General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Excessive heat in California [View all]Retrograde
(10,209 posts)of the year in the 4 decades I've lived in the Bay Area. Was it last year or the one before that we hit 108?
I don't have air-conditioning, but I have a house built before 1920 that has great cross-ventilation, and large overhangs. What I do is open all the windows at night, and close them mid-morning (and close the shutters as well). With a couple of fans to move the air around it's tolerable. I also time-shift, getting up early and doing any work that needs to be done, and napping during the hottest part of the day. I have the luxury, though, of being retired.
We need to build for local climates rather than filling up the country with cookie-cutter houses: there's a reason the Spanish colonists went in for thick adobe walls, and why shotgun shacks are a Southern thing.