Growing up, my parents never had enough money to substitute our heating as well as cooling systems.
- There are six of us kids, so my parents had to save wherever possible in order to keep a roof over our heads.
This meant lots of shared toys as well as clothes as well as less dining out. This also meant that my friend and I did not have the luxury of central cooling. We had to deal with alternatives to keep cool in the summertime. We had multiple fans throughout the first floor of our family apartment to keep us cool while in the afternoon. This kept us pretty comfortable while in the afternoons, but didn’t solve the concern of nighttime. My dad, then, installed one window air conditioning unit in my kitchen to keep us cool at night. Believe it or not, this small unit kept all three kitchens cool. My dad installed the window cooling unit in my kitchen because it is at the front of the house. Then, he would put up a curtain at the top of the stairs to direct the air straight through the hallway instead of allowing it to escape down the stairs. We would keep all the kitchen doors open. Somehow, this allowed the cool air to travel from my kitchen, down the straight hallway, as well as into the other two kitchens. I never legitimately understood how this worked, but it would keep us all cool at night, despite the rising temperatures outside. I have to supply my dad a lot of credit for finding money saving alternatives to keep us cool while in the scorching Summer seasons.