When I was a kid, really few people in the neighborhood had any style of air conditioner for their homes… Living in the far northern section of the country, air conditioner is a luxury rather than a necessity, at that time, there weren’t several opportunities for portable air conditioners & the centralized cooling wasn’t at all energy efficient! Buying, installing & running an air conditioner was a big expense, my family had a window air conditioner that was so big & heavy, it required 2 people to lift it into the window; To maximize the benefits of the single unit, it was placed in the window of our kitchen.
My kitchen was located at the end of the hallway, providing a straight shot for the cool air to reach the rest of the house.
Because of this, I was required to leave our kitchen door open at all times, but i was also forced to rearrange our furniture to accommodate the air conditioner. The unit only gave a single speed. There was no option to adjust output. It simply blasted at maximum capacity at all times & our kitchen was chilly cold; During the middle of July, I slept in long pants, a sweatshirt & used an electric heated blanket. I kept a tote positioned under the air conditioner to catch the constant drip of condensate. The operation was so loud, it was nearly impossible to sleep through the noise. I hated that air conditioner. As an adult, I was never interested in any style of air conditioner for our home. I was not overly cheerful when our hubby surprised me with a window air conditioner for Mother’s Day, however, it didn’t take long to change our opinion. This week’s cooling units are charmingly compact, lightweight & quiet. The system offers all sorts of adjustment possibilities. I can set our favorite room temperature, raise or lower the speed of the fan, set it to automatically turn on & off & even customize the direction of airflow.