What is your deciding factor for turning on the air conditioning?

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This old houwe is usually 10 degress cooler than the outside but the upstairs does get stuffy. If I have in-coming, I turn the A/C on low cool (old unites that do not have temp settings) in that room. We have central downstairs and may run one or 2 cycles to clear humidity - mostly on a rainy day like today - but rarely need it otherwise. We have individual units for each room to control their climate.
Bree, it must be a young girl thing w/heat in winter. We had 2 student teachers our first year and I swear they must have had their baseboard heaters set to 80 or 90 so they could be in their rooms in shorts & Ts in winter. I had an electric bill of over $300 for that 2 months (back in 1997) for basically their 2 rooms and the bathroom and our part of the house is gas heat!.
The electric company has become very aggressive about cutting trees near power lines. When my family moved here in 1960 we planted lots of sugar maples. I can remember "helping" our handy man plant the trees. We paced off the right of way and planted the saplings. In the intervening 50 years the street went from 2 lanes to 4 lanes and a high voltage line carrying juice across town was installed. The trees grew tall and full enough that not much grass grows in the front yard.
We have had two severe ice storms in the past 20 years causing power outages lasting days and days, hence the more aggressive stance of the power company. So, this spring the power company's "forester" stopped by to tell me that they woud be cutting down all 5 of the maples along the street. Because of the high voltage line, they are allowed to cut 15 feet beyond where the lines run. That certainly wasn't a consideration 50 years ago.
I cried. I guess that shocked him, so he promised that they would try to prune the trees in front of the house, (like they had been doing in the past), and I agreed that they could cut down the trees in the side yard, which had been so pruned in the past that there wouldn't be much left afterwards). So, when the tree surgeons came, I had to fight to keep the ones in the front yard. They ended up taking one of the three and pruning two. So. I had the remains of two trees out of 5, and thought I had seen the last of them. 2 days later, the big orange trucks came back. Their supervisor wasn't happy with their work, so they proceeded to take another tree and leave me with 1/2 of a tree.
The power company offered to pay me $100 per tree, but I declined, because I thought that would make me complicit in the whole affair. I put in two replacement trees at $300 each (I wanted trees a little more mature than saplings so I might actually see them get big before I die). Its like losing old friends. The newspaper interviewed me, and, after the fact, a local group has formed to fight the power company. I guess the problem is that in some cases the pruners go farther than the easement and don't get permission. Apparently they can add what they estimate as 5 years growth after pruning to the amount they take, so that's why they came back the second time.
I really can't see that I have any legal leg to stand on, because of that 15 foot rule, but pictures of my property are being used by this "fight the utilities" group. To add insult to injury, my power was out for over an hour the weekend after I lost my trees!
The reason I'm replying to the air conditioning thread is because now that the trees are gone, it's been almost impossible to keep the upstairs cool. My electric bill that reflected only one week of no trees was $50 higher and the a/c units ran 24hrs/day with temps in the front of the house never getting below 75! Guess I'll have to look into an attic fan.
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Mature maple trees can be valued by an insurance company at over $20,000 just for the aesthetics. Each. We have an ash tree I do not like. We call it by its Latin name: Gutterus Plugerus. But it shades the house very nicely so it stays put.
I feel sorry for you and the loss of your trees. Especially trees you planted and watched grow and then to be lied to and insulted to boot. It's awful.
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Watch your ash tree for the emerald ash borer. It has invaded and is killing ash trees - sort of like the chestnut blight. Wisconsin is having a lot of problems with it. We have ads on the radio warning not to take any wood from the county where it has been found and you are not allowed to bring wood in. If camping, you are to use local wood and burn all of it or leave it behind. They are being very aggressive in attempting to keep it srom spreading. This is not a joke.
When we were in Illinois a jerk being chased by the cops drove through our mature hedges, through the yard, across our driveway, and into the hedges on the other side. Fortunately I had worked later that morning so the car was not there. The insurance paid enough for thoe hedges for us to take a trip with the kids - probably about $500. I cannot remember how much exactly but we took many a trip with the beasts kids for about $500.
 
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