Comments on: Life Before Air Conditioning

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:20:20 +0000

I live in Alaska where air conditioning is almost unheard of in homes, but most major buildings have it. I live just outside of Anchorage and temperatures very rarely go past 70-something in the summertime. At my house, I’ve rarely had an uncomfortable day, but when it’s the middle of the afternoon and the sun shining directly into my huge living room window, it’s a furnace! But downstairs is where our bedroom is and we don’t need a fan or open windows.

In Fairbanks, it’s just as un-air conditioned as Anchorage, but it gets hot there!

I grew up in a Texas McMansion built in the 1960′s that had no porch, but my parents in old wood frame houses in small towns and they don’t remember it getting unbearably hot in the house, but my dad remembered when they got air conditioning in 1955, his mother gained weight all of a sudden

By: Jmatek

Jmatek — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:06:52 +0000

This is a very interesting article. A brief sketch of history.

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:14:27 +0000

Thanks to my husband having an emotional breakdown whenever he has to be in a room warmer than 74ºF for any length of time, I am probably the only woman who could possibly freeze to death in August. In Las Vegas.

People here (locals & tourists) complain and moan about the heat, but I’ve always loved it when it gets to be about 105º, like right now. I lived for years here in mobile homes with no a/c or maybe a swamp cooler that would only cool the area directly in front of it. Once the sun goes down, you open the front door and a few windows & pick up the cross-wind (and get to watch the bats, giant moths, and some, er, ‘waterbugs’). You do things in the early morning and late at night that most people do during the day, like gardening & shopping. Our neighbors’ barbecues don’t even fire up til after 8pm. I could live w/out the a/c but I don’t think my husband’s dependence on climate control is enough to file for divorce over – I can always go outside :)

By: Nini23

Nini23 — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 03:30:28 +0000

Just be sure to drink lots of water.

By: Fanaticmom

Fanaticmom — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:39:46 +0000

I live in the Ohio Valley, known for its humid summers. In fact my town was the hottest place in the country 3 or 4 times this summer. Our home is equipped with AC, but unless the heat index rises above 100, we don’t use it. We have a great attic fan, lots of shade and spend most of our time outdoors anyway. It is just our way of being more green.

By: gS49

gS49 — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:00:30 +0000

Here in Washington, DC, there used to be a lot of apartments without A/C. Well, you’ve probably heard, DC is famous for its swamplike summers.

Some people would take blankets or sheets down to the park alongside the Potomac river and spend the night there. It was much cooler, and with a lot of people around, quite safe. The DC police maintained a presence on summer nights to keep things safe, too.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:48:21 +0000

I have no a/c in my apartment, and Albany is in the middle of a heat wave. By the grace of fsm, 10 foot ceilings (which til reading this I never knew helped), and a dearth of direct sunlight, I’m doing quite well. It’s be a smidge uncomfortable, compared to what I’m used to (70 year round thanks to heaters and a/c), but not bad. My own tip is to lie naked in front of a fan and mist yourself lightly with water. Evaporation is a heat transfer process, and it cools the object the water is evaporating from (in this case, you).

Additional benefits? A/c makes us fatter. Seriously. Sweating burns calories. Not a LOT, but enough to make a difference.

By: Kev

Kev — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:46:48 +0000

This article focuses on the psychological difficulties in tolerating a summer day or night with no air conditioning. When one knows that there is a solution to their problem of suffering but that they are unable to have the available relief, it makes the situation psychologically more difficult to bear. I think that there is also a physiological component to this. I have personal experiences of working outdoors on spring days that were unusually hot for that time of year. For example, the temperature may have only been 75 but compared to the previous day’s temperature of 60, it was blistering. My speculation is that our bodies need time to acclimate to the warmer weather in order to be able to tolerate it. When we spend most of our time indoors with a fairly constant temperature, we prevent this natural acclimation from occurring. The result is that our bodies are less able to tolerate the heat which has nothing to do with how we think or feel about the heat.

By: Joan

Joan — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:16:06 +0000

I live in the Endless Mountains of PA. I do not have air conditioning in my home. Like many of the older homes in the area, my house was built to hold the heat in. I have a few strategies that have really helped during heat waves. First: sit still. Just sit. The less you move, the more efficient your body is at cooling itself. Second: the wet clothes method. I just step into a tepid shower fully dressed. It works. Third: fan management. Know which windows heat up first, and change the direction of your fans appropriately. Fourth: turn the lights out. It might be psychological with new flourescent bulbs, but a darker house just feels cooler. Lastly, change your schedule. I get my housework done very very early in the morning and late at night. Mid-day is for sitting still. (See rule 1).
And don’t forget to make sure your pets have plenty of shade, cool water, and handfuls of ice cubes now and then. The tunasicle is a big hit with our black lab!

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:40:52 +0000

I asked my father what they did when it got really hot when he was growing up in the 1920′s without air conditioning. He said that he, his parents, and the neighbors all stayed out on their porches until maybe 2:00 AM when the temperature had dropped enough to go to bed.