My Green Freak

F.A.Q.'S

I've had a few questions lately about our AC misters and rainwater collection tank. Instead of answering them individually, I thought I'd post on here for everyone. 

What do the misters on the AC actually do?  My understanding is that the water from the misters evaporates off the hot coils and removes heat which allows the compressor motor to not work as hard. When the compressor doesn't work as hard, it doesn't use as much electricity.

Why doesn't the water in our rainwater tank get all gunky and attract mosquitos? Well, actually it does get gunky and since the tank is a clear transparent color it does grow algae. If it were a darker color and/or protected from the sun, it woudn't grow algae. Supposedly, you can put a capful of bleach in the water to kill the algae and stop any smell if there is any but Jason hasn't tried that yet. Instead, Jason just cleans it out every couple of months. As far as mosquitos go, there is a screen at the opening that keeps leaves and stuff out of the tank as well as not allowing mosquitos to get in to lay the eggs.

If you have any other questions, please let me know! I am in no way an expert on any of these things but am happy to relay what I have learned by asking Jason your questions.

Oops.

Even when Jason isn't home, things can get weird around here. He called me from school today and asked me to turn on the water faucet outside.

Umm...okay...but what for?

"For the misters," he says.

Completely unbeknownst to me, it turns out we have misters set up on the air conditioner unit. 

I'm not exactly sure why that is actually. I guess if you keep the unit cool, then your house is cooler? That seems to make sense I guess. He regularly keeps the a/c turned up pretty high during the day, especially on days when we're not home. I can be dripping of sweat for hours inside and he could care less, but let's make sure the a/c unit doesn't get too hot.

But I can still get behind this idea if it helps keep the house cooler. I do wonder why the hose has to be left in a pile in front of the house instead of hanging from one of those nice contraptions made to hold hoses.

That's okay though. He probably won't be asking for my help again. He's already convinced that things break when I simply look at them. Well...all I did was turn on the faucet. Really.

But somehow his contraption broke today sometime between the time I turned on the faucet and the time I turned it off. So instead of misting the a/c today, it pretty much just flooded the ground. Oops.

I wonder if I should tell him or just wait to see if he reads this?

In response to your comments yesterday:
Someone asked about freezing the suet before putting it in the feeder. It actually was frozen. Just shows you how hot it is in Texas...and how that seed cake recipe still needs a little more work.