Wed, 2008/11/12 - 7:28pm
A topic to move off-topic comments into.
Tue, 2008/11/11 - 6:47pm
#2
Seeds packed to go - post office reopens tomorrow. No need for chile seeds, thanks - our hot pepper needs are met by a 5 cent jalapeño on even-numbered years... I just could not eat New Mex-Mex cooking. 
Sounds like your temps should be fine for the lettuces!
Urk. Good luck with getting the place better insulated! My place is about the same sf, in a much colder climate, and costs $100/mo for heat & hot water & cooking (year round - the gas company does a budget plan to spread out the pain). When I moved in, though, the electricity bill for two weeks knocked me flat - $140 for two weeks - and, to add insult to injury, my bedroom was still too hot to sleep in. 
Fortunately, a little TLC on the furnace, plus a couple strategic Coolaroo sunshades, lopped that in half.
Tue, 2008/11/11 - 7:45pm
#3
So you have nat gas heat and refrigerated air, Gisette? Living in the SW all my life I'm pretty naive. I can't relate to oil furnaces or blubber but can relate to air conditioning in Austin where the humidity is about 200%. In west Texas and NM the humidity is so dry we use swamp coolers to keep things cool and cheap. Now and then the humidity gets up above 40% or so and the cooling goes to heck but very seldom. Our computer and media rooms pull most of the electricity, probably a steady 1.5 KWH but all we use gas for is hot water, cooking and heat. The heat is killing us, going from $25 in the summer to $250 in the winter.
Funny, the electric company is begging us to use swamp coolers to conserve electricity and the water dept is giving rebates to switch to refrigerated air to save a few gallons of water. They don't care it would cost about four times as much.
We're getting rebates from both the electric company and water works to go energy efficient. It'll cost about $12K to replace things and add insulation but we'll get almost $1500 back in rebates, not to mention the lower utility bills.Our new front load washer sucks but the new dryer is great.
Peat, what do you Poms use? Hope that's not a bad term, a friend says it.......
Tue, 2008/11/11 - 10:23pm
#4
Yes, natural gas furnace + A/C compressor, central system. Most of the AC system is actually in the furnace, counterintuitively. 
The furnace fan drives the house air circulation, and the cooling coils (where household air is actually cooled), are in there, too. Pretty standard for condo's around here, and common for houses as well. CT is moderately damp - about 4-5" rain a month, all year. Stunningly fertile, northeastern deciduous forest. People displace it. It pushes back. And a lot of marshes and lakes, right here on the shoreline.
Is there any way to get a swamp cooler to recycle more water, or is it expended in evaporation = the cooling?
I had a water-based air conditioner in an apartment in Colorado for a couple months. I don't remember ever using air conditioning in Colorado, though... In Dallas, of course, it was a necessity. My sister lives in Houston... There you run the AC just to wring the water out of the air. It can't ever keep up, though.
Wed, 2008/11/12 - 1:41pm
#5
LOL, I guess the term Pom can be countered by the term yank? The 'pom' term is an alternative word for the British, mostly used by the Australians.
We use a combination of gas and electricity, where I live (in the South East) of the country, we get warmer summers and colder winters. Nothing compared with your heat though.
I can relate to the dry heat. We toured the US about 8 years ago, one of the places we visited was Death Valley in Arizona. The car registered a temperature of (116 degrees F) - that was hot. We stayed in a place called Furnace Creek - it was aptly named, when you stepped out of your air conditioned room, you were met with this heat - just like a blast furnace. Strangely though, it was bearable because there was very little humidity.
Our temperatures now are around 59F during the day, dropping down to just above freezing at night.
Wed, 2008/11/12 - 5:13pm
#6
We had a delightful Aussie spend a week with us during the Albuquerque balloon fiesta years ago, I'm a commercial pilot and used to love it. She brought a suitcase full of primo Australian wines and gave us a great time. We talked about everthing under the sun and she mentioned the term Pom and explained why but never said it in a derogatory manner. If it is, I apologize.
I hate to say but I've traveled the world very little and love to get other insights on things. The BBC is on my TV list and gives me a more worldly view on things but I never quite got some of the dry British humor beyond Benny Hill and his ladies.
Wouldn't it be nice if all our governments talked like this.... I had no idea your temps and ours are so similar (for now) and that we all pretty much use the same energy. How are your utility bills?
I'm getting way off topic and would ask that we introduce ourselves in the Welcome Mat just so we know about each other. I'll start and know I will be amazed at what you guys do and have done.
Wed, 2008/11/12 - 5:59pm
#7
Only an Aussie would know that term, no worries. 
I have to keep converting my temperatures to yours, we use celsius so the quick way is to double the celsius value and add 30. There is a good formula, but I can't do that in my head!
One of our favorite restaurants over here is called Santa Fe, Mexican and South American food - thoroughly enjoyable. We always end up here when shopping at this particular centre. 
What was that you said about wandering off topic...
Wed, 2008/11/12 - 7:48pm
#8
Yeah... I know I started it, but... Please stay on topic. There is no mechanism for moving comments - I have to fall down to directly editing the SQL database.
Which is dull. I'd rather be gardening.
Wow, that looks nice! Please send a little of both and I'll reciprocate with chile seeds, maybe you can help me figure them out. I have a couple of 50 Rapid Rooter trays and plenty of space for them around the AGs and in the tent. The house is around 72* year round but we have our bouts of high and low temps. I have the winter thermostat drop back to 60* at night and sometimes it goes down there or farther.
We have roofers and insulators coming at 7:30 in the morning so maybe we won't have so much expense soon and not so much temp swing. It's an old 1450 sf pueblo house built around 1950 with a flat roof and I'm sure NO insulation. Our utility bill runs about $400 a month in the winter and I hope taking what's left of my investment account will cut that in half. The best part is that it's paid for, tho.