From today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, "How Air-Conditioning Conquered America."
"Fundamentally what we're talking about is people embracing a kind of different cultural idea about what it means to be comfortable. The idea that existing in a room that is artificially cooled to 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, that that's the ideal temperature. That's not like some true fact about the human body. That's like a cultural idea that's been created over decades by the air conditioning industry, by architects and builders and culture and shopping malls and movie theaters. And the idea that comfort means this one particular thing is an idea that we have constructed ourselves and so, you know, what if we culturally came up with a different idea about comfort, right? What if more people came to accept the idea that going and sitting out on my front porch in the evening is where I get comfort from?... And I had stopped doing that when we were all retreating inside the air conditioning. What if we revived the idea that it's actually quite lovely in the summertime to sleep with an open window and to have fresh air? You know... it's not impossible to change ideas about this because we created these ideas in the first place."
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"And are we willing to be uncomfortable some of the time?"
Knock yourself out, nobody's stopping you.
Oh, but that's not what you want, is it? What you want is to force other people to be uncomfortable enough to make you happy.
Fuck off.
Being able to sleep with an open window is a sign of privilege. It means you probably live in a single-family home in both a quiet area and a low-crime area. It's definitely not a good idea to sleep with an open window anywhere in Minneapolis, even on an upper floor.
I grew up without AC. I recall trying to sleep, hot and sweaty, with only a fan to move the air. I love AC. This architect can design how he wants, I want my central AC. And I also want central heat before he gets any other ideas about "what we don't need ".
Ah, the communists have all migrated over to global warming zealots. They couldn't force poverty on everyone with their ideas, they had to make up something like "climate change - which can mean whatever they want, whenever they want" to get the shared poverty that they want. Except the climate zealot pigs are more equal than the others.
delivering pizza I would get to homes heated 80+ degrees in winter
so why not 80 in summer too?
I heat my house to 68-70 in the winter. So I can have that in the summer, too?
The air conditioning racket is run by a big eastern syndicate you know…
I had relatives who didn't get air conditioning until I was in my teens. I used to stay with my cousin Jim once in a while and marvel that anyone could live like that in the summer. The house, which my mother had grown up in, had sleeping porches and Jim had learned the trick of sleeping wrapped in a wet sheet. Even on a cot, though, I was sweating until the wee hours of the morning.
At home, we had 2 window units at opposite ends of the house, and for much of the year we opened windows and used the big ceiling fan in the hall just outside my bedroom to evict the hotter air. The suckth was huge, and
pulled a strong steady rush of outside air across my bed.
It was still too darn hot in the summer, though.
It's 92 and humid here at this moment. W/o a/c us old dogs would be prostrate and panting.
"We need to sort of think anew about our relationship to comfort. And are we willing to be uncomfortable some of the time?"
Translation: We need to sort of think anew about other people's relationship to comfort. And are we willing to force other people to be uncomfortable some of the time? What shall we do with the deviants who insist on comfort and may the requisite discomfort include premature heat death?
"I heat my house to 68-70 in the winter."
We heat the house only to 62° during the winter (lower at night). In the summer, we try to keep the place opened up, especially at night. But when we put the AC on, it's definitely at a different temperature than what we choose for winter. In winter, we wear long sleeved shirts and sweaters. In summer we wear much lighter clothing. I can't see picking the same temperature for summer and winter.
Their virtue signaling requires that they drive up the price of electricity and make everyone poorer and more uncomfortable. Nope not having it.
"We heat the house only to 62° during the winter (lower at night)."
I set the thermostat to 62 when I get up in the morning and gradually increase it throughout the day, up to 68-70. When I go to bed, I set it at 55.
Realizing they can't change human behavior they simply aim to gaslight us
Wait... I thought global warming/climate whatever was killing people in summer.
This is just more of the CAGW insanity. OPPD wants to achieve net zero by 2050. I told them to raise the temp in the summer and lower it in the winter to save the planet. They blew me off. Fucking hypocrites.
It’s not the heat. It’s the humidity.
He doesn’t seem like the type that could handle a 97 degree, 80 odd percent humidity day…after day, after….
