long and involved process is necessary...) Anyway, we didn't get home from the place until quite a bit later than the normal time to feed the little boogie and put her down for bed, and I really had no idea how long it would take to install those suckers, so we decided to put a fan in her room, open the windows, and not put her in her sleep sack, thinking that would be cool enough. She went to sleep normally.

Meanwhile, we installed the ones in our bedroom and the den. It turned out that the most difficult part of that process was figuring out how to remove the screen from our window. (It's actually very easy to do, but completely unintuitive.) Anyway, the first one took around 30 minutes (45-60 if you include the time we wasted fooling with that first dadgum screen); the second probably took less than ten. When we got the second one in so quickly, we were wondering if we should go in and try to install the third one in Carter's room while she was sleeping. She woke up crying at around 10pm, so that decided the matter for us. The unit was a little too heavy for me to bring in from the car and install by myself, and one of us really needed to tend to a very upset little one, so SWMBO took Carter and I traipsed on next door to ask my good neighbor for help, and we got 'er done. Carter has the smallest room in the house, so it cooled down *very* quickly.

We'll be limited as to what rooms in the house we use for the next few days, but it's certainly better than having to sweat it out (not really an option with a 13-month-old) and much cheaper and more convenient than getting a hotel for the week. And I must confess that I kinda like having duct taped window unit air conditioners in the house for the Third Annual Lewis Barbecue on Monday. It gives the event a certain extra flair.

[miked]

Reminds me of living in Boston. No central air, hot as balls.

I actually read somewhere that the optimal temperature for a sleeping baby is 68 degrees. Now of course, I'll never set my thermostat to 68, but I thought that would be a bit chilly for the little one.

[JPhillips]

The hottest nights I can recall were when we lived in Boston. Fucking miserable.

[Ben E Lou]

68? Wow. We've gone with 72 or 73 for Carter, swaddled when she was an infant, and in a sleep sack since she could roll over, and it seems to work well.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I could feel my neck getting redder and redder every minute last night as I got 'em all in.

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

we got 'er done.

LOL. Glad you got it cool and found a relatively cheap temporary fix.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by miked

Reminds me of living in Boston. No central air, hot as balls.

I actually read somewhere that the optimal temperature for a sleeping baby is 68 degrees. Now of course, I'll never set my thermostat to 68, but I thought that would be a bit chilly for the little one.

Our kids aren't babies anymore, but we never set our thermostat even as high as 68. Funny to think of it as chilly.

[sterlingice]

Good stuff to keep in mind.

SI

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by miked

Reminds me of living in Boston. No central air, hot as balls.
I actually read somewhere that the optimal temperature for a sleeping baby is 68 degrees. Now of course, I'll never set my thermostat to 68, but I thought that would be a bit chilly for the little one.

68 is the standard setting for aircon in my house and thats a bit warm for my liking ....

(whats considered 'normal' to people is biased by their place of upbringing imho)

[RainMaker]

I don't think I take the A/C below 72 in my house ever. In fact, I've been rocking 74-75 so far this year. Maybe my internal thermometer just likes it a little warmer than most.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

68? Wow. We've gone with 72 or 73 for Carter, swaddled when she was an infant, and in a sleep sack since she could roll over, and it seems to work well.

This is pretty much exactly us -- we go between 72-74 and use the sleep sack (which I never knew existed a year ago).

We'll be keeping an extra eye out tonight because we decided to put baby bumpers up. He has been rolling and so active, that we got worried about him hurting his head from bumping into the rails of the crib.

[Cringer]

Good tip if ever needed.

Two things though, our AC is set at 78, 77/76 it gets a little chilly in here. Not sure if that has to do with the fact it's hot as hell down here usually or not, but 78 is perfect in here right now.

Also, it makes me think of my mother who is coming down for a visit soon after having been talked into it. She is yet to see my almost 1 year old son, and hasn't been down here in 5+ years. All she wanted to do was complain about how hot it would be, like we don't live in a house but in our backyard, with no shade. There is A/C everywhere, life is fine. And there is usually a decent breeze when we are out on the soccer fields. I still may buy her a bubble for that though.

[miked]

Yeah, we are usually at 74 or 75, but I just thought it was odd that the temperature would be so low for a sleeping baby.

[JimboJ]

I've always thought it was kind of weird that the perfect temp to set your heat at in the winter time is around 68, and the pefect temp for A/C in the summer is around 76. Its only 8 degrees difference, but if you set your heat at 76 in the winter it would feel way too hot, and if you set your A/C on 68 it would feel way too cool. I know you wear more clothes in the winter, but the difference in the ideal temperature betwen seasons still seems kind of strange.

[Abe Sargent]

My AC is not working for a week, but wall units are banned. it was 81 yesterday in my apartment

[duckman]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

My AC is not working for a week, but wall units are banned. it was 81 yesterday in my apartment

I'm in the same boat as you. I just recently moved to Muskogee, OK to take a position with the state. The apartment I moved into has not been keeping up with the maintenance of the place. My A/C was not working when I turned it on a couple of months ago and they did not fix it until I sent a certified letter threatening to move. It worked for less than two weeks and I asked for them to repair it while I was gone to Denver for training. I've come home to a warm apartment. It's 85 in my apartment right now.

[fantom1979]

I have had horrible luck with A/C in apartments that I have lived in.

[Izulde]

No air conditioning here so my room fluctuates between 87 and 92 degrees.

[GoldenEagle]

My air never goes below 78. That being said, it does get really hot in my house sometimes but it saves me a ton of money on the electricity bill.

I think it ran a lot today though. It was really hot here.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I have an AC unit that I fired up once. Turned it off an hour later, opened the windows back up & cranked up the ceiling fans. I don't see how you guys can stand it.

[stevew]

I thought the american way was to go buy some AC's at Wal Mart, and then take them back in a week when the regular AC works.