Sometime during the late spring/early Summer of of 2005 I bought a window air conditioner, and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. The thing actually made my apartment liveable during the hot days of summer, and with my big huge living room windows facing almost exactly east, it was doubly critical. During the heat waves of years past, the temperature in my bedroom routinely reached +35°C, sometimes even higher. During August 2002, the hottest part of that summer, I watched every movie showing in town, just for the chance to stay cool inside the air conditioned movie theatres, and many times I would wake up at night and go an after midnight drive in my air conditioned car. Needless to say, it was nasty. I was actually going to buy the A/C in 2004, but it was a cool summer, and so it was unnecessary.

In any case, when I had the A/C installed in 2005, I forgot to seal it. Not that it really mattered during the summer and fall months. Even on windy days, the hot(or warm) air didn't really seem to penetrate through the cracks between the A/C body and the window frame. But came winter, and it was altogether different. The cold air from the outside easily penetrated the cracks and on some of the days, I actually had to put on extra layers just to watch TV. Finally, I'd had enough and bought the stuff to seal the A/C with. And with that came its own problems.

One thing I didn't quite appreciate before I sealed the A/C was how much fresh air flowed into the apartment, not to mention allowing the whole place to ventilate with the help of the crack under the main door. When I first sealed it up, I was a little surprised by how stuffy the place suddenly became, not to mention that my temperature setting, having been high to counteract the cold air from the outside, suddenly roasted the place.

Of course, I must admit that with the sealant in place, it's much more comfortable, and it's still very easy to ventilate by simply opening the other side of the window. But I guess this shows I'm just never happy: automatic ventilation, but too cold versus stuffy manually ventilated apartment that maintains a comfortable temperature regardless of wind speed.