Temperature thermostat is set to: 78°
Status of air conditioner: running
WTF.
Owing to the really poor design of the duct system, and the fact that I'm in here with the computer on, my room is probably 3-5° warmer than the rest of the house is. It's cooler than 77° in the rest of the house than it is at the thermostat. I have a fan blowing air from the cooler parts of the house into the hallway where the thermostat is, and still....
I understand that there is some hysteresis built into the typical thermostat; this keeps it from "hunting" and switching the furnace/AC on the instant the temperature goes past the switching point. You don't want your furnace going on when the temperature hits 69.9°, running for five minutes, and shutting off when the temp hits 70, and then doing all that again ten minutes later. So it overheats the house by a couple degrees, then shuts off; and doesn't turn on again until the house has gone a couple degrees below the switch temperature.
Ditto for AC; but the problem I have is that the AC has to run an inordinately long time to get that extra degree. It can cool the house to (say) 77° in relatively short order; but it wants the house cooled to 76° before it'll shut off, and that extra degree takes twice as long as the first one, so the thing's running three times longer than it needs to.
I'm on a freakin' budget here. I've had the thermostat at 76° when the AC was on; now I've got it at 78° and the AC is still running too much. Argh.
The idea is to get myself used to having it warm in here, of course, so I don't need to use all that damm electricity cooling the entire house, 90% of which I don't even use. I've tried closing the doors to the living room and closing the vents, but all that does is--again--make the AC run longer.
If the damn window unit worked with the new windows, I'd be doing that instead: set the house AC for 82° or so, and run the AC in my window to keep it livable in here. That would use less electricity than running the central AC all the damn time.
For the most part I can keep the temperature higher than I'd ordinarily find comfortable just by having the fan blowing on me. I'm sitting here at my computer with a reported temperature of 80° in the room and I feel fine (maybe a tad warm, but not uncomfortably so).
It looks like I can open up and ventilate with outside air in about an hour or so; but after tonight, that'll be over. At least as far as Wednesday, the lows will be in the 70s (and Monday's low is projected to be 79°!) which means humid and warm nights. That indicates to me that opening the house after the sun goes down will be, at best, counterproductive. *sigh*
So for the next week at least I'll be fretting over the AC running all the time. *sigh*
* * *
Obvious thing to do is to get a freakin' job so I don't have to pay the electric bill with money from my IRA. Shit. Well, I've gotten a start of sorts on that; and as time goes on I'll keep at it. Sooner or later I'll get something.
* * *
Managed to get out of the grocery store for under $65 this time. Well--I wasn't really out of anything except for toilet paper and bread, and I was buying things that were on sale, so that helped.
I bought a 2 lb chuck roast with a view to making beef stroganoff. It's $6 worth of fairly lean meat--the usual fat around the edges and so on--but I'll get at least two or three meals out of it, and it'll be good stuff. I'm thinking about having that for dinner tomorrow night, if I move early enough in the day to accomplish it.
* * *
It was about 10 when I went to bed last night. I had envisioned getting up at 8 AM and getting ready, then going down to Beecher to apply for that job.
I woke up at 2 AM, starving, so I had some food; I was back in bed at 3:30.
Tossed and turned until well after five, of course; so when the alarm went off at 8, I kept hitting "snooze" over and over again until it was after 9:30. I finally crowbarred myself out of bed and did what needed doing; it took about an hour for me to go to McDonald's, drive down there, fill out the application, and drive back.
I blogged and tried to play some WoW but the sandman was bludgeoning me with a sap--I ended up going to bed around 2 and sleeping until about 5-ish. Then I hit the store.
At least I did it. That's the important part; it's not like I was on some kind of schedule or something, anyway, and except for the usual retards (guy in front who can't go faster than 45 in 55 zone, guy in back tailgating me because he thinks I can make the guy in front go faster, and just won't because I'm mean) it was a pleasant drive.
* * *
Tomorrow or Sunday I've got to cut the grass. Maybe I'll wait until Monday, when it's hottest, and really make myself suffer for my procrastination. Perhaps a little negative reinforcement will help cure me of my tendency to procrastinate.
Actually I do enjoy the heat, the same way I enjoy the cold in winter: providing I can go inside a house where it's more comfortable, I don't mind at all. WTF, it's part of living on a planet with seasons, so why not enjoy it? You sure as hell can't do anything about it and complaining won't make a lick of difference.
* * *
Otherwise, there's nothing going on. As usual. It's Friday night, and due to my screwed-up sleep today I'm still tired. Guess I'll go back to bed and probably sleep for 2.1 hours again. *sigh*