The downside to all the rain in North Texas is the humidity. It’s now modestly warm but wet as a bath towel. Walking outside is like putting on a wet blanket.
Inside the house we now have a nice (if temporary) commercial dehumidifier. It collected 4 gallons on the first 6 hours, indoors, and that’s with the AC on. Did I mention it’s 11:33PM and it’s 83 tonight?
It may be time for a permanent dehumidifier. This is a test to see if it makes a difference.
Your local electric company will love you for installing a commercial dehumidifier.
I don’t think there’s another appliance like it for eating electricity.
Central Oklahoma is about the same. When it rained last night at midnight, fog rose off the roads.
this is so funny considering I HAVE to use a HUMIDIFIER in the winter now that I live in the north, otherwise my husband and I will literally shock each other if we touch. I lived in north and coastal Texas for several years, and let me tell you, I don’t miss the hot and wet summers, I just miss my family and of course Zeke’s Fish and Chips and La Madeleine.
Let us know how that turns out. Do you use fans too? Would the lower humidity lead to less reliance on the AC?
Jim,
Yes, the idea is that as the humidity gets lower (to a point) you’re able to be comfortable with higher temps. We’ve already turned our thermostats up 1 degree, and will probably go up more tomorrow.
During the day we leave the thermostat at 80 and run fans. I guess I need to pull out some old bills and compare usage. For instance, do the fans negate the energy savings supposedly derived from upping the thermostat?
I’m thinking I need more insulation in the attic as well.
It’s ironic that in the high desert of SO CAL we used swamp coolers to put mositure into the air in order to cool down the house.
It’s made a huge difference in our comfort level. I’ve emptied 30 gallons of water out of it in the last 3 days, and now our feet don’t stick to the floor, the thermostats are turned up, and we’re going to get one permanently installed.
Frankly, we’re surprised at how much a difference it’s made.
Can you point me at a website or something for the product?
It’ll probably be a built-in from this company:
http://www.thermastor.com/
Don’t buy anything yet, let me see if the built-in works as well as the freestanding one (though I wouldn’t be buying it if I didn’t think it’d work).