HOT

@RiotDemon

When I have visited Fl in the summer, I didn’t hate it.

I found it interesting that the summer humidity was so high near the coast, during the afternoons, that when the sky was cloudless, the sky color was a silvery-blue instead of blue.

Often, shortly following this afternoon silver-blue FL sky color, clouds would start to appear, and there might be 20min, up to an hour, or so of rain.

(But had recently lived in an even more tropical location, so was unfazed at that time by extreme humidity.)

@f00l not sure if the bottom is the silver blue you mean?

@RiotDemon
: )

@f00l @RiotDemon My uncle lived in Winter Garden, near one of the larger lakes in the Orlando metroplex. I visited him often and really noticed the humidity, particularly in late summer. Still, I didn’t hate it. But the bugs though. I was intrigued by the screened-in back yards. Like the entire back yard is one enormous enclosure. But then I went hiking in the Black Bear Wilderness Area and was eaten alive by every imaginable species of biting insect. I understood the screened enclosures then.

@f00l @ruouttaurmind currently 2am. Humidity 78%. Bugs, yes.

@ruouttaurmind

Hotter than Death Valley! Woohoo!

@ruouttaurmind

Oh my! Do you have a pic of the melting wheels? Show us!

I once spoke to a flower shop owner whose biz was in Phoenix. He told me some insane stuff that florists have to do to provide healthy and presentable floral services there in summer.
Even van he operated had separate front and rear a/c units, both extra heavy duty.
When he got a new delivery vehicle he immediately had it custom-insulated and blocked out all the unnecessary-for-driving windows.
Every vehicle carried huge expensive super ice chests (like Rtic and similar) so that drivers could ice the floral water and themselves.
He had a several motel-sized monster ice makers at the shop.
When an arrangement came out of the indoor shop walk-in fridge to go into the van, if possible, the flowers were covered in something insulating during transit.

@f00l At least there is a constant 4mph breeze blowing so the air isn’t totally still. It’s about like standing in front of a hair dryer. Perspiration evaporates almost instantly so I never really get all perspiration soaked. It’s still damn hot, but it’s maybe a little more comfortable. Or at least a perception of comfort?
¯_(ツ)_/¯

The floral delivery thing is a challenge I’m sure. I see some of the florists using smaller refrigerated box vans similar to the grocery delivery vans Amazon Fresh (and other grocery delivery services) around here use similar to this:

@f00l Another blistering day. 116*. Rolling blackouts late this afternoon. This is about the time each year when I have my fill of summer and I’m ready for those cool, refreshing 105* fall temperatures.

@die13lda
You have my sympathy. That was my house yesterday and will be it again today.

@charsigns Wow, I always think of the Bay area as being chilly in the summer!

@charsigns @Kyeh
welcome to climate change
/giphy climate change

@charsigns @Kyeh Yeah so have I (chilly). I don’t think it was ever over about 74 or so (with a breeze) the couple of times when I have been there in the summer. 108 sounds like here in the deep south. Of course I took in an earthquake while a tourist there too. Conveniently on the 24th floor of an apartment building. No thank you.

What I really liked though was the time when I was staying with a relative in Berkeley, high up on the hill there were deer in the yard and sitting in their living room window we could see the bay. They had a telescope set up there to do bay watching - the view was to die for. The Carillon at U of CA Berkeley there is nice too.

@charsigns

Buy an emergency use window unit and cool just one room or area until Sept, so that you don’t have to pay heatwave prices for repair/installation of the HVAC?

@charsigns @f00l Except that might cost as much as the premium for getting it fixed now.

@Cerridwyn @charsigns
Oh, yeah - I know; a town in Siberia reached a record 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit this June! It’s just weird to hear about a place where I’ve spent a fair amount of time being so drastically different. It used to be, you’d be really hot going up the last hill before you drove into the Bay area, and then as soon as you headed downhill you’d need a sweater - in July.

@charsigns @Kidsandliz

A Window unit will be far cheaper than an HVAC overhaul if the pricing for window units there is an anything like it is a big box stores in Texas.
I mean far, far cheaper.

If they could get their current HVAC overhaul at the same price that Walmart and Home Depot are selling window units for, I think there would be no hesitation on getting the HVAC fixed immediately, or as soon as they could get an appointment.

Getting a window unit is probably far cheaper than getting a full non-working HVAC unit overhauled, if that job were done in the off-season, as well

However a window unit is probably going to do one or perhaps two rooms, and that last only if the two rooms are connected with good circulation, and it’s easy to shut off the rest of the house.

