If forced to, we could get used to most of our house being dark and unusable after sunset, or hauling water in from a nearby creek, or peeing outside. Or a more reasonably analogy, we could give up central heat. I don’t think anyone would call it an addiction to have your living room, bedroom and bathroom all at 68 instead of, say, 85 in the living room near the fireplace and 55 in the bathroom.
If 68 is room temperature and the con-AC argument is that people should just deal with their house being 85 and humid in summer, could you make the same argument that they should deal with their house being 51 degrees all winter long?
I have never lived in a house with AC. When I was growing up in Philly, poor people just didn’t have it. Then we moved to a house with what is now called a whole house fan. That made sleeping a vastly different experience, but didn’t help much during the day. I spent two years in a NYC apartment, which could well have used it, but didn’t have it. Forty seven years ago, I ended up in Montreal, whose summer climate is quite moderate (don’t get me started on the winter). Some years, there are frequent days in the 90s, but not this year so far, nor last. I think the highest this year has been 29C = 84F. Our house would be hard to air condition between the heating system is hot water. I might put a window unit in our bedroom, but it has odd windows that could not accept it. But we have an exhaust fan in one window and a fan blowing air in in our bedroom and that keeps us comfortable.
On the other hand, were I to move to NYC (a real possibility), I would insist on AC. My son in Seattle, who could well afford it, has not air-conditioned his house, although this summer might make him change his mind.
You misunderstood, or seriously exaggerated, my point. I must have done a bad job writing.
I’m NOT suggesting anyone *ought *to give up air conditioning or any other modern convenience. I’m not making a normative statement.
I’m merely suggesting that A/C is an example of something folks become used to, and desire more of as they become more accustomed to it. I mean nothing more and nothing less. In that sense, and in that sense alone, it is similar to many addictive substances or habits in that the desired dose tends to increase over time. Which is a point the OP made, and rightly so IMO.
All the rest is moralizing on the OP’s part (“scam”) and exaggeration on your part. A lot of people assume any use of the word “addiction” and related word must be pejorative. Not so. It’s just a feature of human nature that folks adapt to a slowly changing status quo and what was formerly perfectly acceptable becomes less so in changed circumstances.
When I bought my house it didn’t have AC and I was all “I can live without it! I didn’t have it at my parents’ house until I was 12!”
The first summer here was absolutely miserable! It dawned on me that during the first 12 years of my life we spent almost every summer day at the outdoor pool. There was also a large willow tree shading most of our house all the time - or we’d be outside enjoying the shade. And my mom kept the lights and the oven off.
As a grown-up in my own house, I am running 2 computers constantly. I work from home so I’m stuck in this box 24/7. The front window is blasted with sun 8 hours a day. Being in my situation in this house without AC was the absolute worst. I actually sent my golden retriever to stay with my parents for a few days because she never stopped panting.
I don’t know how the previous 36 years of occupants of this house managed. Well they had a whole-house fan but that was busted by the time I got here. And I’m sure they weren’t at home all day like I am, and they weren’t super fat like I am. They must have spent a lot of time in the basement or something.
ETA: Oh yeah, I did find a window AC unit in the garage when I moved in. It was a million years old, of course, and I had to go to some weird old junkyard to dispose of it.
Being from the same general region as the OP, I feel that for one, AC made it possible as we industrialized to bring in commercial/industrial/office layouts not necessarily optimized for our climate, especially in terms of space utilization/density, i.e. we could not cram in as many people if relying on cross ventilation and definitely not the office computers. OTOH converting a 1870s government building to be climate-controlled is a PITA and you end up with great mold/condensation issues if you’re not careful.
With residential properties you get again issues with trying to get higher density housing if you have to leave room for the breeze to blow. My childhood home atop a low ridge outside the city gets clear airflow, but mine in a LMC urban ward is boxed in and gets the effect of heat reirradiated by the surrounding concrete and asphalt. Also, the trend for affordable housing around here is flat boxy and squat - traditional climate adaptations like high ceilings, 20+ inch thick walls, breezeways, porches and broad eaves mean more $$$ for materials. Doesn’t help that the go-to material since after the New Deal is concrete, including flat-slab concrete ROOF, because in 1928 our entire colective mind was imprinted with the hurricane blowing away the roof being The. Worst. Thing. or at least second only to the house burning to the ground. So the roof and walls are heatsinks and you end up requiring AC or at least some mighty fans to be able to get some sleep.
It sounds like your house is actually excellently-built to be comfortable in temperatures over 80 degrees… the vents up at the roof level are going to let the hottest air out of the room, the brick walls will absorb heat slowly throughout the day so it’ll be cooler inside, then provide a bit of warmth throughout the evening (assuming the temperature drops rapidly after sundown). So, for you, yeah, air conditioning would be a waste.
Here in Minnesota, the houses are designed to keep the heat in, and don’t seem to do so well at keeping it out. My apartment will overheat to an uncomfortable amount and be 5-10 degrees warmer than it is outside, so I’m better off with a window fan blowing cooler air in than trying to use the air conditioner. If I use the air conditioner at all, it’s when it’s ridiculously humid; I want it to 80 and dry, not 70 and damp, and certainly not 90 and damp.
I live in Arizona and monsoon season is here, so we have both heat and humidity. I’m OK with temperatures in the 90s, but the humidity really makes the sweat pour off me. So I really appreciate having AC to dry out the air. I don’t set it that low, though. I’ll keep it between 80° and 84°. I’m on budget billing with my electric company where they take your kilowatt usage for the year and divide it into 12 monthly payments, so I pay a flat rate, summer or winter. This year it’s only about $50 a month, so the summer months won’t bankrupt me.
