Humidity, bane of my summer existence

Sunday, 7:55 pm

Jul

20

2008

This has been one of those summers that makes me realize that it truly is a toss up between winter and summer around here. They’re both awful. Although it has been fairly toasty lately, that’s not my gripe. It’s the stinkin’ humidity at rainforest levels. Maybe even higher than rainforest levels. And it has been relentless. Which presents a few problems....

1. Mildew - when the humidity stubbornly stays above 90%, mildew grows rapidly. On everything.

2. Laundry - just try drying clothes on the clothesline when the air is fairly dripping...for days and days on end. See #1.

3. My sheets are clammy and damp—pretty sheets simply do not mitigate the misery.

4. It’s so not fun putting on clothes that feel like I fished them out of a swimming pool 30 seconds ago even though I just pulled them out of the dresser drawer.

5. Damp footprints on the floors and carpets that feel like they were just rained on...ewww!

It really does make me wonder how people used to cope before the advent of electricity. Did they just go about their daily business reeking of mildew? Or what?

I semi-caved this month and my electricity use has about doubled. Which is to say...about 200 kWh this month instead of 100. It pains me enormously, but I just plain reached my tolerance levels for mildew, eternally damp stinky clothes, and leaving damp observable footprints on my floors.

I have used my dryer more this month than the previous 12 months combined. And...I’ve used the air conditioner about 8 days this month so far. At least long enough in the evenings to cool the bedrooms down a bit and wring some of the moisture out of the air (and the sheets).

Adding insult to injury, our air quality has been horrible this month. The weather service has issued air quality alerts several days running and they’re not kidding. I have even noticed that breathing tends to be a bit labored when trying to do anything outside. It even gets noticeable in the house when the house humidity gets into the 80+% range. Quite uncomfortable. I can’t even imagine what it must be like for people with asthma or other respiratory ailments. The humidity, of course, is what intensifies the discomfort.

Well, what’s a person to do? You know, aside from standing on the street corner with a big old sign that screams about air pollution and wasting energy and releasing all sorts of foul gunk into the air? With a face mask on. Like I have a leg to stand on when I’m running the AC and the dryer at full tilt.

Compromises, I suppose. Somewhere (I don’t remember where), yesterday, I read a blurb about such a compromise with regard to AC. As long as the air is dry, people can tolerate a much higher temperature in the house. Now, it’s true that heat doesn’t particularly bother me as long as the air is tolerably dry. And mildew doesn’t thrive in dry air regardless of heat...soooo....

The suggestion offered was using a dehumidifier and a ceiling fan (or other fan) for air circulation.

I dragged out my dehumidifier this morning and plugged it it. The relative humidity in the house was 87%. Pretty uncomfortable. Within a few hours, it had decreased to 56%. The house temp stayed constant at about 79°, but actually felt much cooler than before.

I have the house humidity down to about 52% now and that’s about perfect. I set the dehumidifier dial back a bit so that it only cycles on a couple of times an hour and, so far, the humidity has stayed constant in the house (and it’s drizzling/misting/fogging out with 100% humidity)...using way less electricity than if the AC was on.

Besides that...I can dry clothes on the clothes rack in the house, saving an additional 2-4 kWh per load.

So, I’m calculating that between the AC and the dryer, I’m saving about 12-14 kWh each day that I’m not using them both. The dehumidifier uses (according to my kill-a-watt meter) about 3.8 kWh for a day’s use (about 10 hours). That’s a pretty significant difference while still maintaining comfort and utility (drying clothes sans dryer or mildew...and eliminating mildew altogether). Total daily net savings is about 8.2-10.2 kWh. And that, of course, is not every day of the month...just the most egregiously humid ones....hahaha....when haven’t they been lately?

It’s not a perfect solution, but, in this foul, wretched climate, it is definitely a comfortable and much less energy intensive one.

A few words about....

Sunday, 7:37 pm

Jul

20

2008

Our sweet Annie over at A Canyon Cottage presented me with this little award a couple of days ago. It’s called the Arte y Pico and she thought I was worthy. I thank you, Annie.

Now. According to the rules....

1) You must pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, based upon creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogger community, no matter what language.
2) Each award must have the name of the author with a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Award-winners must show the award and put the name and link to the blog that awarded it.
4) Award-winners and the one who has given the prize must show the link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) These rules must be included in your post.

So I will list five blogs that I think deserve a spotlight for their various contributions to the blogging world and the larger world. I would not ask that they participate simply because I think they are way too busy and...I doubt if they read my humble little blog anyway. ;) Nevertheless…

1. Casaubon’s Book - run by the inimitable Sharon Astyk who, with humor, style, and intelligence, has made Doing Something About and Planning For the coming privations of Peak Oil a raison d’être rather than just an interesting side note. She is such a fount of knowledge and wisdom that she could write a book—which she has.

2. Little Blog in the Big Woods - how could I not love a guy who has lived off-grid for 31 years and has a huge outhouse which he makes sound classy and fun? He’s verrry smart.

3. Eco-Compass Blog - a blog associated with Island Press, which publishes a number of environmental books each year. Not yer average tree-hugger types, though I obviously have nothing against tree-huggers. ;) The blog publishes a diverse array of essays concerning environmental issues. Some really fine thinkers over there.

4. Crunchy Chicken - because who else could possibly make switching from toilet paper to washable cloths sound so logical and sensible...and stylish? I also wonder how she manages to pack as much into a day as she does with all that’s going on in her life. Crunchy is an amazing woman who does good things.

5. Moleskinerie - ostensibly about Moleskine notebooks, they still manage to pack in a lot of other stuff as well. Designed for the paper and pen obsessed...with pretty pictures, too. They feed the addiction. No, really...it’s not a bad addiction is it??