A Lesson In Thermodynamics?

[dr_phil_physics]

I Saw This Coming

Friday I knew that the heat and humidity would soak in for the Fourth of July weekend. Also clear skies, so for those playing outside and picnicking and grilling and driving -- it could be a good deal. And while it got hot, the heat in West Michigan was shy of the triple digits which the Atlantic coast was moving into.

But Friday it was still pleasant enough -- still dry and about 86°F. And when I got out of class before 2pm on Friday and headed back to my office in Everett Tower, at the second floor I was hit with a lot of cold air. See, they tend to shut down the A.C. over summer weekends. So was someone trying to chill the place down to compensate for the upcoming hot summer three-day weekend?

Well, it didn't work.

Uh-ugh...

Tuesday was Monday this week. (grin) And already in the upper 80s in the morning when I rolled into Kalamazoo. And Everett Tower? Hot, hot, hot. And muggy. Whenever the A.C. was put on, it had barely made a dent in the heat which had soaked into the building over the long weekend.

I have a small 5" Radio Shack 120VAC computer cooling fan behind me on a bookshelf plugged into a switch block that I use for keeping the air moving in my office. It made little difference this morning. Usually I leave the computers on while I teach class, but I shut everything down while I was out. Not so much that I was worried about cooking the computers as not really needing any more waste heat into a small closed office.

By about 4pm, I'd found one room that was almost comfortable -- the Men's room on the second floor. Not the most useful place. I used to have a digital thermometer in my office, but it's in use elsewhere. But I doubt that by the time I'd left at 5pm that my office had dropped below 80°F. So you can imagine what it must've been some five, six hours earlier.

Not quite at the level of the sorority house during the 2004 Clarion workshop. (evil melted grin) There I was dealing with temps in my room around 97°F with 97% humidity -- at midnight. But closed up offices don't need to be hot, humid and miserable.

I can only hope the university saved a fortune on their electric bill -- and didn't lose it on replacing any equipment which cooked itself.

Dr. Phil

Comments

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine was very interested - to the point of putting down earnest money - on a foreclosure house last year during the crunch. A week before closing, they took a final tour of the house and discovered that that bank turned off the electricity to save money. It also stopped the sump pump. There was at least of foot of standing water in the finished basement. Strangely, the bank's attitude was "no problem, you can handle this after we transfer title and get your money."

My friends backed out (wisely) and the house still sits empty, a year later, with possibly toxic amounts of mold growing on the walls. Saved a lot of money there, Mr. Moneybags.

I've found that leaving the car windows open until the cold air starts coming out of the vents makes the ride far more pleasant by flushing the hot air from the ducts and getting the a/c up to speed. My father, should he ever see me do this, may have a conniption fit. lol

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

One of the great advantages of having power windows is opening all 4 windows on the Blazer while the A.C. gets up to speed. There is a large volume of hot air that can be removed from the vehicle on a hot day. Back when I had a Suburban, you could still get the electric tailgate window -- with front windows open and the tailgate window down, the hot air just rolled out the back as soon as you started moving. (grin)

Tell your dad that what you're doing is Good Physics.

Dr. Phil

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

He's would never ever believe that I knew anything about physics that actually was right. (He's justified in that belief.)

But the car gets cooler faster my way. It's coincidence that it's good physics. lol

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Oh, and that Bank? Don't ever have anything to do with them again. Because that is so stupid I can't believe it. I mean I'm hearing a lot of stories like that, but that doesn't make it any smarter.

Dr. Phil

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

I believe the Bank's name had a preposition in front of "America" but I could be wrong. Wouldn't deal with them ever.

I'm mystified again and again by banks holding foreclosed houses that 1) make this kind of stupid policy and 2) refuse to accept/rectify the consequences to their actions. My friends were willing to negotiate - push back the closing to allow an appropriate and complete clean up, which included tearing out paneling and dry wall, replacing the carpet and having a mold treatment done by a professional. The bank offered to pay for the removal of the carpet, nothing else. My friends bought another house, this one also empty, but not held by a bank. They got a better deal - better mortgage and larger house. Some body was smart.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

I recently heard a radio ad talking about getting foreclosed houses for ONLY $1000! In the current ridiculous financial climate, there is no way I would even open the door on a $1000 house -- my allergies would kill me. To say nothing of the fact that it no doubt had been stripped by looters of anything metal, etc.

For all the money they're losing, the Banks are amazingly resistant to dropping mortgage payments or writing off part of the loss of value due to the financial meltdown they created themselves. I mean, what's wrong with a business which claims that cutting a $400,000 mortgage down to $200,000 can't be done, even though it would be keeping it occupied and paying -- and instead goes for the foreclosure and then sells the house months later for $100,000. That happened around here recently.

Dr. Phil