I did think about the risks though on Sundy when I was wedging my ac into my window I'm high enough if it fell i could kill someone.
Replies
I once read the stat that men account for 77% of deaths by "accident and misadventure". And then I thought about watching every man I've ever known install a window AC, and went "Yeah, that checks out."
jun 24, 2025, 3:00 pm • 6 0 • view
The trend of using like a rack under the ac is a good one. My
jun 24, 2025, 3:14 pm • 1 0 • view
Jokes on me though I've finally accepted both my ac's are undersized so I'll be removing it this weekend and replacing it
jun 24, 2025, 2:32 pm • 50 0 • view
The other thing though that isn't talked about enough is like central air conditioning is lovely but forced air heating is awful and if I have to choose between radiator+ window ac or central air with forced heating I'm picking radiator+window ac every time.
jun 24, 2025, 2:39 pm • 91 0 • view
I grew up with forced air heat, and never had issues with it. I think it's doing a bad job of retrofitting it that's the problem, rather than inherent to forced air.
jun 24, 2025, 3:00 pm • 0 0 • view
I too grew with forced air and it was in a home built with it. You're likely less cold sensitive. It's also not just me saying this, there's a bunch of literature in how the body perceives heat that backs me up.
jun 24, 2025, 3:04 pm • 4 0 • view
Forced air gives me nosebleeds. Radiators are much more pleasant!
jun 24, 2025, 3:07 pm • 1 0 • view
Unless your radiators are leaking, the humidity is the same whether the heat is provided by forced air or radiator. Neither removes moisture from the air, both lower relative humidity by heating, increasing the carrying capacity. That being said, its much easier to add a humidifier to forced air.
jun 24, 2025, 4:50 pm • 1 0 • view
It's not the humidity it's the air movement
jun 24, 2025, 5:06 pm • 2 0 • view
Also it's very easy to add humidity in a radiator setting. You put a bowl of water on it
jun 24, 2025, 5:10 pm • 2 0 • view
Oh boy you’ve hit my trigger!! Bought my 1929 Craftsman house in 11/21 after a “remodel”. Oil furnace & radiators torn out, hi speed forced hot air system installed in attic with 2” tubes to distribute. No insulation added. I keep spending $$$ each year to get the heat to stay inside the house. 😕
jun 24, 2025, 4:51 pm • 1 0 • view
same same
jun 24, 2025, 2:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Everyone who thinks I'm talking about heating costs I'm not. I'm talking about thermal comfort with heating systems that use radiant heat you feel warmer at the lower temperatures than you do with forced air heating systems www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
jun 24, 2025, 5:01 pm • 45 1 • view
Radiant heat is also less drying, so your skin doesn’t feel quite as terrible in winter. I miss radiators.
jun 24, 2025, 5:02 pm • 3 0 • view
If you've never noticed lucky you. But I personally only feel warm in forced air systems when the air is actually blowing. Once temperature is reached and they stop blowing i get cold. With a radiator I'm warm all day even when the radiator is done getting to temp
jun 24, 2025, 5:05 pm • 28 0 • view
The hours of NH winters I spent standing on the forced air grate to be warm. My mom and I would literally fight over the kitchen grate…
jun 24, 2025, 5:21 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm not arguing against heat pumps! I'm just going to write a million dollar screenplay, buy a tiny cottage in nyc and put in radiant floors with an electric boiler.
jun 24, 2025, 5:11 pm • 31 0 • view
Radiant floor heating, esp in bathrooms, is big life goals.
jun 24, 2025, 5:18 pm • 4 0 • view
My friend had it in turkey and Austria and it's been in my wish list ever since
jun 24, 2025, 5:25 pm • 1 0 • view
I stayed at an Airbnb with it for one night in winter.
jun 24, 2025, 5:37 pm • 1 0 • view
::opens chat gpt::
jun 24, 2025, 5:15 pm • 9 0 • view
I kid! I kid!
jun 24, 2025, 5:15 pm • 15 0 • view
🤣 You could become an air-to-water heat pump influencer in your nyc tiny house.
jun 24, 2025, 5:57 pm • 1 0 • view
I wonder if it's from the radiator itself retaining a significant amount of heat and continuing to warm the room? I never thought of that before, but radiators are my favorite. Useful for drying things, and letting cats sit at windows too :)
jun 24, 2025, 5:12 pm • 3 0 • view
Yup just like the sun
jun 24, 2025, 5:14 pm • 1 0 • view
It's not just that: radiant surfaces directly warm our bodies *and* warm the air, while forced air only warms the air, while losing heat to surfaces (even in a perfectly insulated house, the walls will be well below body temp, which means they pull heat from your body as well as the air).
