CAdreaming

Northern CA
Air con? what's that?? We have NO need of it - in fact today im am freezing and need the heating on but cant bring myself to put it on - bring out the woolly jumpers!!!!

CAdreaming

Im with you on this one Coastie - im further north and its cool chilly and foggy - summer has arrived in Humboldt!!!! Bah!

RICH

For me, A/C is more about the humidity.

I can live with 80/90f, but if it is sticky, life just goes on hold. I just brought in my outside measure thingy, which told me it is 84f & 90% outside, which is relatively pleasant (dusk).

Inside, it is telling me my comfort zone is 75f & 70%, which is fine for sitting around,watching TV, but if I want to hoover or something - I'll need to crank it up, or drip all over the place!

Homeiswheretheheartis

Can't live without it, but I'm in Las Vegas and its usually around 110F this time of year. We had a heat wave a few weeks ago and it reached 117F

We have just come back from the UK and their heatwave in the low 80Fs my DD asked why we couldn't turn on the aircon She was shocked when I told her there wasn't any.

I'm so used to the high temps here now, I can't understand why people are complaining about temps in the 80Fs.

Jerseygirl

I was in LV 3 weeks ago...and yes it was hot. Although it was hot...IMO it wasn't as uncomfortable as summers in New Jersey when it reaches 100f with almost 100% humidity.

We laugh too when we read the reports in the British press of 'What a scorcher. Hotter than the Costas'....as the temps reach 80f.

Pulaski

I was talking to my mother, in Gloucester, a couple of days ago and the temperatures were over 90° and heading towards 95°.

Jerseygirl

In the sun or in the shade?

My outdoor temp in NJ earlier in the week was 105f in the shade at 6pm.

Pulaski

In the shade.... that day it was higher there than here where I live!

I have noticed for the past few days it has been hotter, much hotter from Chicago east across to New England than it is down here. It' only been above 90° a handful of times this year, and mostly the daily highs have been in the low-mid 80's since the start of June.

Yorkieabroad

Next time people start banging on about how bad the climate is in Houston, I'm gonna appoint them at this thread, cos it seems like a lot of folk have it worse in the summer than we do, and then get stiffed in the winter too

Pulaski

There's a reason why I don't live in Houston, also why I don't live in New England! ..... Nor Minnesota, Oklahoma, or Phoenix, to name just a few other cities.

Weather was a significant part of the discussion Mrs P and I had when we left New York and were looking for somewhere to put down roots. There are very few, if any, places that we could rely on to be cooler in the summer without also being significantly cooler in the winter too. And we could find milder winters, but only by accepting hotter summers.

So here we are, far enough inland to be beyond the worst excesses of hurricanes, far enough east for there to be minimal risk of tornadoes (whether shark-laden or otherwise! ) and with no history of destructive earthquakes.

Ash UK/US

We have it and I would not want to live here without it.

WEBlue

Thanks again for all the interesting input, BE people!

Many people have mentioned ceiling fans as being important in combatting the summer heat. And I assume they may also help in the winter to distribute the home's heating evenly... ?

Anyway, I've always loved the idea of ceiling fans & had in the back of my mind that we would add at least two to this house we've just bought, one in the kitchen & one in the main living area. Now however, the husband informs me that he feels the ceilings are too LOW for ceiling fans...

Are some ceilings really not high enough to install a ceiling fan? My husband is tall-ish (almost 6 feet) and the ceilings look to me to be about 7 and a half feet high. The house was built in the late 50's, if that's any help.

I've seen some fans that don't hang down very far. We just need one of those, right?

Pulaski

Firstly, your ceilings are almost certainly 8ft, or very slightly less, depending on exactly how the framing was assembled and whether you have hardwood floors which takes 3/4" off the height. I'd be surprised if they are less than 7'10".

All our rooms have 8ft ceilings, or very slightly less, and I am 6'5" ..... and we have fans in almost every room, including rooms that didn't have fans when we bought the house (but not the kitchen - see below). There are one or two where I would have to duck under the lights, but in a dining room, over the table that's a none issue, and in the living room the fan is close to the sofa, so again not really an issue. A flush mounted fan is highly unlikely to cause someone who is 6ft tall, any issues. If the fan has no lights, I'll guarantee it!

The sort of fan you need is a flush mount, with no shaft. Some have a very short shaft but need to have it, and some can be assembled with or without a shaft. Unfortunately it can be difficult to tell whether a "shaft model" can be hung without a shaft (in one case I only needed to drill four holes to make a fan work without a shaft, exactly like others by the same manufacturer), so choosing a fan that either: doesn't have a shaft, or that says it can be flush mounted/ hung without a shaft, is pretty much essential.

Some of you husband's concerns are connected to whether the fan has a light unit attached, most if not all fans can have lights, but in my experience all can be hung without (they all come with a plate that covers over the wiring if you don't install the light). Some fans come with lights, others would need a light unit purchased separately. If you don't need lights, obviously that would assuage most of your husband's headroom anxiety.

Lastly, the kitchen: Think carefully before putting a fan in the kitchen. Fans collect dust, quiet a lot of dust even in an otherwise clean house. The leading edge especially collects dust and fluff. In a kitchen there are greasy vapours. Even if you use an extractor or fan/filter (hood or OTS microwave) there's going to be more grease and moisture in the air than in any other room. This leads to a fan in a kitchen becoming a trap for grease and gunk. I have only ever owned one house with a fan in the kitchen, and I removed it a few days after buying the house - the blades were dirty and stained, and the motor casing also had greasy dirt inside and out.

[Note to Michael: Please don't ask me to fix your ceiling fan installation problems! ]

Nutmegger

Found this link, which may help, WEBlue.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?...ng_fans_basics

My only ceiling fan is in a room with a cathedral ceiling, so it is way up there. In other rooms I have either table fans or -- my favorite! -- an oscillating fan on a 4 ft stand that I use in my office. Got that one and a few table versions at yard sales.

Yorkieabroad

We use our ceiling fans all the time in the summer. They have a reversible motor for the winter, but we rarely use it...it just doesn't get cold enough to need much of a heat input anyway, apart from in our bathroom which becomes an icebox in winter for some reason.

Our ceilings are mainly 9', and we have 12" drops on the fans. I know you can get shorter rods, and also you can get "ceiling hugger" fans at do as they say. You may be able to find something that works for your rooms. I just remembered, we have an 8' ceiling in the breakfast room, and have a 12" drop rod on that, but it is over the table, so noone is walking under it.