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 school holidays for the sake of her children, as well as for the sake of my vacation schedule. During the summer vacation, they always 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 think that our climate is cool. Our home has central air conditioning, as well as ceiling fans. I’ve noticed that once our house has four more bodies in it, the air conditioning 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 reading about Btu’s and what that means for central air conditioning. One HVAC website stated that “on average, a sedentary person will add 500 Btu’s per hour to a home, whether it’s hot or cold outside”. In addition, if people are using computers, lights, etc., there are extra Btu’s to consider. Once I understood the reason for the non-stop running of the air conditioner and fans, I started thinking about the added cost to my utility bill. I’m no Scrooge, but 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!