Air Conditioners

The Annapolis Public Housing Authority's board will vote Thursday on a plan to ban some window air conditioning units in three of the city's housing complexes in order to comply with federal and local safety standards — a proposal that many residents are rallying against. Carl Snowden, chairman of the board, said he plans to vote for the ban, which would affect about 344 apartments in Robinwood, Newtowne 20 and Eastport Terrace, because the units pose a serious safety issue. Snowden said the city fire marshall and federal housing policy requires at least two emergency exits in the case of a fire or other emergency.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America released information on what consumers need to know about flood insurance: Regular homeowner's insurance covers damage from a storm, but not  from flooding. You need to buy a policy from the National Flood Insurance Program to protect your house and property. (You can buy it through an insurance agent.) Flood insurance covers physical losses from flood or flood-related erosion caused by waves or currents. The typical policy covers structural damage and damage to to air conditioners, furnaces, water heaters and any clean-up required.

Baltimore County Police say they arrested a man on the Fourth of Jjuly in connection with the theft of six air conditioners from apartments in Loch Raven Villlage. The incident occurred in the 1700 block of Aberdeen Road, at about 4:37 a.m. July 4, according to police reports.. Six air conditioning units were stolen from Loch Raven Village Apartments, and all were later recovered. Police said Derrick Navon Edmondson, 32 of the 1700 block of Edgewood Road, was arrested and charged with second degree burglary.

Summer 2012 may have been the coolest in three years, but you nevertheless have likely paid slightly more to cool your house than you did a year earlier. The number of cooling degree days tallied so far this year is slightly ahead of where they were a year ago, at 1,505 versus 1,491 last year. Degree days are a measure of heating or cooling; in the summer months, they count up the amount by which average temperatures rise above 65 degrees. So, for example, it would take 75 days with an average temperature of 85 degrees to accumulate 1,500 degree days (20 degrees, for the difference between 65 and 85, times 75 days equals 1,500)

Summer 2012 may have been the coolest in three years, but you nevertheless have likely paid slightly more to cool your house than you did a year earlier. The number of cooling degree days tallied so far this year is slightly ahead of where they were a year ago, at 1,505 versus 1,491 last year. Degree days are a measure of heating or cooling; in the summer months, they count up the amount by which average temperatures rise above 65 degrees. So, for example, it would take 75 days with an average temperature of 85 degrees to accumulate 1,500 degree days (20 degrees, for the difference between 65 and 85, times 75 days equals 1,500)

I went looking for an air conditioner part and ended up with an education.That is because I wandered into the shop of the Ed Sullivans. There are two of them, Ed the Father and the Ed the Son. They run EMCO, an air conditioning sales, service and parts shop on Canton Center Drive just behind the K mart on Northpoint Boulevard in Dundalk.The Sullivans, I found out, don't merely sell air conditioners and parts. They also pass along cooling wisdom.Take the accordions. That is name of the part I needed.

The state public safety department announced plans yesterday to spend $50,000 on two temporary air conditioners to control scorching temperatures in the city jail, where workers threatened to walk out if the system was not fixed. In letters dated yesterday to LaMont W. Flanagan, state commissioner of Pretrial Detention and Services, jail officials warned that District Court staff and city prosecutors would be pulled from Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center by week's end if conditions do not improve.

No matter how you feel about the appropriateness of air conditioning in old houses, when the temperature hits the high 90s and the humidity's not far behind, you'll probably want some relief. Even if it's just one room, maybe a bedroom, having a place to cool off will make the rest of the house seem more bearable.There's more to it than just sticking that yard sale unit in the window, however. Before you even look for an air conditioner, there are three issues you need to consider:* What size unit you should buy.* Where you will plug it in and what impact it will have on the wiring.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- In early 1995, a group of U.S. Customs Service agents in Miami noticed something unusual about the cargo records of a ship called Tropic Sea Horse.According to the ship's manifest, the vessel left Miami loaded with more shipping containers than it could carry.Agents suspected that something was going on. They learned later that many of the containers had been illegally diverted to a Miami warehouse.What the agents uncovered was an elaborate smuggling scheme for a new kind of contraband known as "R-12," the ozone-depleting chemical refrigerant commonly known as "Freon."

WASHINGTON - The air conditioners that are cooling downtown office buildings are also making sweltering city streets even hotter. Anyone who's felt the hot blast of an air conditioner's exhaust knows how that happens, but preliminary findings of new research suggest that the waste heat from air conditioners can add as much as 2 degrees to outdoor urban temperatures. For cities already suffering elevated temperatures because of hot roofs, hot pavement and little greenery, using air conditioners makes matters worse, if only for those not cooled by them.

