Because of the very short summer season in my area, there’s no need to invest in a central cooling system.
I’m able to handle the demands of the house with open windows, box fans and portable cooling units in the bedrooms.
Until recently, our air conditioners were extremely old. Although the units fit into the windows, they were quite bulky and heavy. I always dreaded carrying them down from the attic. The attic stairs are narrow and very steep, and I struggled to haul the air conditioners down in the spring and back up in the late fall. The hardest part was lifting the equipment up into the window. About two years ago, when I was struggling to shove an air conditioner into the window, I pushed way too hard. The frame of the window was old and slightly rotted. It gave way and the air conditioner fell through and crashed to the ground below. I was fortunate that the cooling unit didn’t land on my car. However, it did smash into a million pieces. When I checked out the options for air conditioners at the local home improvement store, I was surprised by the improvements in design over the last few years. These newer models are much more compact and lightweight, and yet provide more powerful cooling. These updated versions are also far more environmentally friendly and energy efficient. The operational sounds are much quieter, and these units offer helpful features such as humidity control, fan speed adjustment and remote access. I can link the air conditioner to an app on my smartphone. This enables me to start it up, shut it down or make changes to operation, even when I’m not in the bedroom. The new air conditioner was also reasonably priced. I was so impressed with it that I replaced all of our outdated air conditioners with new models.