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Comment by bradlys | Hacker News Reader

> real summers/not chilly

I mean, it's not cold once you get outside of SF/San Bruno. If you're in the peninsula or south bay, it's really fucking hot during the summer. Uncomfortably hot because no one has AC and many of the homes don't have insulation still.

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I think you built my case for me. Sac is consistently hot (90s every day for at least 4 months in the summer) and so, basically every house has AC. Many have solar panels (mine does) because of the available sunny days, for sustainability. It makes for a way easier summer than in bay where you get 2 weeks of dreadful summer (because no AC) and then the week after that is in the 60s-70s and you bring out the jackets again.

If this year's summer becomes the norm I think it may be a bit too hot for places like Sacramento. And all the places I lived in SV so far have had A/C so that hasn't been an issue. But what's great about being near the bay is that at night, most summer nights, it still cools down way below 20C so it's easy to simply keep doors/windows open after sunset and close them in the morning to have cool air inside the house, without an A/C, almost every day. There are exceptions of course like we had this summer where there were 2-3 days long heatwaves with no drop below 25C at night, A/C helped with that.

I wouldn't say the inconsistency in weather is the issue... It's that the homes are ancient and landlords don't want to update them. Why update when you'll not get significantly more money for it (and then have to pay lots of property taxes)? It's why many of the homes that are bought in my neighborhood are completely torn down by new owners and rebuilt. Every single street in my neighborhood with a recent sale has a tear down + rebuild happening.

I'm sure the renter to owner market in Sacramento is different than the bay area...

It can hit 100 these days in San Francisco itself in summer, but there is still this weird sanctimonious attitude about air conditioning. We asked some landscape designers about leaving room for a unit in the yard and more than once got a huffy "People don't use A/C in San Francisco" sort of answer. It's extra miserable if the windows have to stay shut due to wildfire smoke.

Don't know about peninsula but in south bay tons of old homes have AC. And more importantly, dry hot feels very comfortable to me personally.

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