What, they get their electricity from the phone company?
Well, even we fatties don’t *need *air conditioning the way we need food, water and shelter. I don’t think it made Maslow’s hierarchy or anything. 
But yeah, it’s a lot more comfortable with it. I don’t think it was any less “more comfortable” when I was skinny, though. I’ve always been the hot one in the room.
I believe in air conditioning in the sense that I know it exists. But boy, do I resent it.
Shortly after I moved to Colorado, a state where air conditioning is totally unnecessary, the forward-thinking, ecologically minded government decided that commercial high-rise buildings must be built with windows that could not be opened. Could NOT be opened. When remodeled, the windows of older buildings would be similarly dealt with. What? Why?
I worked on the 11th floor of a building that had been sitting in downtown Denver since 1917, according to its cornerstone. It did not need air conditioning. Yes, in the summer the offices got warm. In the olden days, before air conditioning, people wore summer clothes in the summer and maybe they got a little sweaty.
Before the big remodel there were electric fans and window air-conditioners, but essentially, the building got cool at night (which can happen in Denver, it always gets pretty cool at night even in the summer) and judicious closing of the windows and shading of other windows worked pretty well, although there were probably a lot more heat-generating machines than in 1917 (i.e., computers, electric typewriters, copy machines).
The retrofit in this building was so intense that there was occasionally, in the summer, frost on the windows. People brought in coats to wear inside. I used to beg to make copies because the copy machine was the warmest spot in the office.
Air conditioning has also resulted in people moving in droves to places where they think AC is absolutely necessary. I’ve already bitched about my inlaws who moved from Rochester to Tucson, presumably for the nice weather, and then do nothing but bitch about the heat. I’m sure the same is true of Florida. Think how nice these places would be if air conditioning hadn’t caught on.
Air conditioning is the one thing that has made me most miserable in offices. Fluorescent lights come in at #2. These are things you don’t want to ask about in job interviews because you know that means they won’t hire you because they’ll think you’re a wacko. (I like to hide that fact for as long as possible.)
You adapt to heat (or cold, I guess). Air conditioning keeps people from adapting, hence they are miserable whenever they aren’t in it.
Admittedly, I like the warm. I like summer. The hotter it gets, the happier I am. Today it’s only 77F and I am kinda depressed.
My Mom is transitioning from “Middle Aged” to Elderly.
She previously enjoyed AC, but now the cold hurts her joints.
She only uses AC when things are excessively hot and/or humid.
Ever heard of “heat stroke?”
But is that the gramatically correct usage of the term? To say “I don’t believe in” something usually means you dispute its very existence, not that you don’t condone, or prefer not to participate in, a particular practice.
Some electricity companies have a time-of-use plan where (at least with mine) daytime usage is much more expensive than nighttime.
Another problem with AC is that newer buildings aren’t necessarily made to work with the environment. I could probably cope without AC even in 100+ heat if my home was designed properly, but it’s a small condo with very large windows facing south and east, which catch the afternoon sun and just blast the house with heat. The air flow is hideous, too, as it’s a pretty cramped little two-story.
I was recently watching a movie set in New Orleans and studying the architecture of the older buildings, and I thought to myself that those places probably feel fantastic in the summer, perhaps with the addition of a couple fans. Wide open windows and doors, large breezeways…who needs AC?
Personally, I’m looking forward to moving to a colder climate. I much prefer the weather to be cold with warm houses than the reverse.
That’s the thing, though, they do need it when they get older. Every year there are stories of elderly people (others as well, but mostly elderly individuals) dying of heat stroke in their homes when they aren’t using air conditioners.
Think of it as short for “I don’t believe in the alleged benefits of the practice.”
In fact, no air conditioning, being elderly, and lack of social connections (i.e., no one to check on you, get you to go somewhere air conditioned, etc.) are considered prime factors in the 600+ heat-related deaths from the 1995 Chicago heat wave.
I remember that heat wave well; our AC unit stopped working and the apartment complex’s maintenance had to get someone to fix it. Naturally there was a wait since it’d happened for others too.
Ferrets can’t tolerate temps starting around 75-80 F so I use air conditioning in the summer but keep it set at 68+ typically. (We have only one unit for the house and this keeps the house below 75 unless it’s blazing hot - I’m more likely to move the ferret cage on hot days than turn up the AC much.)
