Thermostat War

Power was restored this evening at 8:30pm (a 50 hour outage).  Just in time as the house had hit 82 degrees.  It reminded me of growing up without airconditioning.  Days were filled with swimming at the community pool and going to the movie theater.  Evenings were spent sitting in front of the fan.  The car had the model 450 airconditioner - four windows down at 50 miles per hour. 

Grandma had a window water cooler at her house in Stillwater Oklahoma. Since most of the family visits were in the summer, there were plenty of days we spent in her family room on the couch just under that window unit. 

It is amazing the difference a few degrees (and the conditioned humidity) provides in comfort when the air in the house dropped to 79 degrees (two hours later).  Interestingly comfort is more relative to the differential of outside to inside temperatures.  Even though 78 degrees should be the optimum comfort to energy consumption cost setting - our household is a different story. 

In fact thermostat settings are a family battleground (covert warfare and passive/aggressive behavior).  I haven't resorted yet to the corporate plastic locked covers - but my "ordering" the girls to keep their hands off the thermostat isn't working.
The programable  thermostat features work in my favor since the girls don't know how to program the themostat. Consequently I have an automated agent helping fight the war by restoring the temperature at designated times to my energy frugality setting. 

At least for the last 50 hours the household was at peace - now it's back to the battlefields.