# How did your ancestors handle the heat before air conditioning? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 16, 2018, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219 "2018-06-16T20:18:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/61 "2018-06-17T23:26:43Z")
I grew up in cincinnati ohio Anyone familiar with it can tell you it can range from -15f in a very cold winter to Mississippi like summers. Must be the river valley or something. In summer, like many have said, 1st part of the day you closed the house, and drew the heavy shades. House was brick, you spray it with the hose to soak the walls later in the day to suck some of the absorbed heat back out. Swamp coolers dont work there, humidity is too high on average. Most had window awnings that you rolled down in the day to stop direct window sun which helped. Fans, back then they sold real fans. Metal ones with strong motors that you could screw into the window frame. You put one of those in one window, usually in the attic if possible, and open the basement windows. Pulled enough air to start sucking all the doors closed, so you had to prop them open with a door stopper. Plus you had nice little table and floor fans, they worked much better than what they sell now, even if they did sound like small airplanes when on high speed Houses were of different designs too. Taller ceilings, different floor plan where all rooms but bedrooms passed into each other, so air circulation was better. Different materials less bothered by heat and humidity, no drywall. And probably mostly, you were simply just used to it. As kids we ran around outside regardless of heat until we were bloody beet red in the face and some adult made you come sit in the shade and drink some ice water. Night time, fans and windows, and you went to bed early enough to take advantage of it so that you were getting up before the sun cranked up the heat pump again. I live in florida now, the house is designed like crap as far as that stuff goes, everything designed around the fact it should have central heat and air. Still, i try to not turn it on until the humidity kicks up for the year (Cause a modern house just wont well survive the humidity) When i do turn it on, it’s only to about 85 degrees during the day to pump the humidity back outside, soon as the humidity blows itself out after august usually, back off goes the AC and back open go the windows. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/62 "2018-06-17T23:36:30Z")
We had a window exhaust fan, strong enough to blow the hot air out so you could feel incoming air in all the bedroom windows. This was in central Indiana, so while the humidity was usually high, the temperature drop at night was usually decent. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/63 "2018-06-18T01:07:42Z")
Whaddya mean, “ancestors”’? _I_ don’t have air conditioning. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/64 "2018-06-18T01:24:39Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Whaddya mean, “ancestors”'? > > _I_ don’t have air conditioning. How did your ancestors handle the cold before fire? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/65 "2018-06-18T02:26:03Z")
I grew up in Philadelphia without any air conditioning. I live in Montreal without any air conditioning. Sometimes my father and I slept in the back yard; neither of us were bothered by mosquitoes. When I was 19 (and a college commuter) they moved to a house that had a whole house fan and that felt like luxury. It is different in Montreal. Many summers the temperature barely gets above 90 and a window fan is enough to keep us comfortable. I had an uncle living in Northern VA and summers there were hell. But we survived. It is living without central heating that I find hard to imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/66 "2018-06-18T02:47:08Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > How did your ancestors handle the cold before fire? Oh, your basic Hoth survival techniques: shut the big gates as the blizzard blows up, no matter who’s still out there, take shelter inside a dead tauntaun, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/67 "2018-06-18T03:00:09Z")
In the NE of Aus, a residential architecture was the [Queenslander](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queenslander_%28architecture%29)– nothing on ground floor, everything on the floor above, to put you up where there is a bit of a breeze. The walls were, i think, mostly blow-through: at least that’s what it was like in the late 60’s. My dad grew up in the capitol city of Michigan: there were no electric lights, fans, or refrigerators until he was in senior High. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/68 "2018-06-18T04:15:58Z")
My grandmother once told me of my grandfather rigging up a piece of cardboard to a string he tied to his big toe, allowing him to fan them both—at least until he fell asleep—while lying in an otherwise stifling bedroom among the melon fields of Southwest Arkansas. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/69 "2018-06-18T10:31:41Z")
My family is from the south. Mostly Georgia in recent generations. • The houses of my aunts and uncles, and of my paternal grandparents, sat on brick columns; if (as was the case with our own little house when my dad was a graduate student in Tallahassee) there was no decorative panel covering the columns and the space in between, you could run around _under_ the house in the air space below it. Well, you could if you were as short as a five year old kid at any rate. The air space under people’s first floors helped keep the houses cool. • Meanwhile, the _rooms_ were tall. Ceiling height was a lot farther from the floor than modern houses. Heat rises. Tall-ceilinged rooms were more comfortable in the summer. (Expensive to air condition, which is a big part of why they fell out of favor) • We had a car without air conditioning. My folks bought something called a “swamp cooler” when we went west to New Mexico-- it fit in the passenger side window and used the evaporation of water to cool the air in the car. It would not have worked in Georgia (you can’t get water to evaporate in Georgia. Sweating is useless. The air seems to always be 99% humidity). When we lived in Georgia, the windows went down. Cars used to have little triangle windows in front, and you could angle them so as to deflect air in a stream into the car on really hot days. • Kids played in sprinklers or with garden hoses, just as they still do nowadays. • Every room had electric fans. House windows were open. Doors were open (and all houses had screen doors) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/70 "2018-06-18T13:37:56Z")
I grew up in Boston without air conditioning in the house. We kept the windows open, used fans, and drank a lot of cold water. To this day, my favorite way of combating the heat is taking a shower while wearing bra and panties, then putting on a big, loose teeshirt without drying off. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/71 "2018-06-18T13:53:14Z")
