Dust and water
I was lying in bed and I noticed that behind the small fan that keeps us cool in the evenings, its container was caked with dust. When I examined it closely I saw that the dust was very thick after about 2 years of continuous use. I decided to take it apart and clean it. I took the front and back off, and used a vacuum cleaner to remove all the dust.
After cleaning that, I decided to clean the filter of the air conditioning. We have a central a/c system, so there is only one large filter, but since the a/c was not working at that time (that's another story), I decided to open up the vents and look inside the system. With a flashlight I saw what looked like a thick layer of dust inside the vents or ducts, which are cylinders about a foot in diameter of silver coated material around a wire. So I decided I wanted to clean the vents, but I figured that this was too big a job to do myself. However, I remember once about 10 years ago we had a company come in with large vacuum cleaners, that they covered over the vents and vacuumed them. However, when I looked up cleaning of a/c vents in the (English) yellow pages I found only one possible hit. I had the guy come over for a small fee and he looked at the vents and declared that it was not worth trying to clean them, "no one does that" he said, it was better to replace them, an idea that I rejected. Since I could find no company to do this, I decided I had to do it myself. So I got my ladder and I joined the flexible tubes of two vacuum cleaners together (including the old one that sits in my studio) and with this I was able to reach from the floor inside the vents. Then I tried to vacuum the dust. But to my surprise, I found that it was not soft free dust, but a layer of ingrained hard dirt that could not be vacuumed. I suppose over the years the dust that gets through the filter just coagulates into a thin solid layer, so maybe the expert was right. After a few attempts I gave up. So now the vents still have a layer of dirt, but I am confident that the air we breath flowing out of the vents is not full of floating dust.
We have had a record-breaking hot season that has lasted until now, with gorgeous weather with 25 deg C (about 80 deg F) daytime and 15 deg C (about 60 deg F) at night, with practically no rain (sorry about this Britain, that is shivering under a blanket of snow). This morning early was the first time we ran the heating system (without concerns of dust in the air) and a few evenings ago was the first time I wore a sweater. The problem is that with no rain, Israel faces the worst drought in about 35 years. Although warnings are dire, luckily some plans were made that have now borne fruit. About 40% of all potable water in Israel is produced by three large desalination plants along the coast (lucky we didn't make a deal with Turkey to supply water). This is much higher than any other country, the next one Denmark produces only about 14% from desalination. Another plant is due on-line in 2012 and another one is planned that will bring the total up to ca. 70% of needs. Also, Israel leads the world in recycling of used waste water, with about 70% being reused in agriculture and other uses. However, the water level in Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) is down to its lowest level ever, nearing the "black line" that is considered the line below which permanenet damage will result, mainly because it will be below the level that water can be pumped from the Lake into the National Water Carrier of the Mekorot water company. The Israeli Cabinet in its meeting Sunday will discuss emergency measures to finally face this dire water crisis.
After cleaning that, I decided to clean the filter of the air conditioning. We have a central a/c system, so there is only one large filter, but since the a/c was not working at that time (that's another story), I decided to open up the vents and look inside the system. With a flashlight I saw what looked like a thick layer of dust inside the vents or ducts, which are cylinders about a foot in diameter of silver coated material around a wire. So I decided I wanted to clean the vents, but I figured that this was too big a job to do myself. However, I remember once about 10 years ago we had a company come in with large vacuum cleaners, that they covered over the vents and vacuumed them. However, when I looked up cleaning of a/c vents in the (English) yellow pages I found only one possible hit. I had the guy come over for a small fee and he looked at the vents and declared that it was not worth trying to clean them, "no one does that" he said, it was better to replace them, an idea that I rejected. Since I could find no company to do this, I decided I had to do it myself. So I got my ladder and I joined the flexible tubes of two vacuum cleaners together (including the old one that sits in my studio) and with this I was able to reach from the floor inside the vents. Then I tried to vacuum the dust. But to my surprise, I found that it was not soft free dust, but a layer of ingrained hard dirt that could not be vacuumed. I suppose over the years the dust that gets through the filter just coagulates into a thin solid layer, so maybe the expert was right. After a few attempts I gave up. So now the vents still have a layer of dirt, but I am confident that the air we breath flowing out of the vents is not full of floating dust.
We have had a record-breaking hot season that has lasted until now, with gorgeous weather with 25 deg C (about 80 deg F) daytime and 15 deg C (about 60 deg F) at night, with practically no rain (sorry about this Britain, that is shivering under a blanket of snow). This morning early was the first time we ran the heating system (without concerns of dust in the air) and a few evenings ago was the first time I wore a sweater. The problem is that with no rain, Israel faces the worst drought in about 35 years. Although warnings are dire, luckily some plans were made that have now borne fruit. About 40% of all potable water in Israel is produced by three large desalination plants along the coast (lucky we didn't make a deal with Turkey to supply water). This is much higher than any other country, the next one Denmark produces only about 14% from desalination. Another plant is due on-line in 2012 and another one is planned that will bring the total up to ca. 70% of needs. Also, Israel leads the world in recycling of used waste water, with about 70% being reused in agriculture and other uses. However, the water level in Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) is down to its lowest level ever, nearing the "black line" that is considered the line below which permanenet damage will result, mainly because it will be below the level that water can be pumped from the Lake into the National Water Carrier of the Mekorot water company. The Israeli Cabinet in its meeting Sunday will discuss emergency measures to finally face this dire water crisis.
posted by Jack Cohen at 1:36 PM
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