Equinox: the World Turns

[Traveling Man]

I live in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee. When I was in high school in the 80s, it was normal to take a light jacket to the first football game of the year on the last Friday of August. Now, I'm usually wearing shorts at least through mid October.

 

[Phog Allen]

Yes. This. We have a customer we were sure was stealing electricity, but we discovered he'd superinsulated his home and weatherized his windows and doors. His heating and cooling bills were just that low.

That said, when I used to work part time in construction, one cold Saturday morning I helped my old boss bore weep holes at the base of some storm windows of a house we'd worked on. The customer had insisted on insulated winsoes and storm windows, and had severe moisture build-up. I think some homes in the UK ran into similar problems making them super tight. There has to be some air exchange. They make air exchanges specifically for this, but my info is decades out of date.

This is the problrm with full on make up air exchangers. If you live in a humid climate(eastern ks, mostly like the old south from mid May to late September) like we do, then air exchange is a energy eater. Because of the humidity you MUST pre-cool and somewhat de-humidify the air before you just bring it in as you exchange the air out or you are going to have an airborne mold problem. The mold spore count here is off the rails in the summer anyway without concentrating it in your home.

Conversely, because we an go below zero here in winter you need to pre-heat the air as well or your furnace never shuts off. People do not believe how hot and humid it gets here in high summer. Or how cold it can be in winter. It makes environmental control of your home a pain at times. I know in the commercial buildings I worked in on campus they had make-up air exchange systems on the roofs that were nearly as large as the chillers in the mechanical rooms. I am not really sure of how it is done in modern homes. Maybe a super low micron whole house air filtration system and then air exchange a few times per day? I know I have seen the condition you describe in some modern homes. They are so tight that whatever gets trapped inside when you open the doors or whatever just condenses all over the interior. It would be interesting to know what's available since my wife and I are both getting more sensitive to inside air qualitty.

 

[Raissermesser]

I live in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee. When I was in high school in the 80s, it was normal to take a light jacket to the first football game of the year on the last Friday of August. Now, I'm usually wearing shorts at least through mid October.

My bad. I know Tennessee is in the Southeast US, but I think of it more as the dividing line between grits and cream of wheat. I thought you might be further south, and get a bit of a kick out of learning there was once at least one commercial banana operation in south Georgia.

I am fascinated by lupine. I'd never hard of it as a cover crop when I came across it, but when I mentioned it to old farmers, they'd all grin. It does that good a job of fixing nitrogen in the soil.

 

[TexLaw]

I follow and respect the official changes of seasons, especially the winter solstice. Although it certainly hasn't felt like it the last 20 years, September is a "fall" month, not summer. Living in the Southeastern U.S., October is my favorite month of the year in terms of weather and splendor.

Spring = March, April, May
Summer = June, July, August
Fall = Sept., October, November
Winter = Dec., Jan., Feb.

Honestly because of climate change, or at least a climate shift, the old seasons aren't what they were in my younger days.

Southeast Texas measures our four seasons differently. After all, a "season" really is a matter of nature, not of a man-made calendar. We don't get to tell nature how to go about it's business. Here are our seasons:

Spring Season - Starts around med-February (once you can plant your tomatoes) and runs until . . .

Summer Season - Starts when the thermometer first hits 90, usually around mid-May and goes until . . .

Holiday Season - Starts when you can put on a pair of jeans without looking at the weather forecast and have high (but not total) confidence that you won't regret it. It usually starts around mid-October or so, and it runs until . . .

"January" - You never know what you are going to get in "January." You might find yourself outside in shorts and a tank top, sweating your tail off while you're covering your plants and duct-taping dish towels around your hose bibs in preparation for the hard freeze that is coming through that night. "January" typically starts on or around January 1 and runs until you can plant your tomatoes.

 

[Ad Astra]

... and tonight marks the Harvest Moon, so. Worth another look up.

If you didn't notate the 'set last night (me=cloud cover) tonight's pretty close ... half degree or so.


AA

 

[Benzadmiral]

I'm on Florida time. By my reckoning, Fall will start around November, and Winter mid-to-late January.

Same here in Da Pesthole.