Comment by JadeNB | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JadeNB | Hacker News Reader

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> weather in the state is brutal at both ends of the year.

It should be mentioned, though, that the remedy to the brutal summers can be just as brutal. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who expects summer colds because of constant transitions from the sweltering-hot outdoors to the icy-cold air-conditioned tundras that every business maintains.

(Also, I'm sure parts of Texas get severe winters, but I've never seen one in Fort Worth. (Or did you mean something different by 'both ends'?) The main thing that I see here is that houses are built with no effective insulation, so that, during the winter, a perfectly manageable temperature outside can render the inside frigid.)

EDIT: I'm sorry for downvote whining, but, just to be clear, this isn't just a "the weather, amirite?" post; while I agree that living in Texas without AC is probably unbearable, I also think that there's no need to crank ACs to the levels at which businesses (and buses!) set them, and I can't imagine that this aggressive cooling doesn't have a significant energy impact.

I know that I walked into my sons high school during the summer to visit the office (DFW) and the whole school was so cold that the admins where wearing sweaters and long pants. This is a massive high school for 3000 plus students, 4 Gyms, etc. I can't imagine what it costs to cool it and the extra expense of keeping that cold when no one is there.

I agree with you that homes in Texas are insulated very poorly. Interesting enough Demilic is headquartered in Grand Prairie and is one of that largest suppliers of spray foam in the country. With the heat in the summers and some of the cold spells in the winter you would think they would have a better building code.

It seems the strategy is to find cheaper sources of power while not making an effort to build better buildings to save power.

They probably don't have sophisticated control systems in place to partially shut down the AC on the campus. If it's like my modern LEED certified office building once 7PM hits it gets pretty hot.

This isn't snark: building codes are regulation and Texas is an independence-loving state, even when that isn't particularly sensible or doesn't lead to good outcomes for life in general.

Mandating better insulation in homes might add a little up-front cost. It'd also do wonders for energy consumption.

Let people choose, they might say--well, housing is a good situation where you might not really have any choice at all (if no one's building houses with proper insulation), or be well-informed enough to make an informed choice, or whatever, and that's exactly the place where regulation is a net benefit for the society in question.

Schools are notorious for lowest bidder construction without a thought about operating costs. I saw one building that ran ac and heated the cold air up to the desired temperature. Stupid. But cheap to build.

Transitions between hot and cold temperatures don't cause colds. Cold viruses cause colds.

You get summer colds because more people congregate in close quarters when the weather outside is unbearable, making virus transmission easier.

Transitions between hot and cold temperatures cause runny noses, and runny noses cause nose touching - which does cause colds.

Yeah, fully agree about the aggressive cooling. This has been studied: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/science/chilly-at-work-a-... (this article links to the actual study).

I grew up in Houston - until the last decade or so there has always been one cold as hell month during the year. I remember Februaries where the high temp during the entire month was in the 30s.

my point being that you have to condition your air pretty much year round if you live north of Galveston, unfortunately.

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