jun 24, 2025, 7:21 pm • 2 0 • view
This is why big, stone spaces (like in museums or churches) are so cool in the summer: you're surrounded by stone that is way below body temp and stays there except in very rare conditions (less rare all the time, alas).
jun 24, 2025, 7:21 pm • 2 0 • view
Growing up in New England I just learned to bundle up in the winter and use lap blankets. Works well for forced air heating, but my PNW spouse who had overpowered in-floor heat thinks “comfortable” in winter is 73, so I hardly need even socks.
jun 24, 2025, 5:11 pm • 1 0 • view
He's right and I grew up in nyc
jun 24, 2025, 5:12 pm • 1 0 • view
My frugal father is rolling in his grave every time I touch the thermostat
jun 24, 2025, 5:13 pm • 1 0 • view
When I was a kid my parents used to threaten to lock the thermostat because if I was left alone I'd put it to 90. That was my glory.
jun 24, 2025, 5:14 pm • 1 0 • view
My dad grew up poor, and was very insistent about not wasting money on heat. He also grew up without AC, and by God he was going to enjoy the hell out of that as an adult. Later we realized he was just always running hot.
jun 24, 2025, 5:16 pm • 1 0 • view
My parents were poor too. My dad was the son of rice farmers in rural Haiti. I just do not function well when cold. Even as a kid. They would have to wait until I was asleep to put me in ac because i refused. i never ever complained it was too hot but I was always too cold
jun 24, 2025, 5:20 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah, i can tell when our forced air heat has kicked on by my comfort level alone (otherwise it's very quiet and i can almost never hear it). I have Raynaud's and am REAL sensitive to keeping myself at a good temp in winter. I miss our radiator co-op. I was NEVER cold when we lived there.
jun 24, 2025, 5:12 pm • 2 0 • view
Occasionally if I've been sitting for hours I'll get chilly and think huh that's strange and within a minute or two the radiators will kick on. That's how good they are at keeping bodies warm.
jun 24, 2025, 5:13 pm • 2 0 • view
Bless you for sharing this. I learned this as part of my architecture education 30mumble years ago, it's useful to understand, and it's incredible that people try to talk authoritatively about these matters without seeming to know it.
jun 24, 2025, 7:16 pm • 0 0 • view
“some heat is hotter” I gotcha ;)
jun 24, 2025, 5:05 pm • 0 0 • view
It's true though! 😭
jun 24, 2025, 5:07 pm • 1 0 • view
I’ve lived in LA for 20 years so may have forgotten but… what’s bad about forced air heating?
jun 24, 2025, 2:40 pm • 2 0 • view
It dries you out and you're only really warm when the air is blowing. The best analogy i can think of is think how 60f feels warm in the sun but 60f in the shade feels cool. Forced air is 60f in the shade. Radiators or even better radiant floors are 60f in the sun
jun 24, 2025, 2:43 pm • 10 0 • view
Exactly!! Plus with radiators you can warm your pajamas and socks before you go to bed then turn the heat way down, lol. I imagine radiant floors to be the best but haven’t lived with it yet.
jun 24, 2025, 3:22 pm • 3 0 • view
I grew up in a house with a forced air system. It’s inefficient and doesn’t heat well. Radiator systems are much better at heating, more efficient and just better overall
jun 24, 2025, 2:49 pm • 3 0 • view
BTUs are BTUs. If the heat’s getting into the house it’s just as efficient.
jun 24, 2025, 3:27 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah this was the root of my question. I get the air thing. May as well not blow dust in/around if you don’t have to, but heat is heat, and R-value is R-value
jun 24, 2025, 3:38 pm • 1 0 • view
This this is false
jun 24, 2025, 4:57 pm • 1 0 • view
That article has nothing to do with radiators. It’s about the sun warming up the various heat sinks in a house. But also you can generally insulate your way out of this mess as well.
jun 24, 2025, 8:05 pm • 1 0 • view
The house itself absorbs heat (and cold). The walls and other surfaces, plus the furniture and everything else. It takes time for those things to adjust.
jun 24, 2025, 9:14 pm • 0 0 • view
Right, and they’re absorbing heat from the conditioned inside air. Whether it’s heated by an electric baseboard heater, forced air from a furnace, or a steam radiator, it’s still thermal energy being put into the room for everything to absorb.
jun 24, 2025, 9:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Okay so my 1990s build well insulated house with forced air heating would feel warmer than an older brick building with radiators because the walls are less cold.
