central A/C

[Paisley]

A friend of mine grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico in a house with foot-thick adobe walls. It provided insulation against the heat and cold.

A lot of the houses I saw in Las Vegas had wooden awnings over the windows. I used to see quite a few fabric or fiberglass awnings here, but maybe that's passe now.

And of course, there's the old custom of the siesta.

 

[LizzieMaine]

To an extent. Today, our construction standards are specifically designed with energy savings in mind. To live in a modern house w/o A/C would be unbearable, not only from a temperature standpoint, but from the effects of dust, mold, misc. allergens, synthetic building materials as well as the waste products from human exhalation.

Someone needs to do a study on how much energy is consumed running the AC's made necessary by "energy efficient" construction standards.

(I could never live in a modern house if that's what they're like -- I'd be found dead within a week, suffocated by a giant ball of cat hair.)

 

[Mav]

Someone needs to do a study on how much energy is consumed running the AC's made necessary by "energy efficient" construction standards.

Such things are simply not done.

 

[Burton]

A very intersting topic and going back to the OP people in the distant past had no choice on how they were going to cope with the heat they just did it. I really enjoyed Mavs post as being in the HVAC business he knows what he is talking about with modern construction.

As for me I choose to do a lot of my living in the past but as earlier posters have already stated once you have experienced AC (and live in a truly hot humid environment) it's tough to give up.

 

[davestlouis]

I seem to recall reading that central A/C in commercial buildings played a large role in the growth of Atlanta and other urban centers in the south...in the absence of cooled office buildings you would have never seen the growth of businesses in the downtown core.

I also have been told that access to A/C has contributed to the breakdown of social attachments in neighborhoods, since people disappear into their homes and don't sit on the porch visiting with neighbors.

Some folks will tell ya that A/C has helped lead to higher rates of obesity...if a chubby guy isn't miserable in a cooled building, there's not as much reason to lose the pounds, as there would be if he was sweating his butt off in the heat.

Having said all that, I sure do appreciate A/C.

 

[Paisley]

I remember reading in Warren Buffett's biography that air conditioning changed the textile industry. It allowed fabric to be made more cheaply in the South and overseas than in New England.

 

[Lokar]

To an extent. Today, our construction standards are specifically designed with energy savings in mind. To live in a modern house w/o A/C would be unbearable.

A/C in homes (even brand new ones) both here and in the UK is close to unheard of, in my experience. Obviously there's a huge temperature difference between here and California, but we use synthetic building materials, breathe, have dust, etc., and cope just fine.

 

[davestlouis]

We had an A/C problem in one of our funeral homes last week, and within 24 hours of 90 degree heat and high humidity, we could notice carpets in the hallways wrinkling and bunching up, and several doors were starting to swell and not want to close readily. It doesn't take long for the humidity to really affect things. This place was built in 1959 and NONE of the windows was designed to be opened. They are about 8 feet tall and 4 feet across, with wood frames and single pane glass, so without the HVAC there is NO way to ventilate the place. It's 13,000 sq ft too, so it became a big, hot, nasty place to be.

 

[Quigley Brown]

I just hate it when the temp. hits 75 degrees for the first time of the year and I see drivers with all their windows shut and their A/C on.

It sort of affects my body going in and out of central-aired buildings on 90+ degree days. It just hits you like a wall when you step outside after a few hours and I'm soaking wet after a few blocks. I live in a third-floor apartment (top) of a mid-19th century home. I have a window air, but I usually strip down to shorts, turn the fan on and have a tall glass of ice water.

 

[Helysoune]

When I lived in Southern California, I had a swamp cooler, which from what I understand works by essentially blowing a big fan through a moist filter. It actually worked very well, unless it was already humid, then it just made it worse. That house didn't have central heat either, for that matter, just a gas-powered wall unit that combined with the ceiling fans turning correctly kept the house comfortable all winter.

