Scene 1: I spend most of the year freezing. I’m usually the first person to complain about air conditioning running too cold. I can hardly function in an office that’s cooled to 60 F, as our university consistently does to the Women’s and Gender Studies offices. I don’t think well when I’m cold, and (rather inconveniently), thinking is in my job description. We’ve taken to running space heaters when it gets really bad, since the university seems incapable of fixing its HVAC system.
At the same time, the university regularly sends out emails exhorting us to save energy.
Scene 2: The university also has trouble keeping its AC system working, period. Way back in April, we had our first heat wave, which provoked one of my students to complain to the school newspaper:
I began my day in Porter Hall at 9 a.m., measuring a comfortable 72 degrees. I had class from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Clippinger measuring 83 degrees, and immediately following a different room in Clip from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. measuring 85 degrees. Thinking that the worst of my overly warm classes were over and that the last would surely be comfortable, I entered Bentley and climbed to the second floor to find a room that was 98 degrees.
As our professor teased that class would end if she passed out, and I watched the sweat of my neighbor form a puddle on our desk, I found that what little focus I had for history was quickly diminishing in the unbearable heat. I began to wonder instead how, even in light of necessary budget cuts, Ohio University could think that students could actively learn in such an uncomfortable environment. Having soaked through my shirt I found myself racing outside to “cool down” in the 80 degree weather outside after class (well cool down in the sense that at least there was moving air).
Yep, I was that professor in the 98-degree room. And no, I didn’t pass out, but my students weren’t the only ones who struggled to stay focused.
Scene 3: The temperature in Berlin is 99F, as I write this. No one has AC in their homes. Not even all movie theaters have it. Lots of people don’t even own fans, and in fact, many Germans believe that any moving air constitutes a draft. When the city gets this hot, the apartment houses stay cool for a day or two, but then the cement and stone start to heat up, and they retain the heat instead. We’ve been opening windows whenever it’s cooler outside, closing them when it’s not, pulling drapes, and running fans. It’s not enough to live with any comfort. Last night the low was in the upper ’70s. Tonight we’ll be sleeping in a sauna. Or not sleeping, more likely.
All of which made me keenly interested in Salon’s interview with Stan Cox, who urges us to radically shut off our AC. (Amanda Marcotte has some very reasonable commentary on it at Pandagon.) I agree that we overdo it like crazy – do restaurants really need to be cooled to 65 or below? – but he underestimates the health impact where there’s no AC in a heat wave:
But I think we need to look at it is as a fail-safe mechanism and recognize that a lot of the health problems that we need A.C. to solve, it may have contributed to in the first place. We need to look at the conditions under which people die in heat waves, the harsh life conditions that they’re enduring more generally. That’s the real root of the problem.
No. It’s not just a matter of harsh life conditions, though poverty, old age, and isolation are huge risk factors for dying in a heat wave. There’s no mystery to it. But if there’s nowhere cool to escape, people will die. In Europe’s 2006 heat wave, at least 20 died in Germany and at least 40 in France, even though both are wealthy countries with excellent social welfare safety nets. These are preventable deaths.
Basically, our systems are poorly designed, with too much cooling delivered to lots of places, and none to others. My university offers some prime examples of this. Here’s another. My sister- and brother-in-law traveled from Frankfurt to Berlin on Friday in a train where the AC failed. The windows are hermetically sealed because it’s a high-speed train whose name, ironically, is abbreviated “ICE.” Yesterday, three similar trains had to be evacuated after their AC failed. (Sorry, the linked article is in German.) It seems the system is not designed to function in high temperatures! On one of the ICE trains, 27 teenagers on a school trip collapsed from the heat, and some required IV infusions right on the platform once they were evacuated. The desperate mother of a young boy tried to break a window with an emergency hammer. Temperatures topped 120 F.