jun 24, 2025, 5:12 pm • 1 0 • view
This was based on my personal experience with both systems over many years
jun 24, 2025, 3:35 pm • 0 0 • view
My forced air heat kept my house cozy and warm when it hit -7 in February so it seems to be working just fine.
jun 24, 2025, 3:40 pm • 0 0 • view
Thank your insulation
jun 24, 2025, 3:41 pm • 4 0 • view
we have radiators and plan to add a mini-split...got a quote just after buying our house but the carpenter ants told us we had a different worry first 😬 & i was hoping a harris presidency would lead to expanded rebates/incentives 😭 might get more quotes this fall and see how scary they’ve gotten!
jun 24, 2025, 5:35 pm • 1 0 • view
we had a house in DC that had been built in the 20s, we had central air installed via some system with extremely narrow pipes, sounded like the house was about to take off half the year, but very effective. We kept the radiators for heat, it was a pretty ideal solution.
jun 24, 2025, 2:43 pm • 5 0 • view
My condo in Boston had central air and radiators and it was glorious.
jun 24, 2025, 2:46 pm • 3 0 • view
This is what we do in DC in our 99-year-old house as well…
jun 24, 2025, 2:55 pm • 1 0 • view
The Gradient window heat pump / a/cs are real game changers. Loved seeing the nycha pilot results!
jun 24, 2025, 2:44 pm • 15 0 • view
if I lived in an NYC apartment I’d be so tempted to try to get one
jun 24, 2025, 2:55 pm • 3 0 • view
I don't think they're for consumer sale
jun 24, 2025, 3:02 pm • 0 0 • view
amazing
jun 24, 2025, 3:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Jesse Jenkins has referred to his in home Gradient units on podcasts a couple times.
jun 24, 2025, 3:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Option b is only for single unit home dwellers not for apartment dwellers. I can't install a unit in my apartment only my building can
jun 24, 2025, 3:47 pm • 5 0 • view
because of your building rules? wondering if this would work for coop owners or if they’d have to go to their board
jun 24, 2025, 3:48 pm • 1 0 • view
No it's gradients own language. Idk why.
jun 24, 2025, 3:49 pm • 1 0 • view
hmmmmmmmm
jun 24, 2025, 3:51 pm • 0 0 • view
In general I can tell you that co-op owners would have to go via their board for installation and operation here. :)
jun 24, 2025, 3:51 pm • 2 0 • view
my impression is they have to do that to hang a freakin curtain rod, but that’s the cranky upstate libertarianism talking no gods, no masters, no HOAs 😝
jun 24, 2025, 3:52 pm • 4 0 • view
Ah important distinction, thank you.
jun 24, 2025, 3:48 pm • 3 0 • view
Any idea on single unit price?
jun 25, 2025, 1:30 pm • 0 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/jess...
jun 25, 2025, 1:32 pm • 3 0 • view
Oof, though if they eventually hit half that I'm in Thanks!
jun 25, 2025, 1:35 pm • 2 0 • view
Are they really available to buy for everyone? When I go there it shows me the screen you showed, then I have to give them my name and email and it says someone will contact me. Has anyone bought one retail from them?
jun 25, 2025, 6:50 pm • 1 0 • view
So some replies came back on this that they are not currently selling to individuals. It seems the supply is all currently going to fulfill their commitments to NYCHA
jun 25, 2025, 6:51 pm • 2 0 • view
bet that’ll shift at some point
jun 25, 2025, 8:33 pm • 1 0 • view
A friend was partly behind that
jun 24, 2025, 2:45 pm • 7 0 • view
Same
jun 24, 2025, 2:42 pm • 1 0 • view
I had a heat pump in last apt, 3 actually. It was great. Now we are on first floor of same building and its almost half the cost of rent just for utilities in winter and summer
jun 24, 2025, 5:00 pm • 0 0 • view
I didn't say a peep about heat pumps. Heat pumps aren't the only forced air systems and I'm talking about thermal comfort www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
jun 24, 2025, 5:02 pm • 1 0 • view
Have you ever lived in a split level? Let me tell you about the absolutely wild range of temperatures throughout my house lol.
jun 24, 2025, 5:06 pm • 2 0 • view
Lol I haven't!
jun 24, 2025, 5:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Ooof it’s rough. Central air is a lifesaver here
jun 24, 2025, 6:28 pm • 0 0 • view
The house I grew up in has radiators, and I wish it were feasible to install them in my current house. Just the absolute best heat!! And the clanking is one of my favorite sounds.
jun 24, 2025, 5:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Heat pumps are another nice option! They do use air to move the heat (at least most heat pumps currently available), but since they can ramp down to a low level they should be able to run at a low level for long periods of time, allowing surface temperatures to warm up and creating a more even heat.
