PSA of the Week

You know how some people insist on pushing the same button you just pushed in the elevator? At least there's been enough eye-rolling about that for people to know they don't have to do it. It doesn't stop them, but they do have the decency to shoot you a sheepish look for doing it (as well they should, as they are outrageously maligning your button-pressing skills).

Great, so people know that repeatedly pushing the button won't make the elevator move any faster. So why do they think that setting the air conditioner temp to "frigid" will cool down the house any faster?

Listen up, folks. Unless you have some highfalutin fancy-schmancy space age A/C unit, this is how it works. Cold air blows until the unit registers a certain temperature -- maybe 1 degree less than the temperature you've selected. Then it turns itself off until the temperature in the house rises to, say, 1 degree above the selected temperature, when it starts running again. And that's it.

So if it's 84 in my house and I have the A/C set to 78, guess what? The air conditioning will keep running and running and running in an attempt to reach 78. This being the summer and the temperature outside being 190 and my A/C apparently running inefficiently (repair dude on his way as I type), this will never happen.

Now, look, you wanna set it to -30 degrees in your own house, woohoo for you. That's your business. Once the A/C is running continuously, turning the temp down won't make your house cool off any faster (I promise you it will not), but who am I to judge?

But you know what happens when you are in my house and you sneak over to MY controls and turn it down to 60 when I'm not looking? Huh? DO YOU?

I wake up at 3 a.m. WITH MY TEETH CHATTERING because, after 10 hours of running continuously, the A/C finally managed to catch up and icicles have formed in my hair and penguins are congregating in my living room and all my liquor has frozen!