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Living In A High Middle-Class Neighborhood, The Couple Decided To Give Up Traditional Appliances And Began Building Homemade Air Conditioning Systems With Ice, Fan And Simple Materials, Reducing Monthly Energy Expenses And Keeping The House Functional Even During Intense Heat
A family living in a high middle-class neighborhood in Illinois reports how they keep expenses extremely low in an 80-year-old house, without air conditioning and with improvised adaptations, reducing costs for energy, maintenance, and housing even in the face of unstable income.
Old House, Limited Comfort And Choice Not To Renovate
Kelly Watson reports that she lives with her husband in a house that is approximately 80 years old, located in a neighborhood considered high middle class. Externally, the property maintains its appearance aligned with the neighborhood, but internally it has significant structural limitations.
The residence has no air conditioning and had a visible hole in the living room ceiling. According to Kelly, the decision not to make complete renovations has always been linked to the attempt to control expenses, even while dealing with thermal discomfort at different times of the year.
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The family accepts living with heat in the summer and cold in the winter as part of their adopted lifestyle. For them, keeping up appearances with the neighbors is possible even without significant internal investments.
Improvised Insulation And Reduction Of Energy Bill
To face the intense cold, the family created improvised insulation solutions. A hole of about 20 centimeters in the house’s structure is now sealed with plastic bags, reducing the entry of wind on days when outside temperatures drop to -9°.
When the wind hits 60 km per hour, the improvised insulation makes a noticeable difference in the internal environment. Kelly states that good insulation can generate savings estimated between 30% and 40% on the electricity bill.
She emphasizes that conventional repairs on the house would cost, on average, 333 dollars.
The domestic adaptations have allowed them to maintain a middle-class standard of living for less than 30 dollars a month, even without complete structural interventions.
Homemade Air Conditioning And Monthly Savings Calculation
To cope with the heat, her husband developed a homemade air conditioning system using a Styrofoam box, ice, a piece of PVC pipe, and a regular fan. The equipment distributes cold air generated by the ice into the environment.
Each unit of this system represents savings of approximately 36 dollars per month. According to the calculation presented, six conventional units running for 12 hours a day would be needed to cool the house, which would increase the electricity bill by about 40 dollars per month.
Kelly acknowledges that the homemade system cannot cool the entire house, but she considers the solution sufficient to reduce costs without completely compromising daily comfort.
Lawn Maintenance Without Recurring Expenses
In the neighborhood where they live, the appearance of lawns is considered an important standard. Many residents pay between 90 and 140 dollars per month to keep their yards looking like country clubs.
The family opted not to spend on this service. Her husband uses a very old lawn mower that belonged to his father to take care of their own lawn. Kelly claims she is not sure how old the equipment is, but that it has been operational for years.
This practice has been maintained for about 15 years, with no additional costs. For them, manual maintenance meets the visual expectations of the neighborhood without compromising the family budget.
Unstable Income And Change Of Pilates Studio
Kelly and her husband have jobs considered volatile, with no guarantee of how much money they will have at the end of each month. To reduce fixed expenses, she decided to close the pilates studio she had run for about 10 years.
The solution found was to move the classes to their living room. However, the move required attention to the safety of the clients, as the property had a hole in the ceiling that was previously ignored.
Kelly admits that she had not fixed the ceiling for two reasons: she didn’t want to spend money and she became so accustomed to the problem that she no longer noticed it.
High Budget And Improvised Ceiling Repair
A professional was called to assess the repair. He suggested installing five-eighths drywall, applying joint compound from wall to wall, and painting the ceiling and walls.
The budget was approximately 1,200 dollars, plus 300 dollars for painting.
Faced with that amount, the family declined the proposal. The repair was done alternatively, with little material and a total cost of about 80 dollars. The work was quick, simple, and deemed sufficient to ensure immediate safety.
Kelly reports that the result blends well with the rest of the ceiling. Although she recognizes that the patch may not last long, she states that, for now, it meets the needs of the pilates classes and maintains the logic of savings that guides the family’s decisions.
Source: TCL Brasil Channel.
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