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I currently live in a building that I believe was built in the 1920s. Being in the Midwest, it was never retro-fitted to have air conditioning (as such, I get to look forward to sleeping in my 86-degree room tonight). But it really makes you think about how the air conditioner really opened up cities and regions like never before. Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio, etc would not have developed as they did without it. I do think that it's one of the greatest inventions of the past 150 years.
Agreed. We would not be living in Florida without it.Also, while we lived in Playa del Rey 1971-1989, a beach community between Marina del Rey and El Segundo, we did not need air conditioning in our home, but we did in our cars because we drove into sections of L.A. and the Valley and beyond where temps could go into the 90-100s and the smog was unbreathable.
Just my $0.02 worth; not so much refrigeration type A/C as the ability to cool the air somehow. Where I live we used to get by very well with a swamp (evaporative) cooler until a large reservoir was built in the area… this increase in humidity made the swamp coolers far less effective. The cities in the SW can use them very well but A/C units aren't quite as uglky as swamp coolers (down side is they dry out an already low humidity environment).A/C is the best choice anywhere there is high humidity with the heat as it will (again) reduce the humidity level.
Phid, have you thought about purchasing one of those AC's that fit in the window? They make those now, you know. 😀
I've had to sleep in a dorm room on the fourth floor with no AC. It was awful. You couldn't sleep because you were sweating so bad and your sheets were soaking wet. Ugh!! Never again.
Phid, have you thought about purchasing one of those AC's that fit in the window? They make those now, you know. 😀
Actually, yeah…I did have one of those, but I just sold it last week (reference: Topic: Craigslist) ;D
I've had to sleep in a dorm room on the fourth floor with no AC. It was awful. You couldn't sleep because you were sweating so bad and your sheets were soaking wet. Ugh!! Never again.
It is uncomfortable. Yet I actually don't mind doing it once in a while. It makes me feel like I'm in the tropics. I would prefer sleeping like that compared to sleeping in a freezing atmosphere (without any covers). Wally, a friend of mine from college, who was from Phoenix, would mention his family's swamp cooler, and I didn't know how they differed from air conditioners. Turns out the AC in general has a long history, but the modern AC goes back to 1902:
In 1902, the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier in Buffalo, New York. After graduating from Cornell University, Carrier, a native of Angola, New York, found a job at the Buffalo Forge Company. While there, Carrier began experimentation with air conditioning as a way to solve an application problem for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York, and the first “air conditioner,” designed and built in Buffalo by Carrier, began working on 17 July 1902.
When I was a kid many of the older buildings in the downtown of my 'burg used fans that blew passed large ice blocks… I remember the Oddfellows hall was that way until the pans started to have lkeaks and they could't get them fixed they just used ceiling fans (5 or 6 foot dia) to move the air around. Sadfly, third floor and high ceilings meant the only evaporative cooling was accomplished as the hot air passed across ones' sweaty clothes or skin. 😛
Hasnt anybody heard of a Shotgun House? A/C is a luxury, people lived in Hot Climates long before there was A/C and would still do so even if it had never been invented. My Greatgrandfathers house in Oklahoma had no A/C and he would not get it, siad it was too newfangled for him. Keep in mind that temperatures in the 90's and 100's are common in Oklahoma in the summer.We had swamp coolers in Iraq, they work a little but personally I would rather do without. The water can get nasty and then people around them start coming down with all kinds of bronchial infections from the humid air full of bacteria and nastiness.
Hasnt anybody heard of a Shotgun House? A/C is a luxury, people lived in Hot Climates ong before there was A/C and would still do so even if it had never been invented. My Greatgrandfathers house in Oklahoma had no A/C and he would not get it, siad it was too newfangled for him. Keep in mind that temperatures in the 90's and 100's are common in Oklahoma in the summer.
The founder of my community built a mansion incorporating the idea of orienting the stucture such that less of it was exposed to direct sunlight (in summer and more in winter) and giving it overhanging eves to keep it cooler… also some of the ideas allowed unrestricted air flow (ala shotgun houses), pretty good plan.
We had swamp coolers in Iraq, they work a little but personally I would rather do without. The water can get nasty and then people around them start coming down with all kinds of bronchial infections from the humid air full of bacteria and nastiness.
A concern; legionaires disease. When I worked in building maint. we had to clean and sanitize all the swamp coolers and cooling towers regularly… esp in the buildings with large 24 hr populations (jail, health clinics, etc.)
I grew up in South Ga with no A/C. I was in my mid thirtys before we had a/c. Hope we never go back to those days.
