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To anyone considering a portable single hose unit. Don't.
Spend the extra on a dual hose portable and wrap the hoses with a blanket.
Single hose pulls hot air from the outside to cool the compressor which kind of defeats it's purpose. Dual hose is a somewhat closed loop system where it pulls outside air with one hose to cool the compressor while exhausting the hot air out from another hose.
Seriously they are like $100 more and will save that in electricity bills over 1 hot summer easily.
Basically: difference is if it starts with the temperature inside or outside.
No. You have a semi (mostly) closed loop system. The user failure is the lack of knowledge of not properly sealing the loop or insulating it.
Think of it this way, if your external door is cracked a little and opened of its own accord with another open open window causing it to open that is negative pressure. Now imagine it on a lower airflow restriction pulling air into the area you are trying to cool through all of the natural air leaks in your dwelling. You will end up heating the air you are trying to cool causing the single hose to work harder while pulling more hot air to cool.
With dual hose you are localizing both input and exhaust air in a smaller area. With proper insulation or even just a blanket wrapped around both hoses, it makes it easier to maintain ambient air temps.
Two days notice to install a window unit is fucking insane.
Allowing them to ban it in the lease makes this pretty toothless I would think. Every landlord will just do that asap. I'm not sure about the norms in Washington but I've had to usually re-sign a lease every year.
wait, you guys don't just become month to month after the original lease ends? that's fucked
It is fucked. And yes month to month does happen sometimes, and from my perspective it used to be the norm. But enshittification happens across the spectrum of commerce and since about 2013 most places I've lived in want a new lease signed every year. I've often been able to negotiate an addendum where I can move early without the usual penalty after the first year, but you'd be surprised how resistant and awkward some landlords can be about that. It's pretty fucked, as you said.
It's really area dependent. We have the option of going month-to-month or resigning for a year each time.
That's nice. I don't understand how it's been so accepted that so many places require a lease. I feel like until this thread I haven't really seen many people saying it's fucked. I even lived in a place where law requires that it's an option and yet like 3 landlords in that city pushed a lease on me.
Renting in general is fucked, I feel ya. And it's expensive and time-consuming to hold landlords accountable through the courts.
Yep. I've only ever had one landlord I would say good things about, and I've rented in like 20 different apartments. The guy I liked was super reasonable about everything, negotiated prices with me when I balked. Then when I moved out he paid me interest on the deposit, which was super shocking. I later found out was the law there. However in comparison to other landlords who blew me off when I even asked about it.
I've rented from many landlords in this area and I've never had AC outlawed in the lease.
I also don't see why a landlord who has previously allowed AC units would suddenly decide to ban them because of this.
Historically, only about 30% of homes in the PNW ever had AC to begin with.
Edit: I'm just having a conversation with you about the norms here in the PNW that relate to this article.
I've rented from many landlords in this area and I've never had AC outlawed in the lease.
Yes because the law didn't explicitly cover that scenario.
Now. It does.
It's a LAW that the Room I pay THOUSANDS for in Rent HAS to be Livable? I can't WAIT to VOTE OUT these Socialists DEMONS Causing this!
-LITERALLY Republicans!
No it isn't.
It's a law that says you can buy one yourself (in your thousand dollar a month place) and the landlod can't say no. Except for the way too many carveouts.
Nowehere does it say what it should: an AC is a minimum requirement like heating, running drinking water and electricity.
Just let the free market decide whether the poors live or die. I don't care, do you?
as long as a landlord hasn’t explicitly written a ban into the lease
Updated lease agreements in 3…2…
Cannot prevent a window from being locked? How does that work? Window units are bracketed into the frame, preventing the window from being fully closed. So it can't lock.
Or are they saying you have to have a separate lock?
I wondered this, too. My thought is that since it specifies "accessible from the outside" maybe windows above the first floor aren't necessarily required to still be lockable? I don't know.
you gotta still be able to jam a hockey stick between the sliding frame and the fixed frame end to secure it
The window has to be locked or lockable when the unit is in place.
Do a block of wood count?
Block of wood is basically the original lock, so seems reasonable.
If the wood acts just like a lock would, then its a lock.
Common Seattle W. Is this Katie Wilson’s doing?
No, this is from the state legislature.
“ Washington's rental laws were written for a climate when most people didn't need air conditioning,” said Sen. Vandana Slatter, a Democrat from Bellevue, who co-sponsored the measure, Senate Bill 6200. “The world is changing, and summers are now hotter, and wildfire smoke keeps people indoors.”
A few years ago, we also passed a law that required AC be built into new house builds.