Air Conditioning

CITY HALL — With high temperatures and smoke-filled skies prompting more residents to shut windows and crank up the air conditioning, the net effect is straining the city’s electrical grid, officials said Monday. As a result, Glendale Water & Power officials are asking residents to conserve energy to reduce the chances of power outages. Residents should turn their air conditioning units to at least 78-degrees when at home, and to turn them off when leaving the house, said Atineh Haroutunian, public benefit programs coordinator.

Call it a match made in Glendale. Ice Energy has moved into a new 25,000-square-foot facility in Glendale, a city whose utility has become one of the Colorado-based company's largest clients for systems that store energy for air conditioners overnight, when electricity is in less demand and cheaper. The facility, located in Glendale's industrial San Fernando Road corridor, is also centrally located to the firm's other top clients. “Glendale is kind of like the center of the map for us here in California,” said Mike Hopkins, executive vice president of Ice Energy.

The Burbank Library Buena Vista branch stayed open late Saturday and Sunday as a cooling station. City officials said a number of people took advantage of the air conditioning as temperatures flirted with the triple digits. 

Alex Coolman NORTHWEST GLENDALE -- With the gravel on the roof of a Wonderview Drive home crunching under his feet, John Tomlinson hooked a small wire to the brown metal grate on the outside of an air-conditioning condenser. "This is basically a fancy thermometer, a digital thermometer" said Tomlinson, a technician with George Haney & Son, an Glendale air conditioning and heating contracting company. A few minutes later, the readings were done. Tomlinson called the numbers into a computer operator in San Rafael and had an answer back about the condition of the air conditioner.

CITY HALL — With high temperatures and smoke-filled skies prompting more residents to shut windows and crank up the air conditioning, the net effect is straining the city’s electrical grid, officials said Monday. As a result, Glendale Water & Power officials are asking residents to conserve energy to reduce the chances of power outages. Residents should turn their air conditioning units to at least 78-degrees when at home, and to turn them off when leaving the house, said Atineh Haroutunian, public benefit programs coordinator.

Tim Willert A Glendale man and his girlfriend, who were found dead last week inside a garaged car, died of accidental carbon monoxide intoxication, autopsies conclude. The unclothed bodies of 20-year-old Raphael Jimenez and 16-year-old Jassmin Perea of Los Angeles were found early Wednesday inside an SUV parked inside a garage behind Jimenez's residence in the 1800 block of Flower Street. Autopsies were performed on the bodies Friday. "The carbon monoxide intoxication occurred as a result of the engine running while both people were in the car in the closed garage," said David Campbell of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office.

CENTRAL GLENDALE — Glendale resident Julia Amezcua has been a regular at the Adult Recreation Center for the past 20 years. “We’re here early in the morning to have coffee or tea, to have something sweet,” she said Sunday. “And we stay throughout the day.” With temperatures reaching close to triple digits Sunday and a heat advisory issued, the center served as more than a place to get an inexpensive meal and chat with friends. It also served as an escape from the brutal heat outside, Amezcua said.

Judy Seckler DOWNTOWN -- The Glendale Unified School District's presentation "Measure K Project Tour" continues its run on Charter Cable Channel 15 for December. The program features progress on several major school construction projects, and viewers will get an overview of how Measure K bond money is being spent. The program can be seen at 8 p.m. Mondays and Fridays, 3 p.m. Saturdays and 12:30 p.m. Sundays. Major projects in progress include construction at Crescenta Valley High School, new structures at Allen Daily High School and Cerritos Elementary School and electrical, lighting and heating/air conditioning at elementary schools in the district.

It runs from Chicago to Los Angeles and covers roughly 2,448 miles, eight states, and three time zones. Jack Kerouac traversed parts of it in his generation defining novel, "On the Road." John Steinbeck called it, "The Mother Road." And if you've ever driven through Old Town Pasadena, across Suicide Bridge, or stopped at the intersection of 7th and Broadway in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, you have been part of the legend that is Route 66. On Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006 Route 66 celebrated its 80th anniversary.

Call it a match made in Glendale. Ice Energy has moved into a new 25,000-square-foot facility in Glendale, a city whose utility has become one of the Colorado-based company's largest clients for systems that store energy for air conditioners overnight, when electricity is in less demand and cheaper. The facility, located in Glendale's industrial San Fernando Road corridor, is also centrally located to the firm's other top clients. “Glendale is kind of like the center of the map for us here in California,” said Mike Hopkins, executive vice president of Ice Energy.

The Burbank Library Buena Vista branch stayed open late Saturday and Sunday as a cooling station. City officials said a number of people took advantage of the air conditioning as temperatures flirted with the triple digits. 

Glendale’s effort to cool demand for energy is taking hold, with the Walt Disney Co. as the latest customer to take advantage of a federally subsidized program to promote ice-based air conditioning to cut down on electricity. The chillers, called Ice Bears, work by making ice in the evening hours, when demand for energy is low, then using the ice as the source of air conditioning during peak hours. Nineteen of the chillers are installed at City Hall, libraries and fire stations, according to city officials.

Another one of Glendale's skyscrapers is riding the green wave. On Wednesday, the owners of 550 N. Brand Blvd. celebrated the building's designation of LEED Gold status, a designation awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. The building recently installed low-flow water systems that will reduce water use by 30%, a rooftop material that will better reflect — rather than absorb — heat, and systems to better calibrate use of air conditioning, heating and water temperatures.

It was 11 p.m. Sunday when I asked myself the question so many people in our nation, and in our own community, have already asked themselves. "Is the American dream personally failing me?" Writer's block had me crippled for most of the evening. My regular schedule had been obliterated thanks to an all-day meeting scheduled for Monday. My usual regimen gets me up at 5 a.m. to write the first draft of my column. I shower, ride my motorcycle to work, curse the texting drivers in their 4,000-pound SUVs, arrive at work juggling the first two hours of my day polishing my story and putting out fires in Corporate America, then I write my contribution to the In Theory column that is due at the same time, and finish the rest of my workday.

CITY HALL — With high temperatures and smoke-filled skies prompting more residents to shut windows and crank up the air conditioning, the net effect is straining the city’s electrical grid, officials said Monday. As a result, Glendale Water & Power officials are asking residents to conserve energy to reduce the chances of power outages. Residents should turn their air conditioning units to at least 78-degrees when at home, and to turn them off when leaving the house, said Atineh Haroutunian, public benefit programs coordinator.

CITY HALL — With high temperatures and smoke-filled skies prompting more residents to shut windows and crank up the air conditioning, the net effect is straining the city’s electrical grid, officials said Monday. As a result, Glendale Water & Power officials are asking residents to conserve energy to reduce the chances of power outages. Residents should turn their air conditioning units to at least 78-degrees when at home, and to turn them off when leaving the house, said Atineh Haroutunian, public benefit programs coordinator.

LA CAÑADA — Donna Robinson’s two dogs and three cats were lounging safely Saturday in the air-conditioned Pasadena Humane Society shelter — a far cry from the smoky, hot conditions from which they were evacuated. Saturday morning, Robinson and her husband were told they had two hours to evacuate their AltaCanyada neighborhood. “Their tone was pretty strict,” she said. She and her husband started moving large furniture from their home before the evacuation order, so when they got the call, they just grabbed a few things and their pets.