Hacker News Reader

Comment by rconti | Hacker News Reader

My anecdote is the opposite. I lived in Santa Clara from 2002-2010, San Carlos 2010-2011, Belmont 2011-2014, Redwood City 2014-present.

Never had AC on the Peninsula. We have heatwaves every year. This summer has been remarkably mild, low 70s most of July and August until now. We got our heatwave. A bit more humid than normal thanks to tropical storm remnants, 70f dewpoint and 95f on Sunday, 65f dewpoint and spiked to 105f Saturday briefly.

It seems fractionally warmer than most heatwaves, and slightly longer, but doesn't 'feel' indicative of a trend.

Still no A/C, and I guess I notice it more now that I'm home 24/7, but still totally do-able.

Been running the house fan overnight to get the rooms down into the mid-high 70s.

View on HN

I think one major difference this year with the current heatwave is that everyone's working from home. They're not going to an air conditioned office to work during the day, or they don't have the ability to go to the local library or Starbucks to sit and work. It's much worse having to sit through a heat wave at home with no A/C this year than in previous years.

And being home you heat the place by existing, running things, and opening windows to the heat. If you leave a house locked, it heats up pretty slowly, and if you get back towards dark, it will cool off faster from a lower temperature.

It's just a really weird year all around.

That's contrary to my experience. I lived in south bay and the peninsula 2004-2010 and needed a/c every summer, for multiple weeks each year. For two of those years I didn't have a/c and had a lot of sleep loss those summers when daytime temperatures would break 90F, and occasionally 100F. Even when we'd "only" get mid-80F temperatures, I'd still want to run the a/c during the day if I was home. Feeling sticky while sitting on one's couch is no fun.

I've lived in SF since 2010, and there have been multiple weeks in the summer, during the past 5 or 6 years, where I've been unable to sleep due to heat. That sort of thing was rare in the 4 or 5 years prior. Just over this past weekend my inside temperature topped at just below 90F, with the outdoor daytime temperature getting as high as 98F. By the time I went to sleep, the indoor temperature was still in the low 80s, with windows open and fans on full.

If you don't require a/c at those temperatures in order to sleep well, lucky you, but then I wouldn't characterize you as typical.

Sorry, I had A/C when I lived in Santa Clara, that was poorly worded. I remember well the heat wave of 2006 where it peaked at 107 for 3 days in a row (and of course was over 100 for longer than that).

I agree with you. I've lived in the Bay Area over 20 years now. Heat waves are nothing special, it happens every year. OP is completely overexaggerating. Overall, from Peninsula to SF, you can survive most days without AC, except for about one week a year where it sucks. This year sucks worse because everyone is stuck at home, instead of an air conditioned office, if you're lucky to work. It used to be the case that you would just stay at work late until it cooled off but that didn't happen this year.

Yes, it got hot on Friday and Saturday but those were the first two very hot days all year. This year has been overall pretty average, if not a bit cooler than average years.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com