Do You Live With Air Conditioning?

I don't have an A/C, never really needed one, as we
live very close to the beach and the temperatures rarely
reach 80 F and virtually no humidity either.

The past couple of weeks have been very hot though,
and I'm contemplating with an A/C.....

Don't have it and never have. Would've been nice growing up on LI (my parents had a/c in their room, but not in mine--nice). But never needed it in Upstate NY and not now.

Open windows at night do the trick--we're blessed with the best summer weather, IMHO, in the country...

I grew up in Vt without A/C. I didn't know anyone who had it. I eventually bought a window unit for my bedroom. In IL just about everyone has A/C. We almost never turn it on but it was on last week during the heat wave.

I couldn't live here without it.

One of the hottest summers of my life was in an un-air-conditioned apartment in Kentucky. The window fan helped, but it was mostly miserably hot.

Window unit in the bedroom is on a timer that's on for three hours a night.

Lots of fans in the windows elsewhere, though, and a ceiling fan, so at least the hot, humid air circulates.

We have an air conditioning unit and an electric bill to go with it.

the best things in life are free... but the very best things aren't...

Absolutely, and I can't imagine living in the DC area without it. Heat indexes have been over 100 degrees for the last few days! YUCK!

Air conditioning change the U.S.
One of the most dramatic urban changes of the last 35 years has been the historic shift of population and power from the old industrial heartland of the Northeast and North-central regions to the metropolises of the West and the South. The growing southern rim, commonly known as the sunbelt, extends roughly from Virginia on the east through the states of the South and Southwest, up through California on the west. The rise of Houston from a steamy Texas town of little economic interest to its role as the oil capital of the world typifies the pattern of sunbelt growth. Houston is now the nation's fourth largest city, exceeded in size only by New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Without the technology of air conditioning this transformation would have been impossible.

I heard that same argument made when I visited friends in No. Carolina a few years ago. Before AC, the South was sleepy and backward. Not now, of course.

Needless to say, our national politics has changed, too. Food for thought--though it's not my intention to start a political food fight here!

How air conditioning changed America
How air conditioning changed America
It opened the South to development -- but spelled an end to the front porch.

The air conditioner's widespread adoption spelled the demise of front porches, wide eaves and high ceilings. And it fueled the explosive postwar growth of Sunbelt cities like Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami.

With the 20th century drawing to a close, a critically acclaimed exhibition in Washington, D.C., took visitors on a journey through the history of a technology that helped to define this century.

The exhibition, Stay Cool! Air Conditioning America, was on view at the National Building Museum through January 2, 2000. It featured photo murals, artifacts, television commercials and advertisements, air-conditioning equipment, and interactive displays to tell the history of air conditioning.

All these artifacts combined to tell a simple yet sweeping story: That air conditioning launched new forms of architecture and altered the ways Americans live, work, and play.

From suburban tract houses to glass skyscapers, indoor entertainment centers, high-tech manufacturers' clean rooms, and pressurized modules for space exploration, many of the nation's modern structures and products would not exist without the invention of "man-made weather."

Air conditioning also changed our relationship with nature itself by creating indoor artificial climates, shifting seasonal patterns of work and play, and making America's geographical differences environmentally insignificant. The engine of air conditioning largely fueled the explosive postwar growth of Sunbelt cities like Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami.

The early years

As early as 1888, manufacturers of products susceptible to heat and humidity-tobacco, pasta, textiles, chocolate, and color printing-commissioned pioneering experiments in mechanical cooling.

Before air conditioning, cotton threads broke, cigarette machines jammed, bread grew mold, film attracted dust, pasta lost its shape, and chocolate turned gray when temperatures and humidity fluctuated. By filtering air and stabilizing temperature and humidity, mechanical systems improved the environment for products as well as workers.