This is the first house I've ever had central air in and I hate it. I sit in it at work 60+ hours a week and freeze, so coming home to fresh air and a nice breeze are great things. The only problem is that my mister is categorically opposed to sweating when he's relaxing, so it's been on frequently the last week or so and even I will admit that it's been hot enough out to warrant it (pushing 90 and humid).

There are two problems with the way this house is that keep it from being nice and cool. First, the windows are sliders, not standard double hung, and the house itself isn't oriented in such a way as to catch the breeze the best. Many times, you can see a lovely breeze outside by the movement of the trees, but there's not a breath of air in the house. It's a shame, really, because it's a cute early 60s rambler with a lot of potential, just poorly thought out, and not just because of the no-breeze situation.

 

[Chasseur]

As a person whose lived in some pretty hot/warm places (Washington, DC, New Delhi, Honolulu, etc.) I would have to second those who've mentioned the changes in building contruction. It used to be in hot places the houses were well designed to deal with the heat and have deep covered porches, high ceilings, positioned for good airflow, etc. But with the advent of modern A/C and also the sheer density of construction in some cities its very hard to "get by without A/C" the way people used to. The buildings are not designed to do it.

When we were house/appartment shopping in Honolulu a few years there were some places that you could tell very quickly if they were well designed for the heat or not. We went during the hottest time of the day to places and asked to see them without the A/C on. Some homes and appartments even with all the windows open and the fans on were ovens (bad no or no insulation, badly positioned windows, etc.).

Also if you live in a very densely built city (as many areas in Honolulu are) some of the "old solutions to heat" no longer work. For example, in the small town my parents live their house has no A/C but is an old plantation home from the 1940s and has excellent cross breezes etc. Its wonderful 99% of time throughout the year. However, to try and replicate that in a densely developed area of Honolulu where the little house is surrounded by concrete highrises and a highway thats a losing battle. Sure those windows had a nice cross breeze once, but that was before the 6 high rises were built cutting off the wind and all the trees cut down eliminating the shade... And try to sleep at night with all those open windows next to the highway and when the Harley Davidson club drives on by...

 

[Mav]

A/C in homes (even brand new ones) both here and in the UK is close to unheard of, in my experience. Obviously there's a huge temperature difference between here and California, but we use synthetic building materials, breathe, have dust, etc., and cope just fine.

Lokar, when I say our new construction is tight, I mean tight, and in CA, especially, that's by regulation. No airflow unless you've got a mechanical means to move it, and, as a lot of other posters have stated, modern homes aren't designed in a way to take advantage of natural cooling, because it's easier and cheaper to throw up a stuccoed box and slap a furnace/ condensing unit/ coil combo on it.
To get into any more detail fringes on politics (and technological ignorance on the part of "them's that makes the rules"), and I like this forum too much to go into a rant and get booted.

Dave and Paisley: those are both valid historical points. In commercial applications, A/C is a gotta- have, and it's been around far longer there than in residential.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I was thinking about this thread while I was outside the better part of the afternoon today. It got me remembering that during the Golden Era, if people could avoid rigourous activities & chores in mid-day, they would. If people back then had to accomplish things outside in the summer months, they would at least try to do them in the early morning or later in the evening when the sun wasn't so high in the sky.

 

[Viola]

I've never lived in a house with central air and in my family we try to save the little AC units for nothing but a couple nights a year. It can be done. Easiest way is, of course, by not being able to afford to run it.

 

[KittyT]

While humans can adapt to seriously adverse weather conditions, heat can kill just as easily as cold. Here in Houston we had record temps last summer, with multiple days through June and July well over 100deg. Combine that with 80 to 90% humidity and no breeze and something as short as a walk to your curbside mailbox requires a shower. As far as getting used to it? I moved here 15 years ago from Southern California.
You NEVER get used to it, you just learn to cope. Same thing? Not to me...

I would venture a guess that this is mostly because most construction in the area you live in is newer, and modern houses are just not built to be as cooling/warming/efficient and they were back in the day. As many people have mentioned in this thread (and as was thoroughly discussed in the radio report I posted, if anyone actually listened to it) is that there are numerous things you can do to help naturally cool your house. This doesn't mean it will make living comfortable, but it can make it tolerable.

