My sister has lived out of town for most of her adult life.
She married the ‘boy next door’, they purchased a home, and had two daughters.
Naturally, in order to see my extended family, it meant that I would need to travel there or they would need to travel here. So we’ve done it both ways. Most of the trips are made during college holidays for the sake of her children, plus for the sake of my getaway schedule. During the summer time getaway, they regularly come north to my home. Their summers in the south are sweltering. And even though our northern summers seem hot enough for our liking, they all suppose that our weather conditions is cool, and our house has central a/c, plus ceiling fans. I’ve noticed that once our dwelling has four more bodies in it, the a/c and ceiling fans are running much more steadily than normal. I got to thinking about the reason for this. Once I googled the question ‘how much heat does one human body emit?’, I ended up learning about Btu’s and what that means for central a/c. One Heating and Air Conditioning website stated that “on average, a sedentary person will add 500 Btu’s per hour to a home, whether it’s hot or chilly outside”. In addition, if people are using PCs, lights, etc., there are extra Btu’s to consider. Once I understood the reason for the non-stop running of the a/c and fans, I started thinking about the added cost to my utility bill. I’m no Scrooge, even though I am careful of how my money is being spent – or wasted. In the end, I decided to adjust my thermostat by one degree – warmer, that is. I figured that these southerners were used to the heat anyway!