Help with Partial Outage in NY

[kwired]

I plan to keep the focus on safety not upgrades.

Potential risk of starting a fire from overloaded wiring and components should be part of your safety considerations and that issue pretty much needs some kind of upgrades to resolve it or going back to what there was for appliances being utilized in that space say 80 plus years ago.

From what information you have given you don't have the proper capacity to your space to power what you wish to run, at least at certain times.
Two 15 amp circuits powering your apartment? Codes have required two 20 amp circuits as a minimum just for the kitchen for at least 60 years or more.

Until it can be remedied, you may have to consider keeping a fan (that doesn't take nearly as much energy as an AC unit) nearby to help keep you more comfortable.

 

[kwired]

Yeah I'm in the middle of remodeling my 2 upstairs offices and was looking for replacements for my two 1980ish Gibson through the wall units. (damn things weigh about 200 pounds each) and somehow I came across that picture about a week ago. When I saw 1931 building I had to go back and look again.

Here are some 1952 offerings from the big players at the time.

View attachment 2578782

I wonder when air conditioning loads started to be a serious design factor in buildings

I'd guess was becoming more common in some commercial buildings in the 60's.

Probably not too significant in dwellings until into the 70's. Maybe some window units here and there but not many were cooling the whole house until into the 70's.

When I grew up we had AC in the car but not in the house. I was already moved out for a couple years or so before my parents finally got a central AC unit. They did have a window unit in the kitchen for a little bit before finally getting the central unit. We always opened windows at night and closed them in the morning before it started warming up outside. Went to the pool a lot as a kid as well.

 

[Joethemechanic]

Somewhere around 1970 we got two 6,000 BTU units at Sears Surplus. I think they were returns. One for my parents bedroom and one for me my brother and I's room. Being our house was all K&T we had to install 20 amp dedicated circuits for each unit. The house was balloon frame so it was easy to get from the bedroom windows to the basement. What a difference it was having AC. Before that we had like a 1/2 or 3/4 belt drive industrial fan in the attic and it helped a lot, but nothing like having AC