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Comment by arrowsmith | Hacker News Reader

How did people in Australia get by before air conditioning?

I'm not saying that to be snarky, I would generally love to know. I live in a moderately cold climate (England) and I often wonder how people here survived through the winter before the comforts of modern technology. And England's not that cold - how the hell did indigenous Canadians do it, for example? Did people just shiver by a fire for months at a time?

EDIT: I didn't think I was being snarky in my original final sentence, but to avoid misunderstandings I've removed it.

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The first sentence is a good question, the last sentence is unnecessary snark.

I think there are two main things at play: buildings used to be built differently, and yes, people prefer not to suffer these days.

Old Australian buildings (e.g. "Queenslanders") were often built on poles to let the air circulate underneath, they'd have the roof extend far over windows to stop sunlight (and heat) getting in. Those are not the most enjoyable places to live in, these days people prefer a bit of sunlight during the day, and a constant draft is not pleasant in winter.

And yes, I imagine people just didn't sleep all that well and spent heatwaves sitting around in the coldest spot in the house waiting for it to be over. These days people want to sleep well throughout the year and want to be productive even during heatwaves.

People were also a lot harder back then because life was harder through the entirety of their existence. Obesity was rare, the average level of fitness was much, much higher, and the teens and adults probably showed a bunch of survivorship bias for hardiness because the weakest died during childhood pretty routinely. I suspect environmental conditions that would kill the average diabetic, obese 45 year old today was just a normal summer day to people back then and was well mostly well tolerated.

I live in Minnesota and have spent a reasonable amount of time winter camping. You use these cool canvas tents and a small, packable wood stove. This has brought me into contact with some folks that live lifestyles somewhat closer to those old days than the new ones - so far as expectations on infrastructure go. For one, they wear warm clothing almost all the time. It’s significantly more efficient to heat yourself (through clothing, food and movement) than heating an entire room/building.

Also: wood stoves large and small can pump out a lot of heat. You can kick up the small tin metal camping stove and make your canvas tent 75 degrees, dry out any wet clothes. Likewise, a large iron stove can make a room boiling. After all, saunas - in one form or another - are a common feature of northern cultures.

Go to the rural Philippines and you'll find plenty of homes without air conditioning in 40+ heat.

You'll also find westerners accustomed to air-conditioning who live there and have "adjusted".

It takes about 2 weeks and your body makes some sort of adjustment.

It's an interesting phenomenon that maybe someone here can comment on more fully. By that I mean what exactly is happening to us when we adjust? Is it purely psychological or are there actual biological changes/effects at play? Whatever it is you really do "adjust" and it's not that bad after a few weeks. You even learn to sleep well at night in sweltering heat...again after you adjust.

Of course there are limits but we're built to handle the heat.

Fans and light clothes, mostly.

A lot more people live out in cheaply built homes with small, barren yards and dark roofs that are literally designed for air conditioning. Older homes often have better airflow.

An example of a newer suburb in Sydney is Marsden Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzV3H_K73To

I don't use/have aircon in my home in Brisbane and I get by fine :) Although it is nice to have aircon in the summer when I'm working on the computer and need to concentrate (my office at work is air conditioned, like most).

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