So yes, by all means, let’s talk about AC. But I agree with Amanda that urging people to go cold turkey – as Cox does – vastly oversimplifies the matter. Complex societies cannot simply ditch AC, unless we abandon any notion of productivity and give up travel by mass conveyance. (I’ve recently been on an airplane and a city bus whose temperatures rivaled those of the ICE trains.) In other words, late capitalism depends on AC, and unless you think we can topple capitalism, we’re not likely to abolish AC. Nor should we, because it really does save people’s lives in a heat wave. But we can and should discuss where it’s used profligately and stupidly. We should think about where we really need it, and where it’s optional. We can adopt other strategies, like using a whole-house fan at night, running ceiling fans, or (in dry climates) installing a swamp cooler. We can drop dress codes that require pants and ties in July. Why not wear shorts to the office?
Oh, and when it’s really hot, we might be wise not to cuddle up to our laptops. I’m off to grab a cold drink and a good old-fashioned, paper-based book.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
We have a “Mediterranean” climate here in the Bay Area where most homes weren’t built with air conditioning until the mid 1980′s. My current place was built in 1962. You do the math
. This place was designed to be cooled by the blowing sea breeze (huge windows to capture the breeze and let it out the other side), but when the breeze instead shifts to blowing hot air from inland, it’s like being in a friggin’ furnace. All I can manage is to sit under the whirring ceiling fan with the floor fan whipping air around even more manically or go shopping in air-conditioned malls. Which is what I did yesterday afternoon when the temperature went above 85F, went shopping, which is why I now have four new pairs of pants and a bunch of nuts and bolts I didn’t previously have.
The worst part about no air conditioning is getting to sleep at night. When it’s above 80F with 100% humidity, you simply aren’t sleeping, regardless of how many fans you have going. You’re tossing and turning on top of your sheets, but not sleeping. Luckily we don’t have this problem here in the Bay Area (usually) because the heat inland causes a sea breeze to roll in at night, but I grew up before air conditioning in the American South and remember many a sleepless night during heat waves in late summer…
Am I going to give up air conditioning? To quote another feller from a different context: “From my cold, dead hands.” My last apartment had air conditioning and I ran it so seldom that my electric bill never exceeded $40 per month, but on those few days of the year where I need it, I need it, gosh darn it!
- Badtux the Overheated Penguin
We try to keep a healthy balance at home & at work. We have indoor-outdoor thermometers that help us keep track of the differential in temperatures. When it is the same or cooler outside, we open window and run fans.
It also helps to keep lights out and take advantage of natural sunlight.
When I know I will be in situations (class, meeting room or restaurant ) that I can’t control, I like to bring a sweater just in case of an overactive thermostat.
Moderation is key!
Living in Cologne (and previously a few other German cities), I have seen my share of German summers and cooling solutions (or lack thereof). A recurring problem has been that the ACs that were present simply did not cut it—probably largely because they had not been integrated in the buildings to begin with, but were ineffective standalone pieces that required putting a hose out the window (for exhaust of hot air) and then sealing the window off (to prevent inflow of warm air), and only could divert heat by air, not water (or an other fluid). More often than not, ordinary fans have had a greater effect on the offices I have worked in.
As is, the last few days, I have really appreciated a cold shower now and then. They really work wonders—for twenty minutes…
As someone who is not of the AC crowd I agree with Bad Momma. But I am probably more of an extreme…I lived in Mississippi and would only run my AC if I was having people over (otherwise they wouldn’t come!). One solution is to run de-humidifiers, it is the humidity that gets to you.
Some food for thought about AC…it was after the advent of AC, especially centralized AC that the South saw its building boom (much of which is inefficient sprawl development). Centralized AC is seen as one reason houses have grown in sq. footage. Houses now are developed that are almost impossible to cool without AC. No cross current windows, etc.
Hope it is cooling off in Berlin…but as I see it hot weather calls for a cold beer!