As the technology of air conditioning developed, so did the invention of more sophisticated products that required increasingly precise temperature, humidity, and filtration controls. Consumer products such as computer chips and CDs must be manufactured in "clean rooms," which provide dust-free environments. By facilitating developments in high-tech manufacturing, science, medicine, and consumer products, air conditioning ushered in the Age of Information.

At the office

Beginning with the New York Stock Exchange in 1901, office buildings served as important laboratories for air conditioning advances. After World War II, mechanical cooling allowed the development of the modern glass-walled skyscraper-the symbol of freedom from traditional construction systems as well as heating and cooling methods. Glass-walled skyscrapers such as the United Nations (1952) linked modern architecture with the new technology.

The general public began to encounter "man-made weather" in movie theaters. The Folies Bergere Theater in New York City installed the first air-conditioning system in a theater in 1911, followed by the New Empire Theater, Montgomery, Alabama and the Central Park Theater, Chicago, Illinois in 1917.

In the 1920s and 30s, pioneering experiments with mechanical cooling turned public attendance at movies, plays, and concerts into a summertime ritual. Air conditioning itself became an attraction, as people flocked to movie theaters to experience the new way to stay cool.

And at home

Not until after World War II did air conditioning enter the home of the average American.

Engineered air was marketed to the public as an essential component of modern living. Manufacturers claimed that it promoted better sleeping and eating, healthier air quality, cleaner interiors free from pollen and dust, and the enjoyment of nature through glass window walls without the discomforts of summer heat and humidity.

With its steadily decreasing costs, air conditioning was touted as a technology "for the millions, not just for millionaires." The refrigerator provided the model for early residential air conditioners. As domestic interest grew in the late 1920s, refrigerator manufacturers were among the first to develop air conditioners due to their technical expertise with small-scale refrigeration units, automatic controls and mass-production.

During the Depression power companies, manufacturers, and retailers advocated self-contained home units as industrial use waned. Residential units evolved from bulky cabinets in living areas with basement condensing units into small-scale central systems with ductwork or the popular, economical window air conditioners.

Domestic air conditioning meant that traditional architectural features--wide eaves, deep porches, thick walls, high ceilings, attics, and cross ventilation--were no longer needed to promote natural cooling. Also irrelevant was siting or landscaping a house that maximized summer shade and breezes, since mechanical equipment was able to maintain perfect indoor conditions independent of design.

Builders found they could pay for the costs of central cooling systems by deleting elements made unnecessary by the new technology. As air conditioning replaced traditional features, the design of the modern house became fully integrated with--and dependent on--air conditioning. It allowed postwar architects and builders to achieve a new "ranch house" aesthetic of glass picture windows, sliding doors, and rectangular forms.

The exhibit

The exhibition is organized by guest curator Donald Albrecht and Chrysanthe B. Broikos, associate curator at the National Building Museum. Natalie Shivers wrote and edited the exhibition script. The exhibition's historical consultants are Gail Cooper, author of Air-Conditioning America: Engineers and the Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (Johns Hopkins University Press) and Bernard Nagengast, co-author of Heat and Cold: Mastering the Great Indoors (published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc., 1994).

Stay Cool! Air Conditioning America is made possible by the support of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI).

The National Building Museum is a private nonprofit institution that examines and interprets American achievements in building through exhibitions, education programs, and publications. Located at 401 F Street, NW, at the entrance to the Judiciary Square Metro station on the Red Line. Museum hours: Monday through Saturday 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday 12 to 4 pm. Summer Hours: (June 1 through August 31) open daily until 5 pm. Admission is free. Café and gift shop. Public inquiries: (202) 272-2448 or www.nbm.org

The National Building Museum itself is a marvel of pre-air conditioning design, built with a huge open central space to promote air circulation. The building originally housed the Pension Bureau and has hosted fourteen Inaugural Balls, beginning with Grover Cleveland's in 1885.

"Stay Cool! Air Conditioning America," sponsored by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers and the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, ran through January 2, 2000.