@charsigns @Kyeh
yep, i remember going in the summer and it getting so cold we had to go buy coats

@charsigns @f00l I missed the overhaul part. I just thought it was broken and needed fixed and the issue was the premium that needed to be paid to be fixed now. I was figuring a couple of window units would maybe be the cost of the premium.

@f00l @Kidsandliz
I thought about getting a couple window units, but the ones i saw out here are $300 and $400. There aren’t a lot of air conditioners on the shelves now to choose from.

@charsigns @Kidsandliz

I feared as much, esp I am area that does not normally have summers worthy of suffering.

Esp re the smaller cheaper window units that will do a sm/med bedroom, not much more; these disappear from retail shelves in a heat emergency.

Prime time to buy is spring, when they first appear on the shelves, or autumn, when the stores want the shelf space back for other items.

So … endure?
Or decamp?
Or pay up for a repair or replace, of you can schedule one?
Or pony up for a window unit or other room a/c type, which you will at least still have around for the next emergency: if you have space to store the thing, or are willing to leave it installed, and insulated, once you get your HVAC back up and going?

Not a fun set of options.

: (

@f00l @Kidsandliz
Well, I think going to have to pony up and call the repair man , rrrrrrgh . The heat was actually making me feel sick. Thank goodness for the cooling off places.my city has. Ive been taking my mother there for the days. I hope I find an honest and ethical repairman who won’t take advantage of a poor working woman who is taking care of her 84 year old mother.

@charsigns @Kidsandliz

In a heat emergency, repair persons often are overwhelmed with repair orders, and there can be a delay.

Hope you can get someone soon!

@f00l And on top of that fires and bad air quality.

@f00l @Kyeh
I do kind of feel I’m living in hell

@charsigns @f00l @Kyeh Here in the SF Bay Area we had a blackout (2 hours) roll through yesterday evening, as the power grid reached capacity and our temp here at the ranch hit an unofficial 102. Some short stint of weather like this is not that uncommon this time of year, but it’s been more often and persistent this year than before. Now we have some possible thunderstorms coming through, and it’s predicted to drop back to the 80s by week’s end.

@lordbowen

There are all sorts of good ways to cool down using water and moving air.

The landscape maintenance people And construction people and construction people are probably the world experts on this

Also some people freeze up those rectangular blocks of blue ice and then they get special vests with pockets designed for blocks of blue ice, and these people stay cool that way, rotating the ice blocks out when they become warm

I think this vests can be had on Amazon; also construction and landscape people wear them and so the car salesman and other people who work outdoors in the summer

@f00l Yep. And inexpensive ways too. My cats like it when I set out freezer packs for them.

@f00l @lordbowen Mine sit on the cement floor and shower floor. Or on top of the edge of the motel style A/C my apt has and drape themselves over the air outlet side of it. My 19 year old however sits on the cat heating pad pretty close to 24/7 but she is very skinny at this point in time.

An inexpensive way to temporarily cool down is fill a shallow box (like a cat litter box) with a bag of ice and blow a fan over it. Raises the humidity a bit but then the fans blow cool air and not hot air.

@f00l @Kidsandliz @lordbowen
That would be a home made swamp cooler. Definitely works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler

@Kidsandliz @lordbowen @unksol

My grandparents/great-grandparents used recently well-watered shrubs at window height, and cross current air, and ice blocks, as informal swamp-cooling every day in summer.

And whole house fans. And other tricks such a spritzing clothes with mist. All part of the daily routine until window a/c units or fully insulated a/c’d houses became commonplace.

My mother remembered visiting, during her pre-school years, a relative’s rural house with an ingenious arrangement of fans and watered down planters and ice tubs: the system supposedly cut 10F+ off the targeted areas every day during the worst hours.
This house got daily ice deliveries, and had an enormous and serious ice storage locker.

In this house, the biggest single fan was so strong that, when it was operating, small children could not walk up to the front of it without holding on to something.
She and her cousins used to have competitions.

@f00l I mean what kid wouldn’t walk up to a giant fan that might blow you over?

@f00l @unksol Hey I know some adults that would too, including me. Sounds fun.

@f00l @Kidsandliz I would but it would probably have to be a bigger or faster fan once we start doing the math/physics

@narfcake
106 today. Now at 8:35 its dropped all the way down to 99.

@f00l Same here (forecast) although one might question the use of the word “cool”. Less fucking hot might be more appropriate.