In case of Ice Age, we Antillans are truly and well screwed, our housing has absolutely NO provision for heating, other than the water for the bathroom and kitchen faucets… and that’s often an inline heater specifically for the showerhead.
Depends on your age. Old people like the heat.
I have an overactive thyroid. I run hotter than the average person. There have been times when life without A/C has been sheer torture.
In eastern Taiwan, we live in a semi-tropical climate. We get both the heat and the humidity. They don’t have central A/C, just room units so different rooms will be bearable. We often set it on “dry” to simply lower the humidity.
I will get out of the shower and be all sweaty again in minutes. It’s 93 today with humidity in the 80s.
I’ve never lived in a house with air conditioning. I don’t ever want to either.
My main floor (bungalow) reached a seasonal high of 27 C (80 F) today but is now back to 24 (75).
I much prefer open windows and the breeze.
It’s 5:57 am and 74 degrees outside here. I want my AC. Humidity is 92 percent, according to weather.com.
I look forward to your post in the “Is central heating <somewhat> of a scam?” thread in six months.
But most builders do consider heat efficiency when designing buildings. A modern house is likely to be quite heat efficient.
Granted. I was just obtusely pointing out that someone who lives in the Great White North may well not see a need for A/C, just as someone living in the tropics may not see a need for central heat.
It gets incredibly humid here in the summer. I live without a/c during the day because we have a huge, wonderful screened porch that’s completely shaded. We turn the ceiling fans on out there, and it’s heavenly.
At night it’s a different story. My bedroom is on the second floor, and it’s really hot. I turn the wall unit on about a half hour before I go to bed and it’s perfect. I like my bedroom really cold (I have the window open in the winter), I’d never be able to sleep without the a/c.
I live in an area where Mother Nature has bipolar disorder. It was in the 80’s yesterday. Today it’s in low 60’s. It’s anyone’s guess what tomorrow will be. Central heating and air makes life more comfortable all around.
As it happens, I’m sitting in the room that was my old bedroom growing up. Back then, I didn’t use air conditioning since it was bad for the environment. I kept the lights off during the day and pulled the curtains while I read in the gloom. The ceiling fan ran day and night.
Today, that room is a media & computer room. I can’t see in the dark any more, so the lights are always on. I have a desktop pc that’s as warm as a Franklin stove sitting three feet from me. I also have: two monitors, a tv, an xbox, a dvr, modem, router, etc. If I didn’t have air conditioning, all that (quite expense) stuff would get damaged and the room would be unlivable.
Not only has the temperature risen overall, but in the US, we’re filled our houses with heat-generating equipment. I’m afraid my air conditioner is no longer optional. I feel guilty about it but not so guilty I’m going to change. At least on my way to Hell, I’ll have my iPhone to keep me entertained.
Air conditioning makes it impossible to acclimate to the heat and using it keeps people indoors. When I wasn’t using it, I was happy to spend plenty of time outside despite extreme temperatures and humidity. This year though, my dog’s heart condition has made him unable to tolerate the summer temperatures, so we keep the air on 80 for him.
Hm, seems that hipsters* are denouncing a/c these days…articlefrom Slate today.
As an aside, it seems that a/c is actually less damaging to the environment than heat, and no one bitches about heating the house when it’s 25F outside.
*I jest about the “hipsters” part. Y’all can fill in the blank with any term you like.
In this part of the world (Eastern Ontario, Canada) air conditioning is optional: central heating is not.
I honestly don’t like air conditioning and I think it’s overused. I recall some seven years ago being in Florida on business. I went into some chain restaurant like Chili’s for a burger and beer on a warm sunny Sunday afternoon and froze my ass off while trying to eat at the bar. I mean I was shivering throughout lunch and couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. Some people’s homes are set way too low also, and it’s not necessary.
It’s currently 21 outside (70 F) and 24 (75 F) inside. The windows and patio door are open. A nice breeze and country air are swirling around. The birds are singing and I never want air conditioning to spoil all that.
According to The Boy, our medications shouldn’t be allowed to heat over 81F or they’ll lose efficacy. I think he’s exaggerating, but I haven’t looked it up.
We have window units. One in the main room (where the meds are kept) and one in his room because he got heat stroke in the army and since has been sensitive to overheating.
Before the invention of A/C people lived just fine. A/C is a luxury (not a scam) that many people choose to not live without.
Bingo!
Here in FL quite a lot of us have a set of sweatpants and a sweater or nice sweatshirt that we leave in the car all the time. It’s our “restaurant clothes”. As in: You put them on over your shorts & polo before going inside to freeze half to death waiting to eat.
There are several places near here I won’t go into at all because they’re so damn cold inside; I’ll eat on their outside patio or go elsewhere.
Bloody stupid. I think it’s mostly a reaction to humidity, not just temp. They want it dry in there so they run the AC full blast to condense the water out of the air. And they’re too cheap to also run the heater to keep the interior at a pleasant temp.
Boy wouldn’t that idea, running both AC & heat together, make the Green folks’ heads asplode? 
I live in an area where air conditioning would be nice to have maybe 5 weeks out of the year on average. This year is an exception to that as we’ve had 90 degree days in June. I’ve found certain flooring materials (e.g., stick-down tiles) don’t do well with wide temperature fluctuations and refrigerator/freezers don’t work well in the higher room temperatures. But I do seem to eat less (and drink a bit more), so that’s good!
Oh geez…
OP here, I wasn’t judging or putting down anyone, and I am really out of the loop hipster or politics wise in the USA
The scam in my OP was about how AC requires a sealed living space, which is unlivable without it. And how AC makes you accustomed to cooler temps, and anything higher then feels wrong.
That is what I meant by scam, I emphatically do not feel superior to those who love AC.
My wife laughs at me because I refuse to take a “cold” shower, I insist on using a tea/coffee electric kettle which I dump in a bucket to bathe in using a cup.
She just uses the shower head in the shower, water heaters are rare here except for expat housing. Even luxury hotels it is hit or miss(hey I’ not staying in them).
*Dude with shaved to short hair.
EDIT:If I time it right I get solar heated hot water, we’re not on running water but on tanks(3X1,000gallon tanks) so time it right and you have an almost uncomfortably hot shower.