How do you feel about air conditioning?

[Flaxbee]

Treehugger has been covering this a lot; these are some links, very interesting.

China and India like to be cool, too: http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/air-conditioned-nightmare-china-and-india-be-cool-too.html

Cooling a Warming Planet: A Global Air Conditioning Surge: http://e360.yale.edu/feature/cooling_a_warming_planet_a_global_air_conditioning_surge/2550/

[mzteris]

1. Ya know. . .

I grew up middle and south Georgia when there wasn't any air conditioning. Not at home, cars, school, stores. And Definitely not in the fields picking... We had fans. The hand held kind on a stick. Or the kind you folded out of paper. If you were real damn lucky you had a ceiling fan, but mainly they just moved the hot air around.

We did have an "attic fan" in one house that pulled up air from the whole house and vented it out. There was a whole ritual around closing windows and blinds on the east side in the morning, closing west side at midday ane opening east side in afternoon, then opening west side windows after the sun went down. If you were lucky you also had a basement to retreat to...

It was frequently at or over a hundred degrees when I was a kid. No ac. We dealt with it. No other choice. 'Swhy I learned to run so fast.... Ever run across HOT asphalt in bare feet?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Can't live without it in high humidity.

basically, if it's hot, your productivity goes away. You have no energy to do anything. And a lot of people can't acclimate to it.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. My neighbor's ac drives me nuts

cause it kicks on at night all the time when they could just OPEN THE FRICKIN WINDOWS!!1!

I've only had to kick ours on once so far, it was over 90 outside and once it hit 80 in the house everyone was complaining, so I gave in.

I make sure the windows and doors are open from dawn till it starts warming up, with a few strategically placed box fans to pull the air through the house. Then everything gets closed up until it cools off in the evening. We've been real lucky here in the Northwest compared to what the rest of you are dealing with.

[struggle4progress]

6. when i run ac i tend to run it mainly at night

it's easier and cheaper to pump the heat out when it's cooler outside

and i have a deal with my electric company that lets them turn off my ac at peak load times, which means stinkin hot afternoons
i get a lower rate by letting them do that

so when i expect scorching weather, i close up and cool at night
then i stayed closed up but let the house warm some during the day

also i don't alternate much between cooling and bringing air in
a lot of the energy spent on ac is just dehumidifying the air
when i've spent ac $ drying the inside air, why would i immediately turn around and bring in a new batch of humid air?

[Kolesar]

21. If I program the bedroom minisplit AC to *dehumidify*, the room is really comfortable

I left it in dehumidify when I left for work during that horrid heatwave. I think the setting uses less electricity than normal AC.

Good point about pumping out the heat when the condenser is in cooler nighttime air.

[Sherman A1]

8. It is possible

that someone in your neighbor's family suffers from allergies or a breathing condition, making that a/c that drives you nuts something important to them.

I run mine pretty much from the end of heating season to the start of the next one, rarely opening windows due to asthma.

[freshwest]

12. Same here. Other than that, it's not on.

[struggle4progress]

4. I love it but I try not to use it: I cool my house down at night by bringing in night air by fan

then bring in less air by day

[cbayer]

5. I don't need it or have it here, but in New Orleans? Had to have it.

[Flaxbee]

7. the alarming thing is what is going to happen to energy use when the rest of the world

uses it to the same degree the US does.

[Kaleva]

9. There's a number of things one can do.

Ceiling fans help alot. When the then wife and I bought an old home and completely remodeled it, I put in ceiling fans in the kitchen, dining room, living room, office and the bedrooms. They do make a big difference on hot days and by reversing the direction, they'll help on heating costs during the cold season

I installed a heat pump electric water heater in the basement. This not only heats the water but removes humidity in the basement so I installed registers in the return duct located in the basement which I could open on hot days and by turning on the furnace fan, the cooler, less humid air in the basement is spread throughout the house.

A/C can produce many gallons of condensate water. If one has a flower or vegetable garden, you may consider methods of capturing that condensate for use in the garden. I've seen setups where folks who had a window mounted A/C had the condensate drain into a rain barrel. The condensate from the heat pump water heater I mentioned earlier which drained into a 5 gallon bucket was used to water the plants in the house and for the flower garden and young trees and shrubs we planted outside. I know of one person who by use of a condensate pump, pumped the condensate from his central A/C to a rain barrel outside.

When I was working, I've told a number of customers who wanted central A/C installed that they'd be better off spending the money on replacing doors and windows instead. Putting in central A/C in a poorly insulated house will drive the electric bill sky high. Insulate your home as well as it can be first. My ex and I spent about $35k on replacing all the windows and doors, putting in blown in foam insulation in the walls and increasing the insulation in the attic to R-60. So far this summer, she has told me that the house hasn't gone up past 76 degrees where there have been a number of days where I've had temps of around 85 degrees in the house I live in now. And that isn't even with the registers in the return duct being open as I described earlier.