Yes, it is correct. “Believe in” can also mean “have a firm conviction as to the goodness of something,” as in “John believes in oat bran.” Clearly if John believes in oat bran, Jane can not believe in same, meaning she disbelieves its inherent goodness rather than its very existence.
It has been running high 80s around here the last few days. I open the windows to get fresh air in. I am fine. When my wife gets home she shuts the windows and turns on the air.
I walk my dogs every day. I cut the grass today. I got warm but inside I was comfortable.
My wife is 10 years younger. She turns the car into a traveling ice cube. I turn it off as soon as I get in the car.
She is 55 and overweight and out of condition.
In the last few years of her life, Palikia kept her home around 80-85 degrees. This was in very south Texas, and she did, in fact, buy a new central a/c unit when the old one failed. For her, that was the comfort point. 100 outside, cool and happy 83 inside.
Clearly an age thing, as when we lived in Boulder, years before, the thermostat was set down around 65.
I dunno. A sweater is something you put on when your mom is cold, right?
I remember when I was a kid, I was so confused by my grandpa, who had central air, which was like the promise of a happy life to me, since I had no AC in my bedroom and was completely miserable all summer – and then never used it, because he was always cold. In his case, it was totally about him being colder than other people are – he wasn’t, and isn’t to this day, a guy who’s super tight with money.
And then, there’s my workplace, aka the Dark Side of the AC. We have a really overpowered air conditioning unit in our office, and it only takes about 20 minutes after you turn it on before I am freezing, all my joints ache, and I’m miserable. It’s a constant thing of turning it on and off, so it doesn’t get too stuffy (none of our windows open, so the AC is the only way to get some air moving) but also doesn’t get too too cold.
I am a senior citizen we have air conditioning, my husband keeps it cool, I wear a sweater because as you age some people (like me) have a change in metabolism. It is also a help with my allergies. I spend a lot of time out of doors in the summer . If it is humid or above 85 I stay indoors. Also some people have thyriod problems so they feel cold all the time.
Monavis
Ever hear of drinking plenty of water, staying out of direct sunlight and avoiding physical exertion unless you are thoroughly acclimatised?
There are not that many places where people in reasonable health are regularly at danger of heat stroke unless they are doing something rather unwise. For example I’ve had heatstroke playing in a seaside pool in the UK, and my mum once got heatstroke in Sweden. Yet literally millions of people do hard physical labour in hot countries all day every day without expiring. It’s just a matter of being aware that heat is something you adapt to, rather than vice versa. Even in places like Phoenix, people were digging canals, ploughing fields and whatnot long before AC was invented.
For the elderly, heat can be a killer. But so can stairs, stomach bugs, minor respiratory infections and any number of other things that they would have barely noticed when they were younger.
Personally, I think many older people don’t bother with AC etc. for the same reason my grandfather wore a shirt and tie every single day until he went into hospital, even when he was living on his own. You grow up doing a certain set of things in a certain type of environment, and that’s how you stay. You could be less hot and uncomfortable with the AC on, or by wearing pajamas all day, but if you’ve made it through three-quarters of a century without doing that, why start innovating now? Humans are creatures of habit.
The “I don’t believe” language I hear from older people seems to be in the context not of “I think air conditioning is a good idea, but it makes me feel cold”, but rather “I don’t think anyone should have air conditioning, and that the entire concept of cooling air below whatever the ambient temperature may be is just plain wrong.”
I just remembered something from my youth as a bagger in a local supermarket:
There was a thin, elderly gentleman who always wore a winter coat and scarf…even during a 90 deg. summer day.
I asked him if he was hot, and he just looked at me funny, like I didn’t make any sense.
Maybe he thought you were coming on to him?!?
Heat stroke is more about acclimation than temperature. Millions of people live in hot places without air conditioning. I lived two years in a place where it would sometimes dip below 100 at night. Nobody got heat stroke, not even the elderly who worked their fields in full sun.
Drink plenty of water (yeah, even if you “don’t like the taste of water”- you can lose a liter an hour even at rest on a hot day), keep your house dark and breezy, let yourself sweat and be aware of how physical activity is affecting you and stop immediately if needed. Thats all it takes. It’s not comfortable, but it’s not dangerous unless you don’t pay attention to your body and don’t take simple precautions.