Mine had several weapons. 1. Housing which was very good at keeping the heat outside. My grandparents’ flat in Barcelona was built in 1936, no a/c. Just by using weather strips in the “sun room”\* and closing both sides of it, you could get a differential of 5ºC/9ºF between the outside and the living room. Other houses are even better at that; there’s parts of Spain where people still move to the old cave in the summer. 2. _Sombrías_ and _solanas_. A _sombría_ or _umbría_ is a place that never sees the sun (great in summer); a _solana_ is one where the sun hits so long as it’s out (great in winter). 3. Porches to help create and manage those. Extra points: they also protect from rain, to which many of my foreparents were violently allergic. 4. The _botijo_. Spain’s best contribution to engineering bar none, it has nowadays been relegated to a decorative “folksy” piece. It’s a small earthen jar with two very narrow mouths and a handle; it must NOT be completely painted, because by not being completely painted, microevaporation through the walls actually lowers the temperature of the liquid inside 😃 You drink by grabbing the handle, pointing the narrow mouth at yours and pouring off; air gets in through the wider mouth, thus making it easy to keep a constant stream. 5. Houses which make use of the dominant winds as natural fans. Who needs electricity when _cierzo_ or _levante_ are blowing. - I’m told that’s the English name, but this one should be more of a “shadow room”, since it only gets a few hours of direct sunlight every year. This low amount of direct sunlight, while overlooking a large, sunny central area (very little noise from traffic), was one of the selling points for that flat and all those in the same side of the block’s inner yard. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/72 "2018-06-18T14:37:07Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Ancestors? Heck, _I_ grew up without air conditioning in the early sixties. We would run through a sprinkler in the yard, go to the local pool, go to the beach, go to the movies, go to the mall, anyplace cool. At night you slept with the windows open and a fan blowing. Ha! Same here. As a kid, I don’t ever remember being too hot. I don’t think it bothered us. But my dad would set up a box fan and we opened our windows. Also kept the drapes/curtains shut during the day. Sprinklers and kiddie pools were a big thing for us. When we were at the cabin we had the lake. My Italian great-grandma’s kitchen was in her basement. I think the house was originally built that way. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/73 "2018-06-18T14:39:36Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Grew up in Las Vegas, in the 50’s. > > We had a swamp cooler. I don’t think that qualifies as A/C. By the time you were eight years old, the brothers all knew how to service it. It was a necessity for survival. What’s a swamp cooler!? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/74 "2018-06-18T14:46:15Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > What’s a swamp cooler!? [Evaporative cooling device](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler). Can be as simple as a wet towel. Despite the name these work best in dry arid conditions. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/75 "2018-06-18T14:49:37Z")
I used to own a second home in southern Italy, which didn’t have aircon (I was on a budget). The house was at least 100 years old. The walls were at least a foot thick, and the ceilings in the bedrooms were built barrel vaulted, allowing the heat in the rooms to rise. All the houses in the area were painted white. The floors were all marble. We had very large, covered seating areas outdoors, including a covered outdoor kitchen. Most importantly, that part of Italy, as with much of the Mediterranean, still operates a strict siesta time - basically, you work from c.8am til 1pm, break off during the hottest part of the day to take lunch and sleep, then return to work 5-8pm. A few companies now work through siesta, but they tend to have air conditioned offices. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/76 "2018-06-18T14:56:23Z")
There is a serious problem with many of these architectural techniques for dealing with heat in summer: they make dealing with cold in winter worse. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/77 "2018-06-18T15:00:45Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > There is a serious problem with many of these architectural techniques for dealing with heat in summer: they make dealing with cold in winter worse. Not an issue for many of the places with the worst heat. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/78 "2018-06-18T17:22:56Z")
I still remember small businesses that didn’t have AC. Candy in small groceries got hot. You learned quickly to break it in half and check for worms before taking a bite. Bread molded. Everybody was sweaty, including the restaurant staff at mom & pop burger joints. Seeing swest dripping off the person cooking your burger was a bit unsettling. But, that was life in a hot climate. Most people’s introduction to AC was at movie theaters and big dept stores. They knew it drew in customers. Eventually dad would buy a window AC. Usually installed in the master bedroom. A 2nd window unit cooled the den. It needed to be in a room easily closed off. The rest of the house would be blazing hot. My parents always turned them off before leaving for work. I still remember coming home in the evening and turning on the window AC. It took an hour to cool down the room. Central Air came several years later. By then nearly every room had a window unit. They all were removed after installing central AC. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/79 "2018-06-18T17:37:51Z")
Never had AC in the house where i grew up(Mid Michigan). Never noticed it was hot when I was a kid. I think its hotter these days than in the old days of my ancestors. I know they had fans when electricity and the invention of the fan. Before electricity, they have slaves fanning the rich people. They had ice houses in the old days. There were sod houses built into the ground. What the people did in the big cities I have no idea. Had to be terribly suffering! :(☹ Double hung windows are for letting the air flow in and then out the opened top section. These days I would just die somehow if we didnt have fans or AC.:eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219/80 "2018-06-20T12:29:56Z")
Raised in Phoenix in the 50s and 60s. No a/c at the beginning but we did have evaporative cooling. Before that there were sleeping porches (even in the major hotel in town) and there were stories of the pioneers hanging wetted burlap in the windows. The evaps were only partially successful, mainly to make sleeping comfortable. Although the humidity was low, at best they could drop the temp about 20 degrees-F. This meant when, as often happened, the daytime high could be 110 and the house was still 90. The high for the year was frequently 115 to 118 so you can extrapolate from that. The dogs and cats would quickly figure out where the air from the ducts would hit the floor and camp out there. In the early 60s window air conditioners became available and all of the master bedroom windows blossomed them but us kids didn’t get any. A few years later whole-house a/c was practical (heat pumps, mainly) but of course, we didn’t move just to get one. My sister in law was also raised here and one June (our hottest month) I remarked, “I don’t remember suffering this much when we were kids.” Peg took a long pull on her iced tea and replied, “I think when you get older, you develop a taste for creature comforts.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-ancestors-handle-the-heat-before-air-conditioning/816219.md?page=5)