Extreme Rural Living

[Alan L.]

I haven't seen these TV shows. All I know is that the biggest thing I would miss 150 years ago is the air conditioning. I would just have to move somewhere it does not get hot. You could warm a house, but you couldn't cool one.

I can take the Texas heat working in - you just sweat to the bone and deal with it. What I don't like is lounging in the heat, or trying to sleep at night in the heat.

I am very hot natured - anything over 70 is uncomfortable to me. We set our thermostat on 60 every night when we go to bed, plus we run a box fan and the ceiling fan. This is 12 months a year. Many times we have run the A/C when its in the 40s outside, because my "barn" is so well insulated, but with sparse windows, that its hard to get the outside air in.

My A/C guy thinks I'm crazy for putting a 3-ton unit to cool 879 square feet, but I don't regret it, as its 68 in here (or whatever I want) when its 105 outside.

He did have to make some modifications, installing a head pressure switch that keeps the outside fan from coming on until a certain head pressure it reached. This is to keep it from freezing up.

I guess I would have to be a pioneer in the mountains of Colorado - not in Texas.

 

[pajoube]

You would do well in Montana where it drops to 40 at night (even in summer) and is very dry so a swamp cooler works very well.PJ

 

[Bird]

Sounds like we have a lot in common, Alan. I don' t like the heat and never have, but I can stand it and work outside all day (and just about did today, too/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif) as long as I can shower and sleep cool at night. I don't think we turn our a/c quite as cold as you do, but sure want it below 70 and I'd sure hate to do without that ceiling fan right over my bed.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

My wife and I thourghly enjoyed the show. How the folks evolved to the conditions and their enviroment.

I felt a sense of loss for each of them - paradise lost! They looked so out of place back in the real world. I think the lucky ones were the applicants that didn't get chosen, they didn't have to leave a place that they poured themselves into......