Same with cold weather, if the gas/electric goes out during the winter. There's really only a few places one can live with moderate enough weather to avoid those scenarios.
I 100% disagree with this...
Heat is made by everything, waste heat is a byproduct of all modern things, and there are TONS of easy low cost ways to make heat even it is just as simple as burning something.
Also the body makes head naturally so adding layers to trap this heat does not require continual inputs from an outside resource
Cooling on the other hand is MUCH harder, and electricity is really the only avenue to make cooling. Even if you say use ICE, well that Ice was made at some point by a freezer running on Electricity
IMO hot climate is MUCH MUCH more dangerous than cold, which is why I choose to live in an area where there are only 1 or 2 months of even remotely hot climate.
As I told my last HVAC... Heat I can make 100 ways... Cooling I need central air for...
I grew up around the 38N parallel, gross enough to get too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Every winter people froze to death, just the same.
It's not as bad as Phoenix percentage wise, but it's still a risk in the vast majority of places that people in the US live.
My Claim is providing people with emergency heat is FAR FAR FAR FAR easier and cheaper than providing people with emergency cooling.
Do "at risk" people die in the north from the cold, absolutely but I am not sure how that means the cold is worse
As it stands right now, just from my daily activities my waste heat in my home makes my home about 10-15 degrees above ambient. Meaning in the winter if my target temp is 65deg, it would have to be 50 degrees or colder outside before I would even think about running my heat.
In the winter time that means my AC is working hard to not only combat the outside temp but the internal waste heat from computers, cooking, TV's, humans, etc.
Gas-powered fridges and coolers have existed for about two hundred years and are still a normal technology today - often used for camping and off-grid life.
Here's a whole bunch of propane fridges for your viewing pleasure: https://bensdiscountsupply.com/collections/propane-refrigera...
* citation needed.
Unless you have a terribly insulated shelter, blankets, coats, and friends will keep you warm enough to the extent that unless you are not really capable of taking basic care of yourself, you're not dying of the cold when your heat goes out. You can always do more insulation, and you only need so much for your body to keep you warm.
With heat though you run out of things to do.
There is a difference between an impaired person or a person doing something unwise dies of the heat or cold... and there being an environment where there's nothing a healthy adult can do to survive without powered heating/cooling.
I used to work in the Middle East, and their traditional structures with central pool and windcatcher/chimney design remained quite livable even when it was over 45°C outside, with zero active cooling.
do you really not see a difference between a place where the event is much more likely to happen for a much longer % of the time than another place where the same event is much less likely to occur?
It seems like there’s an important scale issue there. So the risk isn’t really the same everywhere.
People who retire there most likely go up to Flagstaff in the summer, or further north.
Or they just have good A/C.