Desert Living in the summer
Jul. 20th, 2005 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billeylerMost people don't know a lot about Albuquerque. They know that they should have taken that left turn there long ago and ended up sitting on a casino stool in Las Vegas instead of sunning in Puerto Vallarta, but that's about it.
Also, what most people don't know about Albuquerque is that it is NOT Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, or Palm Springs-like in the summer, it's more like a drier Denver or Salt Lake City. 90ish in the days and 65-70 at night. Lightly toasted, thank you.
ABQ is a mile above sea level at the base of a mountain, and us traveling down to sea level is like getting a huge burst of oxygenation and the "you are getting sleepy" syndrome is reality. So if we seem groggy when we first visit the oceanbirds, dat's why.
Anyway, since we're so high up, hardly anyone outside of mega-biz has refrigerated air conditioning. We rely on SWAMP COOLERS to climate control our homes.
Yes, that's right...we all have large metal boxes sitting on our roofs. These are in essense a toilet float-controlled recirculation pond with a pump and 'moisture medium' in a box with a fan. There's usually a tell-tale black plastic or copper tube running off the roof, over the side, and down to a convenient outside faucet. Blows hell out of southwest esthetics!
But it works. The dry outside 5% to 10% humidity means major evaporative cooling bennies. Electrical costs are no more than running a fan. On a particularly dry day, the interior temperature is cooled 20-25 degrees, and the air inside hovers around 50% humidity. Ideal!
One problem though. When it's humid out, It just dang-blamed don't work! :( And it's 96 right now, and the humidity is climbing before a fast-approching T'storm....Oh, no, Mr Bill!
But don't feel sorry for me... feel sympathy for those folks that somehow exist in the 110-120 degree Mojave desert temps! (Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Palm Springs. Okay, I'm convinced...I'll stay here with my swamp cooler!
Also, what most people don't know about Albuquerque is that it is NOT Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, or Palm Springs-like in the summer, it's more like a drier Denver or Salt Lake City. 90ish in the days and 65-70 at night. Lightly toasted, thank you.
ABQ is a mile above sea level at the base of a mountain, and us traveling down to sea level is like getting a huge burst of oxygenation and the "you are getting sleepy" syndrome is reality. So if we seem groggy when we first visit the oceanbirds, dat's why.
Anyway, since we're so high up, hardly anyone outside of mega-biz has refrigerated air conditioning. We rely on SWAMP COOLERS to climate control our homes.
Yes, that's right...we all have large metal boxes sitting on our roofs. These are in essense a toilet float-controlled recirculation pond with a pump and 'moisture medium' in a box with a fan. There's usually a tell-tale black plastic or copper tube running off the roof, over the side, and down to a convenient outside faucet. Blows hell out of southwest esthetics!
But it works. The dry outside 5% to 10% humidity means major evaporative cooling bennies. Electrical costs are no more than running a fan. On a particularly dry day, the interior temperature is cooled 20-25 degrees, and the air inside hovers around 50% humidity. Ideal!
One problem though. When it's humid out, It just dang-blamed don't work! :( And it's 96 right now, and the humidity is climbing before a fast-approching T'storm....Oh, no, Mr Bill!
But don't feel sorry for me... feel sympathy for those folks that somehow exist in the 110-120 degree Mojave desert temps! (Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Palm Springs. Okay, I'm convinced...I'll stay here with my swamp cooler!
