return of the aircon

So this weekend I rediscovered the sheer, unbridled joy of running my air conditioner.

Over the last 3 or 4 years my aircon unit has pretty much just sat there, taking up space, because we've not had the weather to justify using it. However, last week it was rather warm and then all forecasts pointed to it being properly hot over the weekend.

After I got back from the shops on Saturday morning I therefore attached the hose and its fitting, which take the hot air outside, and fired her up on Saturday morning. God, it was glorious.

I ran the aircon continuously all day Saturday and Sunday and was super cool. On Saturday it even got to the stage where I was turning the temperature setting up, because I was actually starting to feel a little cold. I think this was because, while was pretty warm, it wasn't as hot as it can be.

When I bought the aircon it was because it was consistently into the mid-to-high thirties and it was staying warm all night. It was also horrendously humid, which is the thing that really kills me. However, this last weekend I think it only just got into the thirties, which is hot, don't get me wrong, but it's not the sorts of temperatures where my aircon struggles to keep my bedsit cool.

Indeed, I was able to keep the internal doors open and keep the entire bedsit cool, where I remember when I first got it I had to close all the doors just to keep my main sleeping/living room cool.

I also remember that as soon as it was switched off, the room instantly heated back up, whereas this last weekend, the room stayed fairly cool for quite a while afterwards.

That's one of the downsides - as soon as you turn it off, the room starts to warm up again. I think a big part of it is because the bricks heat up in the sun during the day, so in the evenings they release a lot of heat. Certainly it's warmer than outside temperatures would suggest it should be.

So why don't I leave it on overnight? Well, it's extremely noisy. I always find it difficult to sleep when there's noise - the small fan in my PVR can keep me up, so think what it's like when I've got the aircon going. And it's also very drying - the cooling also comes with dehumidifying effects, and while I don't like humidity, that sort of extreme drying can give me very dry eyes, which is very uncomfortable.

Still, I'm more than happy to put up with these effects while I'm awake, especially when it makes my room so pleasantly cool.