We may not experience more power outages than anybody else, but sometimes it feels that way.
Just this week our area was hit with a hot, humid stretch.
No worries – I have central air conditioning in my home, as well as well as ceiling fans and a programmable thermostat. But each of these take-it-for-granted items are sorely missed within a very short time when the power goes out. This time it was midafternoon and the air conditioner had been running all day. Suddenly we heard a loud bang that sounded like a gunshot. Then – everything electrical stopped working. In the back of my mind I was hoping that the power would be restored within the hour. The thermostat registered seventy four degrees at the time of the outage. How hot could things get? At least there were six hours of daylight remaining, so there was no need for lights. The best thing to do was to sit tight and hope for the best. My husband called the utility company, and the representative said that a serviceman would be there within four hours. The humidity slowly returned to the house, although the thermostat indicated that the temperature wasn’t rising by much. A recall the explanation that air conditioners aren’t really producing cold air. The truth is that they actually remove the humidity. An HVAC system has an evaporator coil that condenses water vapor from the air. This occurs when hot, moist air in the home comes into contact with the cold evaporator coil. The liquid is then condensed out of the air, and goes to an outside drain. Thanks to an awesome utility repairman, our power was restored within four hours.