Recently we stayed in an absolutely beautiful Airbnb in Costa Rica. It was ideal in every way except that the owner didn't believe in air conditioning. And of course we were in the jungle part, not the beach part, so it didn't cool down at night. Absolutely loved the place - and absolutely dreaded bedtime.
In our previous place of residence in the Philadelphia area, there was an informal contest in our neighborhood for who would wait the longest to turn on the air conditioning. We didn't participate; we didn't care enough. But that climate - perfect for us 4-season fans. Three months of each season.
The point made above about the privilege of being in a safe enough area to sleep with windows open is well taken. We live in such a neighborhood now (and did previously), BUT now we're in the Houston area and, though I spend at least a couple of hours outside in our yard every day no matter how hot it is, nope, I'm not sleeping in that.
Only 80% humidity? Child's play!
What if more people came to accept the idea that going and sitting out on my front porch in the evening is where I get comfort from?
OK, but what if the guy the establishment chose for VP decides to deploy the National Guard to shoot paintballs at people sitting out on their front porch in the evening?
The idea that existing in a room that is artificially cooled to 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, that that's the ideal temperature. That's not like some true fact about the human body.
-Daniel Barber, who's an architectural historian
Contracting muscles of the heart, diaphragm and limbs; ion pumps that maintain the electrical properties of nerves; and biochemical reactions that break down food and synthesize new tissues (to name a few) generate body heat continuously....These processes function best when ambient temperature is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, where we feel most comfortable
-Jeffery W. Walker, a physiology professor at the University of Arizona
Yank all the air conditioners out of the NYT building.
I remember one summer in Seattle ca 1977, as a newbie engineer at Boeing. We had no air conditioning and it was HOT. Sweat dripping hot. I had to be careful to keep the sweat off of the graph I was creating with a drafting pen. Sweat-stained graphs were frowned upon.
Lots of new 'Smart' thermostats out there, now. When you cut a deal for reduced electricity rates, some of these utilities - well, they call them utilities, they're really just electricity traders marketing other people's powergen - anyway, cut a deal with them, and they'll helpfully adjust your thermostats remotely during peak hours - your house gets hotter in summer, colder in winter, but at least you can moderate your core temperature with all that virtue you're basking in.
In our house, we have thermostats that we keep set to whatever the f*ck we want the temperature to be.
It takes more energy to heat a home than to cool it. Why don’t these experts recommend that people stop heating their homes in the winter instead of cooling their homes in the summer. It’s very easy to say you other people should give up A/C when you live in Wisconsin or Vermont. If you want to save the planet, turn off the heat.
Having lived in the Canadian Arctic, the Canadian prairies -- you know, where those 'Alberta Clippers' come from -- to Ontario, Québec, Vermont and Wisconsin, to the US South, and (now for 25 years) here in Kansas, I shall make an absolutist statement.
It requires vastly more energy to stay warm than to stay cool.
To simplify things, let's define 20° C [68 f] as "ideal". Certainly 40° [104 f] is *hot*. So you must overcome a 20° differential from "ideal", and that takes energy. Going the other direction, 0° [32 f] is cool, but not *cold*, yet there's also a 20° differential to overcome.
In most of America, 40° is quite rare, as in a few days per year, but 0° is very common in most places, for months. In much of America -20° [-4 f] is a regular occurrence. That's a much bigger differential to overcome, and across much of the northern US -40° is not rare. In Yukon we endured five consecutive weeks when the temperature never went *above* -40°. I was an official climate observer for the Canadian government, and that winter there were three nightly lows of -60° [-76 f] !!
Propane freezes solid at about -50° [-58 f], and people would light fires under their propane tanks to keep it flowing so they could heat their homes and cook their meals. To say that it freaked out newcomers who'd never overwintered is definitely an understatement.
Staying warm enough to live requires MUCH more energy than staying cool enough to remain comfortable. Basic thermodynamics.
When my ex-boss went on blood pressure medication, he became cold-natured and set the A/C at 78 deg. I could tell when the system was about to come on, because I would feel a bit ill. A small fan aimed at me helped a little.
The last time I was in NoVA in August (2013), it was over 90 at midnight, which I don't remember before '92, when we would open the windows at night in June. No wonder they believe in global warming there.
Governments are all about making people uncomfortable. That flies in the face of God given freedom. So, fuck you if you want me to be uncomfortable to satisfy your need to appease your environmental God. Fuck. You.