Record-breaking heat fueled severe storms that swept across parts of Maryland on Wednesday. Though not an official record-keeping location, Maryland Science Center reached 107 degrees, tying the hottest mark ever recorded in Baltimore, on July 10, 1936. At that time, weather records were kept at the U.S. Custom House downtown, but the point of record for Baltimore moved in 1950 to what is now Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. BWI, meanwhile, reached a high of 104, breaking the previous official record for July 18, set in 1887 at 102. That had been Baltimore's longest-standing high-temperature record for July.

Tuesday is recognized as the birthday of air conditioning -- be thankful this year, because you'll need it. Willis Carrier, an engineer in Buffalo, N.Y., is credited with planning a device to regulate heat and humidity in a Brooklyn printing plant. He drafted the plans for the device July 17, 1902. Carrier patented the invention four years later, and in 1915, he and six colleagues formed the Carrier Engineering Corp. The device contained a spray nozzle originally designed for insecticide and it controlled both temperature and humidity.

Baltimore County Police say they arrested a man on the Fourth of Jjuly in connection with the theft of six air conditioners from apartments in Loch Raven Villlage. The incident occurred in the 1700 block of Aberdeen Road, at about 4:37 a.m. July 4, according to police reports.. Six air conditioning units were stolen from Loch Raven Village Apartments, and all were later recovered. Police said Derrick Navon Edmondson, 32 of the 1700 block of Edgewood Road, was arrested and charged with second degree burglary.

The first full day of summer turned up the heat another notch Thursday, with a high temperature of 100 degrees tying a record set in 1923. Thermometers hit triple digits at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport at 4:05 p.m. Cities along the East Coast set records as a massive high-pressure system continued to hang over the eastern third of the country. It was the first time BWI had reached 100 degrees since July 29 of last year. On Wednesday, temperatures neared the mark but topped out at 98 degrees at the airport.

The parent company of Harborside Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, which faced state sanctions for air-conditioning failures more than two years ago, has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to court documents. Ravenwood Healthcare Inc., based in Baton Rouge, La., listed $10 million to $50 million in liabilities and the same amount of assets, according to documents filed late last week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of Louisiana.

Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. says it has taken several steps to improve performance after angering PeakRewards customers when air conditioners were cycled off for up to nine hours during a scorching day in July. BGE, which is scheduled to explain its performance before the Maryland Public Service Commission this month, says it has improved training for call center operators, upgraded its technology and implemented better communication tools. The utility outlined the improvements in a report it submitted this week to the commission, which will evaluate PeakRewards and other utilities' energy-saving programs in light of the incident.

Cash for Appliances just got cooler. Starting Friday, Marylanders can apply for $500 rebates on new central air conditioners under the popular federal program backed by stimulus dollars. State officials announced Monday that they plan to extend rebates to purchases of energy-efficient models in four new categories. State residents replacing old appliances also will be able to apply for $500 rebates on air-source heat pumps, $100 for freezers and $25 for room air conditioners.

One of the coolest Mays on record in Baltimore slipped away overnight after leaving Maryland's air conditioners mercifully silent for a month. That could change by this weekend, when temperatures are expected to climb into the high 70s and 80s. And the summer ahead could still be a scorcher, even though climatologists say they're expecting near-normal temperatures and rainfall. May, at least, will go down in Baltimore's weather books as having mostly dry, sunny days, with temperatures averaging 59 degrees.

Ratepayers are steamed at Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. for turning off air conditioners in thousands of homes on July 22, the hottest day in 75 years. Their outrage, however, is misdirected. Blame for this indoor heat wave lies with the government in Annapolis, not with a utility in Baltimore. BGE customers were left without climate control in 110-degree heat because politicians don't trust their constituents with the thermostat. Hot days are a threat to reliable electricity service because surges in the use of energy-intensive air conditioners can overwhelm the grid.

Baltimore Gas and Electric runs one of the most aggressive programs in the country to shut down customers' air conditioners on days when electricity is scarce and the grid is stressed. BGE households found out how aggressive on Friday. On one of the hottest days in recorded Baltimore history, 72,000 residences were without air conditioning for at least six hours. BGE also used its radio-controlled switches to partially cut air conditioning for an additional 278,000 homes. Many customers said they were entirely without air conditioning from late morning until after 8 p.m. on a day when the official temperature hit 106 and the air pollution index blew past the "unhealthy for certain groups" zone and into "unhealthy for everybody" territory.