My AC in my downstairs broke a couple of Summers ago (My house is old and has window units). By mid afternoon my house was 78 degrees. I gave up shopping and researching and just ran to Sears and bought the one I had my eye on already.
You didn’t ask but if you are curious about the converse, during the Sandy damage, my power was out for two weeks during a chilly October and my house got down to 46 before the power, and thus my heat, came back on.
We have a house in Duluth Minnesota without air conditioning, and except for perhaps two days of the year it’s absolutely not needed. It helps we’re fifty feet from the huge heat sink known as Lake Superior. Folks a few miles away (and up the hill) will be 20 degrees warmer (and colder in the winter due to the lake effects).
On the other hand, in Trinidad & Tobago perhaps it’s heating that’s the real scam, but of course in Minnesota it’s required.
I’d like to know what others think about the necessity of A/C in cars. While growing up and in 1980 my first car didn’t have A/C (neither did our house), but I can’t imagine not having it in a car today.
I live in Alabama. In 2011 we lost several of our trees during the April 27th tornado so there’s less shade on the house which makes it hotter. A couple of summers ago our AC went out. We got home from work, opened the front door and I was hit with what felt like air from inside a furnace. It was 98 degrees inside the house and I thought my dog was about to die. We stayed with my in-laws for a day or two until the new unit was installed. There is no way I would even consider for a split second living without AC or having a car without AC.
The tolerance of heat probably changes with age. When I was in my 20s, I lived for quite a few years in a climate that would easily go above 100F in summers. Fairly humid, too, since it was next to the sea. No air conditioning at home (though there was AC both at work and in the car). I don’t really remember any big discomfort from the lack of AC at home.
Today, I again live in that kind of climate (though about 7,000 miles away). I wouldn’t even dream of turning the AC off. It’s at 74F and it stays there.
I think JRDelerious and Ethelrist were on to something in touching on architecture. Just today I was reading an article (Why are we so reliant on air conditioning?) in which the author pins a lot of the blame on the fact that new construction is virtually identical everywhere, regardless of local conditions. Developers are only interested in siting houses such that they meet minimum lot size and setback requirements, not in maximizing the comfort of actually living in the thing.
I knew a guy in congestive heart failure who had horrible problems with heat/humidity that led to several hospitalizations during a Pittsburgh heatwave. He called from the hospital and asked me to buy him a Sears window air conditioner, or his doctor wouldn’t release him. But it had to be Sears.
So I bought his air conditioner, which he insisted his landlord had to install. He showed the receipt to his doctor and was released.
It had to be a Sears air conditioner, because he lived a few blocks from a Sears. He put the unit in a shopping cart and pushed it to Sears to return it. He was a fucking cheapskate. He died that or the following night.
I grew up without air conditioning in Southern California. No fans. It was an older house, but it wasn’t built for heat. It should have been, but it wasn’t.
I spent most of the Summer doing things like soaking my sheets with water so that the evaporation would cool me off (my mom would pitch a fit if she caught me, but it worked). I would also sleep on the bathroom floor that was tile.
I now have fans, air conditioning and solar panels. I use less energy than I produce and I love my air conditioning. I set it to about 75 during the day and don’t run it at all at night, unless there’s a massive heat wave.
I wouldn’t live in hotlandia if I had any choice that didn’t involve divorce. So it’s AC or marriage. I’m OK with my choice.
I grew up in central Florida. My mother owned a 1972 Volvo.
A Volvo with wool seats.
A Volvo with wool seats and no air-conditioning.
Think about getting dressed up for church, then piling into a hot car, and sitting on wool. While wearing pantyhose. Hair done. And sweating the entire time.
Since then, I’ve promised myself…as God is my witness, I’ll never be hot again. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I will always have working a/c in my car.
I will admit that businesses often keep the temperature ridiculously cold. I’ve been known to go outside in a blizzard wearing only jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, so if I’m putting a sweater on because the a/c is too cold, it’s *really *frikkin’ cold.
Sometimes. I’ve always been more uncomfortable in the heat/humidity than in the cold, even as a skinny girl. My father is the same way, and he’s quite slim.
This is true. I was appalled to learn that in the new house I am buying, the windows are actually painted shut! According to the inspectors, some people prefer that (?!?!)
But at the same time, people like their AC and are going to use it. So beyond general greenness, there isn’t a ton of value in designing a lot of features most people aren’t going to use.
To cite the old chestnut that is graven on the heart of every sweatin’ fool who lives south of the Mason-Dixon line, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. 90 deg I can tolerate just fine; 85% humidity? It’s like living under a wet woolen blanket. It’s just as miserable in the winter, when the humidity gives the cold that piercing-to-the-bone quality.
No, you can take my guns, you can take my women, but you’ll have to pry my thermostat from my cool, dry, dead hands.
OH HELL NO. When I was a kid I had migraine headaches in the summer and it was pure misery. I got the “family fan” in my bedroom to help out but it did little but blow hot air on me that didn’t help in high humidity. When my parents got central air it was the greatest thing ever.
I HATE being hot. I would sell the TV in order to read books in cool comfort.
I remember having a spirited debate with a friend: if you could only have one, which would you rather have – A/C in your car or in your house?
I argued in favour of A/C in the car (I can’t stand hot 100 km/h wind blowing on my face) and my friend argued for the house. We both thought the other one was crazy.