jun 24, 2025, 2:57 pm • 4 0 • view
100%, check these out. Vastly superior to AC and they also do heat!
jun 24, 2025, 3:47 pm • 0 0 • view
I think it depends on how cold it gets where you live as well. I'm in the SF east bay. It gets chilly in the winter but it almost never drops below freezing. We had a gas furnace and then switched over to a heatpump last year. It can keep the house in the high 70s/low 80s fine.
jun 24, 2025, 4:08 pm • 0 0 • view
Here in NE Ohio we get PLENTY of winter nights below 0C, and often below 0F. I hate how it dries the air, but I love how it keeps this drafty old house *warm.*
jun 24, 2025, 4:18 pm • 0 0 • view
This isn't what I'm talking about www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
jun 24, 2025, 4:59 pm • 0 0 • view
One of the benefits of a newer system (which would probably work with a radiator as well) is that I can schedule things much easier. So I can drop the temperature at night and then 30 minutes before I wake up I have heater bring up the temperature a bit. My old setup had this but it was so tedious.
jun 24, 2025, 4:22 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah, we took out our oil boiler/radiator system (oil boiler was in the ground and very aged out), and installed heat pumps. They're great for lots of reasons, the a/c is a huge relief, I miss our radiators.
jun 24, 2025, 2:52 pm • 3 0 • view
I have experience with both central air and window units and the central air is sooooo much quieter it’s unbelievable. That’s enough to make the decision obvious for me at least.
jun 24, 2025, 3:41 pm • 1 0 • view
I use ac maybe two months out of the year. Heating season is 8 months long. I'm preferencing the system i use the most. Also inverter tech has made window acs much much quieter.
jun 24, 2025, 5:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Yess, yes, oh my lord, yes!
jun 24, 2025, 3:46 pm • 0 0 • view
They have these neat strappy contraptions to make mounting window AC units safer! They look like a bondage kit for it but they look like they work great for not losing it out the window. If I ever replace ours (which I did drop out the window when I first installed it) I'm getting one.
jun 24, 2025, 3:34 pm • 1 0 • view
I lost my grip and dropped an AC out a third story window once. Thank god it was into an alley. The entire ground shook and people in the building next door literally came to their windows to see what the sound was.
jun 24, 2025, 2:42 pm • 24 0 • view
I lost grip on my 1st-story-above street and someone ended up catching it. And when I moved into a 39th floor apartment years later the previous tenant couldn’t understand why I was so uptight about not having one on the sill. I went with one of those standing in-room ones.
jun 24, 2025, 2:51 pm • 6 0 • view
Mine on St. Mark’s didn’t all the way fall, the dude who caught it saw what was happening and came to the window.
jun 24, 2025, 2:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Omg! Omg! Ive often wonder if it's ever happened. You're the one! I'm glad it's just a good story and that no one was injured
jun 24, 2025, 2:48 pm • 16 0 • view
It was a pretty expensive slip! I also instinctively grabbed for the chord?? Like that was gonna do anything other then take me out the window with it?? This is why NYC requires AC support brackets LOL.
jun 24, 2025, 2:53 pm • 11 0 • view
Oh here I'm learning in actually a criminal 😩
jun 24, 2025, 5:22 pm • 3 0 • view
Do you have a super? I’m pretty sure your landlord is required to install one for you.
jun 24, 2025, 5:29 pm • 4 2 • view
I have a super ill ask. But after the heatwave. The window its in has a problem anyway which is it dislikes staying open and I'm replacing it anyway.
jun 24, 2025, 5:33 pm • 3 1 • view
I, too, have dropped one out the window As did one of my roommates once upon a time It’s a good requirement!
jun 24, 2025, 6:33 pm • 2 0 • view
We also had a near miss. Old roommate who never screwed hers into the frame had it fall out. Luckily it was the middle of the night and her window faced an interior courtyard that was only used by maintenance staff. It was confusing to hear it from both down the hall and out the kitchen window.
jun 24, 2025, 2:52 pm • 4 0 • view
To think we grew up on cartoons of anvils and safes falling out of the sky—nah, it’s air conditioners!
jun 24, 2025, 2:54 pm • 6 0 • view
I have never understood why they don’t have handles They’re heavy They’re awkward They’re sharp Whyyyyyyy
jun 24, 2025, 5:26 pm • 2 0 • view
A support bracket and industrial Velcro strips removed that worry for me. (The bracket alone was too slick.)
jun 24, 2025, 5:25 pm • 1 0 • view