My Heat-ed Situation

Two weekends ago the air conditioning unit in my apartment started malfunctioning on a Friday. So there was no AC at all during the weekend and minimal cooling after that. The building management informed me that I will need a completely new unit and then installed one mobile AC unit in the living room. I swear that thing was the size of an old-school R2D2 unit.



However, on the first day, whatever cooling air came out the top of it was immediately overpowered by the pizza-oven-hot air coming out the vent in the back.(it still needed to be vented to the outside.) So let's just say, I was miserable in my apartment for a few days. My brain cells ran away and hid, I had no energy, and I actually looked forward to going to work every day because of the constant AC going on there. Now, that's sad, right?

That right vent is the devil!

Update: I realized I forgot to mention that I live on the third floor (heat rises) and my living room ceilings are 13 feet high (again heat rises) and that is a lot of space for one droid AC unit to cool.

The only thing I was able to do when I got home was try to move as little as possible, turn off all the lights, eat Popsicles, and hover over the unit while avoiding the waves of heat from its' backside.

However, by Day 7 a temporary solution was achieved by the apartment management company, and I had two correctly installed units in place.



Here is the improved installation of the little DeLonghi Pinguino (Penguin, get it?) unit in the bedroom, complete with baby blue Tyvek paper over the two windows, a proper hose, and no further use of my personal bathroom towels. It's a bit weird living inside a room that glows blue in the daylight (see below) but it's better than the former 'sweating on top of my sheets before passing out' that was messing with my sleep a while ago.

Daytime with interior lights out*

The Danby Premiere

This is the better situation in the living room. Though there is no access to fresh air, at least here I can still open the curtains and raise the blinds to get some sun. However, in the bedroom, both sunlight and fresh air are out of the question until the replacement ceiling unit is installed.

And guess what? Since these two have been installed, Richmond has just had some of the best cool weather and beautiful, breezy nights. Figures.

* Does this remind anyone of the escape from the quarantined house scene in E.T?