The National Building Museum is at 401 F Street NW; phone: (202) 272-2448; Internet: http://www.nbm.org. Directions: take the Metro's (subway's) Red Line to Judiciary Square; use the North (F St.) exit. Winter hours are: Mon.-Sat. 10-4, Sun. 12-4; in summer, the museum is open until 5.

Those people in their offices love to drive us poor bastards out in the heat.

My primary reason for starting the thread is because of my preoccupation with the coming government-ordained changes and how it affects my job. In September, the air condition units commonly installed on houses and apartment complexes will cease to get maufactured. More energy efficient units will be sold, requiring a change in the copper lines running inside the building and I don't know how much else will need to be replaced. On the apartments here, we will have to run new copper pipes up the brick walls and through the apartment to the evaporator coils. I don't know for sure if the evap. coils will also need replaced. Condensing units will go from three hundred plus dollars to around five hundred. Not many people I've asked know more about it than I. That's a bit disturbing.

As a kid growing up in the midwest without A/C, I remember many, many summer nights lying in bed, all the covers kicked off and waiting, just waiting long enough to turn the pillow over to the "cool side" for some relief and then waiting to do it again.

We then moved to Northern California when I was ten and never needed A/C, living less than a block from the beach.

I have now been in Oklahoma for two months, have my very first A/C and love it, love it, love it!

We've lived here since the early seventies without air conditioning, but my wife had one installed last year when we replaced our heater. It runs quietly, so sometimes you can't tell if the a/c is on or not. I still use my fan in the bedroom/computer oom.

Edgar


The power company in New Mexico recently published a report that showed how much more expensive it is to manufacture, purchase and operate an air conditioner than for a swamp cooler.

Swamp coolers are ideal for our high desert area's dry heat. In humid parts of the country, air conditioners are probably better suited to the climate.

BBB

eastern lake ontario : we've lived in our house - about a mile from lake ontario - for 42 years. we've had central air-conditioning for about 20 years now and we wouldn't want to be without it.
we also have a dehumidifier in the basement/rec room and it is probably more important than the air-conditioner. before we had a/c , if it got very warm - 30 C/87 F plus - we would sleep in the rec room - very comfortable down there. last week ontario hydro asked all customers to reduce daytime electricity consumption between about 9 am and 7 pm , when demand is highest. so we turned both the a/c and the dehumidifier - a bit of a power hog - off at 9 am, and in the afternoon when it became somewhat warm, we moved downstairs - we felt very comfortable. about 8 pm we turned the units on again and by 10 pm the temp was down to about 24 C/75 F. so we did our bit to reduce daytime power consumption without much of a sacrifice in personal comfort.hbg

When I was visiting New Mexico in April, I read an article in the local newspaper about swamp coolers. These are new to me. I plan to install one in whatever house I get there. The article was interesting in that it describe three types of swamp coolers, available at different prices, and of course the most expensive was best (I forget all the reasons why, but it seemed well worth it.)

The city of Albuquerque was promoting them for energy efficiency reasons, and that made sense to me.

I've never lived in a place with air conditioning. When I was a kid in Dayton, New York City, Arlington, VA, Evanston, Illinois - we went to the movies or a department store to get a cool break.

Los Angeles can be hot - I've mapped property when it's over 100, and I ain't doing that again, well, never mind, I couldn't if I wanted to - but we lived near the ocean and there at worst it didn't get over midnineties, at least not often. But, it wasn't all that humid - we just opened the window for fresh air.

Back to that article - I saved it, and will look for it and post it if I find it.

Here's a link on "swamp coolers." http://www.air-conditioner-home.com/

BBB
This is an article I posted months ago about how to modify swamp coolers to make them more efficient to operate, especially for water conservation.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8817&highlight=swamp+coolers

I have never had air conditioning. I am in an out of the house quite a bit and I detest the temperature change. On hot, humid days, I stay away from air-conditioned buildings.

Air conditioning is for the weak.