Air Conditioning

This summer's sweltering heat wave made many homeowners long for central air-conditioning - a luxury in a city where most houses were built before the World War II. These older homes typically use steam or hot-water radiators for heat and are built of solid brick or stone, which makes it difficult and costly to install the bigger, 12-by-28-inch sheet-metal ducts used for conventional central air-conditioning systems. Many all-electric homes built in the '50s and '60s have a similar problem because they were built with radiant baseboard heat.

The Philadelphia School District said that Potter Thomas Promise Academy SLAM (Summer Learning and More) site will be closed today because of a problem with the air conditioning system. The school is scheduled to reopen Thursday.

A four-alarm fire that caused about $500,000 in damage early Friday to the Llanerch Country Club in Haverford Township was caused by a malfunction in an air-conditioning unit in the clubhouse ballroom, a county official said. George Lewis, Delaware County Fire Marshal who investigated the fire, said it erupted about 1:45 a.m. in the back of the ground-floor ballroom and engulfed a wooden structure surrounding the air-conditioning unit before spreading to areas next to the ballroom.

Come what may in the waning weeks of summer, most of the Philadelphia region and the rest of the nation are armed to the teeth against an outbreak of heat and humidity. Philadelphia may not be in a climatic league with Houston or Miami, but in the eight-county area two of three homes have air conditioning, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Philadelphia-area figures are comparable to national figures. Not surprisingly, the highest concentration of air conditioning is in the Southern United States, where more than 85 percent of homes have central air conditioning or window air conditioners.

Question: The ducts for our central air-conditioning run through the attic and the registers are in the ceiling. It seems that cold air comes out of them in the winter. Is the chilly breeze my imagination? Answer: It most likely is not your imagination. The air inside the air-conditioning ducts in your attic gets cold and becomes dense. Since it is heavier than the air inside your room, it drops down and you feel it. This can create a substantial energy loss and make you uncomfortable.

In 1949, Harold E. Stassen, then president of the University of Pennsylvania, faced a tough decision. The Dietrich family (Ludens cough drops) had provided money to help finance construction of a new Wharton School building. The question was: Should it be air-conditioned? Systems that cooled the air indoors were fairly common even then. The U.S. Capitol had been air-conditioned in 1920, and New York's Rockefeller Center in 1932. But money for university expansion was tight in the immediate postwar years.

The Council Rock school board Monday night just said no to a $3.5 million bond issue to outfit several of the district's elementary schools with air conditioning. But the district is still considering a bond issue that could total as much as $62.6 million to pay for two new schools, a new administration center, land for future building, asbestos removal and improvements to schools. Assistant Superintendent David P. Blatt presented the board with a list of possible projects, based on a 1988 study of the district's 12 schools by the architectural firm Faridy, Thorne & Maddish of Trenton.

The Washington Township school board has voted 5-3 to install $410,000 worth of air conditioning at two new upper-elementary schools, Heritage Valley and Pitman Downer, and at Hurffville Elementary School. On Aug. 23, board members agreed to install the air conditioners during construction, rather than simply installing ducts so that air-conditioning systems could be put in later. The upper elementary schools are under construction, and the elementary school is being renovated.

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

It's only June, not officially summer yet, and already it's been broiling hot. If this keeps up, there's little doubt that we'll all see our electricity bills spike. Rising gasoline prices will probably mean fewer escapes to the Shore or the mountains. And for those on fixed incomes, the cost of keeping cool may stretch finances to the limit. With that in mind, and with assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy and the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy, here are some tips for being more efficient as the heat waves roll in. (If you have other ideas, please share.

1. AIR CONDITIONER Avoid a first day of air conditioning stink bomb attack: Change the filter on your forced air heater/air conditioning unit now. The furnace blower motor runs harder with air conditioning, shaking loose the dust on an old filter. 2. ELECTRONIC DEVICES Take a vacuum cleaner to the open grill work on all your electronic devices. The devices will run cooler and last longer. 3. COMPUTER Clean out the accumulated tracking cookies on your computer. Just Google "removing cookies" and follow instructions.

I'm sweltering because I have low self-esteem. That's what I figured out. Otherwise I can't explain my own dumb behavior. This might be a new low, because usually I can explain my dumb behavior. Like if someone says, "Do you want to get married?," I always say, "Yes!" Dumb, but I know why. Temporary insanity. This time, I don't, and the stakes are much higher. We're talking air conditioning. We begin when summer started, in earnest. The heat wave rolled in with temperatures of 90 degrees, but for some reason, I don't turn on the air conditioning.

It was already 89 degrees at 10 a.m. Saturday when block captain Alice Wright began knocking on doors in the 3900 block of Pennsgrove Street. The temperature in Philadelphia would eventually climb an additional 12 degrees, to 101. The retired day-care teacher was checking on the people she calls "my seniors," some of whom are the same age as the 70-year-old Wright. "Geneva!" Wright yelled, bending down to call her neighbor through an open mail slot. "She's in there. She's just hard of hearing.

WITH EACH dispatch, the news grew grimmer. Ryan Howard has an infection. Chase Utley's knee won't heal. Michael Stutes has a bum shoulder. Antonio Bastardo's velocity is down. Occasionally, one of the gods in the rotation would pitch like a mortal, making the evening report from Clearwater more alarming still. The Phillies became the city's darlings in August 2007, which launched the best baseball played by the team in its history.

SANDAKAN, Malaysia - Smiling passengers voiced relief and gratitude after safely leaving a fire-damaged luxury cruise ship that was stranded at sea for 24 hours and limped without air-conditioning into a Malaysian port Sunday. The Azamara Quest drifted off the southern Philippines with 1,000 people aboard after flames engulfed one of its engine rooms Friday, injuring five crew members. It restored propulsion the next night and reached the harbor of Sandakan city in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island late Sunday.

EVERYONE has heard of Sweet 16 parties, held to help girls celebrate that rite-of-passage birthday. Here's hoping not too many of you are aware of Sweaty 17s, and especially have not been forced to partake. "They're like hell. That's what they're like," Jai Williams said yesterday, allowing just the hint of a smile to cross his face. The 6-9, 240-pound Williams, a junior, plays basketball as a power forward/center for Philadelphia Electrical & Technology Charter, and already he boasts offers from La Salle and James Madison.

Question: I need some guidance. Even though my gas heater/hot water radiators are still working, I'm thinking about having a heating specialist replace my more-than-50-year-old system with a newer one that might include central air. The problem is that I know absolutely nothing about what I should look for in a system, either combined with central air, or just the heating alone. I have a small, two-story, three-bedroom, brick rowhouse, about 800 to 1,000 square feet, with a basement that runs the length of the house and an attached garage.

John F. Derham, 76, formerly of Bryn Mawr, a retired heating and air-conditioning company owner, died of dementia Friday, Aug. 5, at Artman Lutheran Home in Ambler. Mr. Derham grew up in Mount Airy and graduated from St. Joseph's Preparatory School in 1953. He attended Villanova University and earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from what is now Drexel University. Later he did postgraduate studies in business administration at Temple University. He was in the Army Reserve on active duty in 1958 and was recalled during the Berlin crisis in 1961, serving stateside.

The Philadelphia School District said that Potter Thomas Promise Academy SLAM (Summer Learning and More) site will be closed today because of a problem with the air conditioning system. The school is scheduled to reopen Thursday.