 

[KittyT]

To an extent. Today, our construction standards are specifically designed with energy savings in mind.

They are designed with energy savings in mind, but based on the assumption that everyone is going to have AC, not the assumption that one wants to go the more efficient route of not having AC at all.

To live in a modern house w/o A/C would be unbearable, not only from a temperature standpoint, but from the effects of dust, mold, misc. allergens, synthetic building materials as well as the waste products from human exhalation.

Actually, this is not true at all. Go listen to the broadcast I posted, which includes a fair bit of information about the air quality effects of AC. Although I agree that AC helps with the indoor air quality of places with horrible air pollution, for the most part, it does not improve indoor air quality and instead you end up with air that feels like it's just been recirculated - like an airplane. Yuck!

It sort of affects my body going in and out of central-aired buildings on 90+ degree days. It just hits you like a wall when you step outside after a few hours and I'm soaking wet after a few blocks.

This is a huge pet peeve of mine too. I don't like dressing for the warm weather for my trip to work, yet having to drag a sweater with me to put on in my office. Then, when I go outside, it feels much, much hotter because I've been sitting in an icebox for a few hours. The same drives me crazy in the winter too - blasting heat (for example packing onto the trains sweating like it's a 90 degree summer day, and unable to shed your warmer layers) when you're already dressed for the cold weather.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a very good point -- some people find AC more unpleasant than no AC at all. When I last worked in radio, my office/studio was a tiny soundproofed acoustically-tiled cubbyhole with no air circulation at all aside from the air conditioning system -- and during the eight years I worked in that office I had pretty much continuous breathing troubles, hacking coughs, you name it. I got out of there, and haven't had those problems since. Central AC systems -- especially those in buildings owned by chintzy operators who refuse to do proper maintenance -- can be breeding grounds for all sorts of foul allergens.

 

[Geesie]

I grew up in St. Louis and until I was 13, we did not have A/C. The house had a nice big oak tree on one side to provide some shade, and fans during the night and then closing up the house and putting up heavy curtains during the day kept it tolerable. Oh, and we avoided the second floor on the hottest days - it was like an oven up there.

I live in San Diego now, so 99% of the time I don't need any air conditioning but a few days out of the year it gets up near 100 and it's just miserable. Unlike the house in StL, in San Diego I live in a lousy concrete 3-unit apartment building, on the second (of 2) floor. There is zero shade, so the sun hits it all day. There is almost no vegetation in the area, just streets and parking lots and other low buildings. The airflow is terrible, so even with fans it doesn't cool off. At night during the hot weeks, the temperature inside will often stay 10-15° higher than outside even pre-dawn, and even with fans running. A perfect example of a place not being built considering any environmental factors.

 

[Charlie74]

I lived in Savannah, Ga in a house built in 1852. Needless to say not only was there no AC but no heat. Now Savannah is not that cold and we had fireplaces, but the summers are hot, humid and are like living in a swamp. There was a window unit in the bedroom in order to sleep at night but when you were stepping out of the shower and dressing in the summer, it was like being in a sauna

 

[Mav]

Actually, this is not true at all. Go listen to the broadcast I posted, which includes a fair bit of information about the air quality effects of AC. Although I agree that AC helps with the indoor air quality of places with horrible air pollution, for the most part, it does not improve indoor air quality and instead you end up with air that feels like it's just been recirculated - like an airplane. Yuck!

Actually it is, but I've only been in the business for 33 years and an IAQ consultant for 10, so what do I know?
I'm assuming a properly designed, properly installed, and regularly maintained system. Part of that is fresh air circulation, and if you are getting a feeling of recirculated air, you need to crack a window, which tends to negate the whole energy conservation deal, but that and IAQ are pretty much in opposition, anyway.
In addition, part of the problem is in the misunderstanding of "air conditioning" as strictly cooling, which it is not. Most don't have a full grasp of the full functionality available, largely because they only think of it it terms of "heating" and "cooling," completely forgetting about humidity control, air changes, IAQ, etc..