Lee Kwan Yew said air conditioning was the key to Singapore’s development, as it allowed people to work to a Western schedule.
I have often thought that air conditioning was key to the success of the civil rights movement here in the Southern USA. The whites could stop being so damn angry all the time, and the blacks could think and strategize.
Crime and rioting in the northern cities, where many homes don’t have aircon, go up in the summer….
JSM
" . . . and so, you know, what if we culturally came up with a different idea about comfort, right?
Nothing bespeaks more of a groundswell of genuine grassroot "culture" than an elitist technocrat trying to engineer the public back into the stone age against their will.
Who elected him? When was the vote taken to delegitimize modern human comfort?
Our thermostat is at 78 and I try to avoid using AC by closing the blinds during the day. But if these busybodies start lecturing me I might start using AC more often.
It’s 94 degrees at 10:00 pm in Fort Worth. It was 103 earlier this afternoon. Typical for August but still too hot to sit outside on the front porch in the evening. I’m happy to sit on the front porch in February or March. What about our NY Times friend?
It's a funny way to look at it. I can tell you categorically, that our home is built to stay cool in the hot Texas summers, and it does a pretty good job of it. But when we get a true winter cold snap, a string of days when it remains well below freezing, then baby, that meter goes to spinnin'. Takes about 30-50% more electricity to stay warm on a daily basis.
Why won't the plebs just accept a reversal of human history and lower their living standards?
As an elderly person living on the S Texas coast I can tell you that air conditioning is good for our health. I know when I was a child not many people lived to be as old as I am, I may be in a minority now as I am 87. However, I know there are many here who are my age or older. They would not be here without air conditioning. I do not mean geographically, I mean they would have expired from heat stress related health concerns. Blood pressure goes up, swelling of the extremities happens, and who knows what all else happens with the stress of 80% humidity and 90+ degrees temperature. Heat stroke is the worst.
Comfort? Yes. We keep our thermostat at 77 degrees, except when the poor woman who comes to clean bi-weekly, we turn it down for her or she would be wheezing if we did not. That isn't just comfort, she needs the work but her health deteriorated with Covid, which she has had three times. It affected her lungs. There are poor people in this town and the nearby towns and cities who do NOT have air conditioning and it does cause health problems. Heat kills.
Thomas Sowell has spoken about how shocked student at an NYC school were when he told of how they used to sleep out of the fire escape in summer or in the parks. The students couldn't believe Harlem had ever been so safe
A newspaper blurb from the time before comfort
The Decatur Herald, Illinois, July 20, 1935:
"Our idea of roughing it is to walk to the end of the office away from the electric fan now and then, just to be able to appreciate modern comforts"
And it is not like climate control doesn't have medicinal purposes:
"Dr. John Gorrie invented the ice-making machine and is considered the father of air conditioning and refrigeration. Gorrie’s invention began with an attempt to cure Yellow Fever during an outbreak in Apalachicola in 1841. Convinced that cold was a healer, he advocated the use of ice to cool sickrooms and reduce fever. Ice was shipped by boat from northern lakes until Gorrie’s successful experimentations with the rapid expansion of gases to create refrigeration."
There's a theory that if they turned off all the air conditioners in Washington DC, they wouldn't need air conditioning anymore.
You are so right. I never had AC when I lived with my parents. I’m not going back to that now, 60 years later. Fuck you Mr Architect. You want to be miserable you go ahead. Not me as long as I have the means to stay comfortable
Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, the Carolinas. How many people lived there the last time we had no air-conditioning? For that matter, how many skyscrapers were built anywhere but the Northern tier of states? Even assuming we returned tall buildings to cooler open windows, wouldn't that lose more in heating costs in winter than made up for in lesser cooling costs in summer? But I'm sure it'd be easy to get President Harris to issue an executive order mandating no air conditioned new buildings. She remembers San Fran didn't need it. .
That's like a cultural idea that's been created over decades by the air conditioning industry
It's all a conspiracy created by Big Air...!
We keep our house (an RV until we can afford to put up the new house already sitting on our land in kit form—another year probably for that) at about 80° F. summer and winter. 68° is way too chilly for comfort from our point of view.
