Comment by giardini | Hacker News Reader

Comment by giardini | Hacker News Reader

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Remember that you don't need AC to beat the heat - we've had other options for centuries. One of my favorites is fans.

I've lived in a hot subtropical climate most of my life. The best modes of cooling are, in order of comfort: shade, clothing, breeze, fans, A/C.

Our rather large home didn't have A/C when we bought it. But it did have a huge attic fan that kept the air moving throughout the entire house on hot days. That worked fine from the time the house was built in about 1930 to present (yes, it's still there). At one point we installed a few window units in designated rooms but they were never necessary.

shade - Even on a hot day it's very comfortable in tree-shaded areas. The trees cool the air.

clothes - wear light-colored clothes with fabrics that wick perspiration.

breeze - if you live in an area with a constant breeze, you'll be more comfortable. Sometimes that comes with a caveat: watch out for storms associated with coastal breezes (such as hurricanes).

fans - sometimes a small room fan is just right. Or if you live someplace where you can pay someone to wave a palm frond around you all day, so much the better.

A/C may seem to be the best but imo it isn't b/c it is not transparent: other people are always messing with the controls, there are insufficent/incorrectly-demarcated "zones" in a building, the humidity varies unsuitably, condensation forms in unexpected areas (even inside walls and under floors) and you don't find out for 12 years, etc.

I live in the US in the Pacific Northwest, one of the *least* air conditioned regions in the country. I have never had built-in AC since moving here in the early 2000's.

Back in the 2000's, it was fine - maybe a few hot days in the summer, but bearable with shade, fans, proper clothing like you said.

But the last ten years or so, the summer has gotten to be more and more brutal. Heatwaves where it's 70-80% humidity and 100+F outside for more than a few days in a row. We have a portable A/C and find ourselves hooking it up more and more often.

Fans do you no good when the humidity is above a certain point.

You’re also losing a lot of water to evaporation from sweating if it is doing anything at all.

There is a reason why Singapore switched to AC pretty much everywhere except old hawker centers, and why it’s not alone.

> Fans do you no good when the humidity is above a certain point.

That would be related to the wet-bulb temperature. If the wet-bulb temperature is more than about 30°C, then I'd consider the area to be uninhabitable. (A wet bulb temperature of 35°C is considered lethal).

Fans are surprisingly effective as most people are stationary and thus produce almost a bubble of high humidity around themselves. Fans disperse that localised high humidity and allow people to effectively reduce their temperature through sweating/evaporation.

[https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/05/08/interactive-map...]

And getting worse.

You just need a well-isolated house, which are rare in the US, but common in Europe. A well-isolated house doesn't warm up as much on a hot day, unless you open windows wide. Temperature outside can be 35 Celsius, inside <25 Celsius.

Personally, I much prefer this solution than ACs, because ACs sometimes affect my throat and make me feel tired.

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