Reverse Cycle & Refrigeration
It’s been a while since I indulged in a culture-shock temper tantrum, but our current climatological experience prompts me to reflect on the biggest difference between life in Sydney versus back in NYC. While I was blessed on the Upper East Side with a working fireplace, in winter, in any apartment, I could rely on heat and hot water for about 99% of the season. Sometimes the boiler would go out, but that didn’t happen often and didn’t last long. Of course, in summer, without an air conditioner, apartment life could be sweltering, but even at that only for a few weeks out of the season.

Alas, poor Sydney, so far from the tropics but so much closer to the other end of the temperate zone, so much more so in either respect than it cares to admit. Sure, there isn’t any snow and the roads only ice out the Blue Mountains way, but when our reverse-cycle unit gave up the ghost, our unit became a defacto icebox, despite highs approaching 20 degrees (68 Fahrenheit) during the day. Partly this is because, like most Sydneysiders, we chose our unit’s aspect carefully, facing south by southeast, which keeps the flat pretty cool for more of the summer than a different orientation would provide. In winter, however, it means even less sun than the minimum we get the rest of the year. And because it seems the prevailing winds come in from the same direction, we even manage to cop a bit of wind-chill, even indoors, a situation not helped by the numerous, tall, wide windows along the face of the building.

We’re bloody freezing. My hands and feet have not been this cold in years. Going outdoors is a relief, if just to walk along the sunny side of the street. The situation isn’t helped by the air conditioning repairmen sent out by the building management company, as they appear to only work once a week, starting with a preliminary diagnosis, followed by a more substantial review, followed by wondering if they can get the part or if they might have to install an entirely new system, followed by God only knows what, because the people who come out to do this “work” then report their findings to the faceless office staff and don’t turn up again until the next stage, which we can only hope will be actually fixing the thing. Or putting in a new one – just do something! Shut up about it and fix it. It’s cold! It’s getting colder all the time. At this rate, it’ll be spring again before the system’s up and running.

Sure, it doesn’t help that the unit is more than 10 years’ old and that even the manufacturer has no record of the model number, or that in order to put in a new unit, the walls will have to be patched because nobody uses this configuration of in-wall unit anymore, adding to the repair cost and to the time necessary to complete the job.

At least we’ll have fresh new air conditioning for summer.