I have known for many years that being cooped up in the house (or the car) for too long with the air conditioner running would give me a severe headache and an anxious feeling. It had been a complete mystery until now. And to tell the truth, I thought that I was a little bit nuts.
My husband and I live in an area where the Forestry Service does periodic controlled burns. Recently, they conducted a burn. The weather was still quite warm and the wind was blowing the smoke our way. On the evening of the second day of the burn, having had the house closed up and the air conditioner running, I got out of my chair, stood in front of my husband and very forcefully said, If we dont open up the house, I am going to go crazy. I already had a very severe headache and I was starting to feel as if I could not breathe. Opening the house meant that my husband would get a headache from the smoke and his lungs would suffer because he gets smoke induced asthma. Thankfully for me, we opened up the house.
The next day, my husband decided that he would research the issue of air conditioning. I have never had a problem with heated air in the winter, so we were certain it was not something in the ducts. His first inquiry led him to a website that was selling an air conditioner that produces no positive ions. This set him to wondering.
Before long, he learned that natural air is composed of mainly negative ions. Most air conditioners produce positive ions. So, before long, a house that is closed with the air conditioner running will acquire a higher concentration of positive ions.
Further research led him to the information that in some individuals, a higher concentration of positive ions will produce headache, anxiety and a feeling that you can not breathe. I was astounded by this information and relieved. At least, now I know that I am not really nuts. Or as my husband says, that is still a matter of opinion.
I do not think that we will be buying a new air conditioner any time soon. For the most part, it is never a problem to open up the house at night during the summer. Our summer nights are cool because of the altitude at which we live. Because I like the outside air best, it saves us money on our electrical bill. We are, however, looking into negative ion generators.
If you find yourself wishing you were outside or someplace other than your nicely air conditioned house, perhaps you have the same problem that I do. You might also want to consider a negative ion generator.
If you are interested in learning a little more about the issue, the following web address has a number of summaries of research done on the subject: http://www.djclarke.co.uk/file06.html
Dianne Lehmann is a jewelry designer who has been in business since January of 2000. Her interest in designing and manufacturing jewelry goes back beyond that to 1994. It took her many years of trying various creative outlets to finally figure out that making jewelry is where she could really shine. Dianne began with simply stringing beads onto cable and has progressed from there. She is now an accomplished lapidary (cuts and polishes stones) and silversmith. Dianne and her husband, Bernd, live in northern Arizona and both love to hike. Dianne can not help but pick up rocks (they are her first love) and some of these find their way into her jewelry. Dianne makes one-of-a-kind pieces that she hopes give people as much joy to view as she gets from the making of them.If you like, you may view her work at http://www.syzygyjewelry.com
» left by April Lorier(0) April Lorier (1 year 98 days ago.)
Dianne, for 30 years I lived on a California Beach. Then I had to move to an area away from the beach, up in the mountains, to a place that's much hotter. So, for the first time in my life, I ran the air conditioner. Yes, those positive ions had me running to the ER thinking I was dying! (It was right after a nasty divorce, so I was already a little crazy, even without those ions!)
So, Reader's Digest Version: I found if I leave a few windows cracked open, the positive ions aren't so bad. ALSO, I bought a fan (sits on the floor) from Sams Club. It can circulate either dry air, or you can put 4 gallons of water in the bottom, and switch it to "cool", and the humidity seems to make the house cooler while cutting down on the need for so much AC.
And a personal note, only because you said you were new to writing for publication: You're doing what I did when I first joined SearchWarp. You're answering comments by clicking on "Comments on this article". Look for the little blue line below my comment that says "respond to this comment", and click on it. Then your answer will link to this comment. You can tell when you've done it right because your RESPONSE will have a larger left margin than my comment does. TOOK ME MONTHS TO FIGURE THIS OUT! (If you had your email address for us to write to, I would have emailed you.) Respond to this comment
» left by Dianne Lehmann(3,487) Dianne Lehmann (1 year 98 days ago.)
Hi again, April. Thanks. I think I've got it now. We do normally leave at least one window open when the a/c is running, but on the one occasion that I noted, the smoke from the burn was so bad it was burning our throats.
The fan with the water reservoir is a really good idea. Luckily, the weather here is starting to cool. We live at 5,000 feet and the days are still warm, but the nights are quite chilly (high 40'2 to low 50's).
It's interesting to me that you have two of the same problems that I have.
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