For those who can't afford to replace all of the windows, good quality thermal insulated curtains installed on windows on the sunny side of the house may help. However, problems have arisen with the use of insulated drapes in some circumstances during the heating season and here is a link to site that discusses it:

http://utwired.engr.utexas.edu/conservationMyths/heatingCooling/drapeDefense.cfm

Another possible option is the use of interior storm windows:

http://www.toolbase.org/technology-inventory/windows/interior-storm-windows

For those who have more of a problem with humidity then temperature, a room or central whole house dehumidifier may be a better and possibly far cheaper option then A/C.

http://www.dehumidifierexperts.com/article.php/whole-house-vs-portable-dehumidifiers/?id=14

[Mosby]

17. couple years ago I had to replace my ac unit

Went from a seer 8 to a seer 13, saw some savings from the switch but not as much as I expected. Then we finally replaced the arcadia door with a modern dual pane with low-e film, we got a large tax credit (not an itemized credit). Around the same time we replaced the almost 40 yo roof, they swapped out 4 dormer vents with whirlybirds, I have a total of six now on the roof. End result our electric bill is less than HALF of what it used to be. I'm planning to replace all the windows little by little.

[Kaleva]

19. My former in-laws wanted their central A/C replaced as it ran all the time.

I didn't want to do the job and I advised against it and told them why but they insisted. I did the job at cost and didn't charge for labor.

Their new A/C runs all the time too. The electric bill is somewhat less as the new unit is much more efficient but because of the piss poor insulation and cheap windows and doors, it has to run almost steady in order to maintain a temp of 74-76 degrees when it's warmer then that outside.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. I don't have it, but there have been a few days this year

that I wished I did. Usually I don't have any issues with the heat. I'm cranky today because last night was one of the few nights that I couldn't cool the room down. I believe that I acclimate better than most to the heat because I force myself to do it...and I love summer and hate winter, so I am glad to have some heat!

When I lived in Houston, I would never be without it......so I suppose that how we feel about it has to do with where we live.

[Phentex]

11. I'd be miserable without it...

I am an exception and not the rule but I have extreme heat intolerance. When I am comfortable, other people are cold.

I use the A/C in my car every time I drive it - year round. Ceiling fan almost always every night until my husband cries uncle. Winters are almost worse for me because offices use heat. In the warmer months, I spend a lot of time walking around the frozen foods section of the grocery store. I love Costco's big refrigerated vegetable section.

So my answer is I love air conditioning. I know it's bad for the environment so I try to make up for it on other ways.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. When it's 109

I feel like I'd flippin' die without it. And it's really nice if you can turn it off at night but when it's 109 during the day, it "cools down" to 98 at night. I've been environmentally aware for decades now and do my part in a myriad of different ways, but living without A.C. in the central San Joaquin Valley is not gonna happen.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. Yeah, that would be very bad trying to survive that heat w/out A/C.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Have a 5000 BTU window unit in our computer room for those days when the

computers try to cook us and themselves. (It's a 10 x 12 room, so it doesn't take long with 3 or 4 computers running to heat up. Good in winter, bad in summer.) Right now the A/C is off. Won't really need it until this afternoon when the sun hits this side of the house.

The rest of the house I keep the windows closed until sundown, at which time it gets cooler outside than inside. I close them again at sunrise. We use ceiling fans and occasionally floor circulating fans to cool things down. If it gets too warm in the middle of the day, I can open the door to the basement and put the air mover over there and aim the cooler air at the ceiling fan in the living room. Overall it's been a good system, but we also have been very lucky in that our temps have been in the high 70s low 80s during the day and high 50s low 60s at night. The high humidity days can be a pain, but that's when I retreat to the computer room.

[RebelOne]

16. I live in a mobile home and have 2 window units.

And they are on 24/7 in the summer. I hate summertime and I hate to sweat. Our temps here in North Georgia have been in the middle to high 90s every day for the past few months. We have only had a few days in the 80s.

[Mosby]

18. can't live in phx w/out ac

But evaps work really well in the early summer months. The single inlet designs are the best but a lot more expensive.

[TheCruces]

20. I live in southern NM without air conditioning

It's honestly way better than living in NJ with window units.

[ljm2002]

22. We're looking at a week of 110-degree highs...

...and lows of about 85 degrees. So I feel pretty positive towards air conditioning at present.

However, we do try to use it carefully, keeping it set to 77 degrees, which makes the upstairs just bearable. Also I had read an article recently about traditional ways to beat the heat, and it mentioned that in South Africa they use wet curtains hung over doors and windows -- I'm going to try that too, to see if it helps alleviate the temperature just a bit. Every little bit helps.

[silverweb]

23. Have it, never use it.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]My apartment has a built-in a/c unit. With daytime temps hovering around 100 degrees outside these days, I keep it on fan only--but that fan has been on 24/7 since I moved in less than 3 months ago.

Fortunately, I'm on the shady side of the building, with most direct sun blocked by the building next door. With the fan on, it rarely goes over 85 degrees inside and the humidity is generally less than 30%. As long as the air is moving, I'm fine. The apartments on the other side of the building get as high as 110 degrees during the day, I'm told, so I guess the people there have to use their a/c at least sometimes.

Building techniques to keep buildings cool naturally are not widely used anymore, which is a major part of the problem. Air conditioning is overall a bad thing for the planet, though actually essential to life for some people with health problems. I did see an article not long ago about a guy who rigged up a solar panel to power his a/c, which I thought was pretty brilliant; unfortunately, that's not how most a/c is powered.