July 2010

Saving Money During The Hot Auburn Summer.

IS CENTRAL AIR FREEZING YOUR ASSETS?
If you’ve gotten sticker shock from your latest electric bill, you may already suspect that Americans spend more than $22 billion a year on electricity to cool their homes with air conditioning — and use a whopping 183 billion kilowatt-hours, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That accounts for at least 15% of all energy used in some homes, and in warmer climates can represent up to 70% of your summer electric bill.

Here’s another way of looking at it: While a floor fan uses only 100 watts on the highest speed, and ceiling fans use only 15 to 95 watts depending on speed and size, a window unit AC uses 500 to 1440 watts — and a 2.5-ton central system uses about 3500 watts. That’s a massive amount of energy and suggests that if you’re using air conditioners alone to cool your home, you’re not thinking in economic or environmental terms.

Saving Money During The Hot Auburn Summer. Read More »

Basic History Of Air Conditioning/ Auburn, Ca.

And while we may take air conditioning for granted, it wasn’t that long ago — 1881, to be precise — when a team of naval engineers built a cooling contraption to comfort a dying President James Garfield. While the device — which blew hot air upwards and employed rags soaked in freezing water — could lower room temperatures by 20 degrees, it also ate up a quarter-million pounds of ice a month. (Think of all the Pina Coladas they could’ve made instead.)

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