I have often thought that air conditioning was key to the success of the civil rights movement here in the Southern USA.
I'm half-serious when I suggest we ought to air drop AC units into the Middle East. Pennies on the dollar.
I won't use smart thermostats as I fear that at the other end end will be the likes of those who think we are too warm in winter and too cool in summer. I'd like to make that decision myself, thank you very much.
I think it is quite amazing how our bodies acclimate to the changing seasons. In summer I am comfortable at 77 degrees inside. In winter I am comfortable at 65 degrees during the day, and 55 degrees at night. (I sleep in sweatpants and sweatshirts, with thick wool blankets.)
Are we so concerned what other people do to make themselves comfortable? The issue with such conversations is that government soon enters the chat.
But air conditioning is a leading cause of global warming, but not in the real sense but observed sense.
We had an incident at work (industrial environment) where a ‘staff member’ was working on a piece of equipment, and started feeling dizzy and ill. The ‘safety alert’ was that it’s ‘hot outside’. The reality is that the ‘staff’ work in climate controlled offices at 68 degrees - the safety alert should be its ‘cold inside: you can’t handle the heat!’
The attachment of people to comfort is deep, ineradicable, and shows up in every area of life.
"...we're increasingly going to see architects and builders trying to rediscover these lost ideas that we used to have about how to design buildings with the climate in mind."
Say WHAT?
14 years ago, we chose this apartment because it faces north and only gets pounded by the sun for a coupla hours in the afternoon. I'm a comedian not an architect. These clowns are just now getting around to these "lost ideas?" My lovely wife thinks some architects should stand trial.
Daniel Barber is looking to get punched in the face. There should be a statue of Willis Carrier in every city in the country.
As in nearly everything that comes out of elite circles. . . .you first.
Here in AZ we keep it at 78 during the Summer. Yes, if I do housework I still do some sweating. But, meh. Most of the time I'm sitting and not doing much. Plus, 78 feels nice coming in from 110. Winter, pfffflt, we've been in this house 6 years and haven't turned the central heat (heat pump) on at all, make do with a few space heaters for the cold mornings, and a nice gas fireplace downstairs.
I remember when most people knew that 15k years ago half the continent was covered by glaciers and that, duh, Climate Change Is Real. People are indeed getting dumber.
"62 in the winter". You're tough Althouse. I complain when my wife turns the heat below 70 in the winter. Of course when it is 89 in the summer I'm glad to leave the doors open, but she rushes to close them and turn on the AC. I grew up in Southern California; she grew up in Chicago.
Agreed to a statue to Mr. Carrier.
Adding: I have seen pictures of people sleeping in Belle Isle park in Detroit from the 1930s. It was not because they were nature lovers. And excursion steamers were a big business because moving at 10 knots on the water was relief from the heat. Another was all of the summer resorts along the shores of Lake Michigan - those who could sent their families there for the summer to be away from the heat of Chicago and other cities.
The AC is at 74 during the day, 70 at night. About 68for winter heat.
Before air conditioning, Florida was a bucolic backwater. There were no large cities south of the Mason-Dixon line. Now Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas, not to mention DC, are amongst the largest metro areas in the country. Life is pretty miserable without AC for at least 6 months in most of those places.
As someone who has lived in what the military euphemistically calls "field conditions," I always chuckle when I read these musings about what awful people we are for wanting to be comfortable. Setting aside the fact that climate change is nowhere near the threat many want it to be, there is no value, physically, morally or spiritually, to being uncomfortable. If it's unavoidable, fine...that's what, say, deploying to Albania in conditions that had my Army buddies (I'm Air Force) shaking their heads in horror makes you understand the infantryman's motto: "Embrace the Suck." And when your Army friends are complaining about the conditions TO AN AIR FORCE WEENIE, you know things ae pretty bad.
If you LIKE being cold, or hot, knock yourself out.
But woe be to the poser who tries to guilt me into being cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Been there; done that. I was no better for it.
I am currently sitting beside Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island, BC. It is a lovely 70 degrees F, and bone dry. We vacation every summer to escape the horror of summer in VA every year. Is my AC running at home? Perhaps. I set it to 78 when I left. Suck it up, Plebes!
Define 'large city.' New Orleans was one of the largest cities in the country in the 19th C.
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