Michael, it is quite possible to cool off residences using what we call “window air conditioners” here in the United States. Indeed, that was the usual solution for homes that did not originally have forced air heat. These use the part hanging outside the window to use outside air to transfer the heat from the condenser to the outside air, and the part inside the window uses inside air to transfer heat from the inside air to the evaporator. But: In Germany “it is not done” (to quote the German girlfriend of one of my friends about many things we do routinely here in the States). Because “window thumpers” (our nickname for them) are *UGLY*, and typically drip water outside on high-humidity days, which is not beloved of pedestrians passing below them. Thus the inefficient single-hose solution, which does not require propping an entire HVAC unit in the window. The problem with the single-hose solution is that it is blowing air from *inside* the unit to the *outside* of the unit, and must suck an equal amount of air into the unit from the outside somewhere. As a result, a room that would be cooled fine by a 5,000 BTU window thumper might require a 10,000 BTU hoser… if it can be cooled at all. And on humid days their condensate bucket must be emptied every couple of hours despite their claim that they can evaporate their own condensate and spit it out that hose.
There are double-hosers which work somewhat better but for some odd reason they are not very common and are quite a bit more expensive than the window-thumpers. I think it is because they tend to be larger and heavier than the single-hosers. They also still have the condensate issue. Still, if you cannot mount a window thumper for whatever reason, you should get a double-hoser (which has a hose to suck in outside air as well as a hose to exhaust the warmed outside air back to the outside).
- Badtux the Air-conditioned Penguin
Thank you for the info. I have seen the “window thumpers” you mention on TV and in movies on countless occasions and never quite understood why they are so common in the US and practically unheard of here.
There is an architectural difference, I think. Most window thumpers are in the windows of single-family homes or trailer homes, where there are no pedestrians below for them to drip on. Plus Americans seem to love ugly. Thus pink flamingos and yard gnomes. (Google those if you do not know what I am talking about, typical American yard decorations in the Sun Belt). Thus don’t care that window thumpers are ugly. Combine the two — the different nature of American housing, and the fact that Americans have no taste — and that may explain the difference
.
Badtux – I know your climate because I spent some years living in and around Palo Alto in the 1980s. I assume the climate is about the same, even if the traffic is much worse and housing is now completely unaffordable. Window units make a fair amount of sense there. It helps a lot that you don’t get much humidity, too.
The single-hose window units you guys describe remind me of a condensation clothes dryer we have in this Berlin apartment. Unlike North American dryers, it doesn’t vent to the outdoors. You have to empty the water drawer after every load, and running it costs as much as the total debt of Greece … consequently we hardly ever use it.
Michael and Bad Momma – thanks to both of you for stopping by.
Michael, I am about to take one of those showers you recommend! It seems to be about the only way to get any sleep. We just had a thunderstorm pass through Berlin, but no rain in my neighborhood and no real relief. At least we didn’t get hit by a tornado like some folks did. Weird to have tornadoes in Germany.
Bad Momma – I grew up with no air conditioners in North Dakota, so I know the tricks. As cold as it gets in the winter, it can get pretty hot and humid in summer, too. But a Midwestern house is a totally different beast than a five-story apartment building made of thick stone and concrete. Where wood cools down, the stone resists any quick change.
Sorra – The problem is, it’s just about too hot for a beer! Even the beer gardens are hot, though they’re a degree or two cooler than some indoor spaces.
Cox makes the point that you do, too – that entire areas of the U.S. would be a whole lot less populated without AC, and that people would never have started building such oversized dwellings. He thinks the Republicans might be weaker if the southern and southwestern exurbs had not sprung up. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it’s an interesting speculation.
Sungold, I grew up in the American South and lived in homes built pre-air-conditioning (indeed, pre-forced-air-heating) for most of the first half of my life. We had window thumpers as our primary air conditioning, and a 10,000 BTU unit would cool down a typical bedroom even when the outside temperature was 105F with 100% humidity, it might only get the indoor temperature down to 85F or so but the simple fact of removing so much humidity made things pleasant. Before the window thumpers came around in the mid 1970′s, we had a huge attic fan in the attic that sucked huge amounts of air through the windows, plus a variety of desk fans that sat on night-stands for sleeping. Even then, at 100% humidity and 85F at 10:30PM at night, it was miserable trying to sleep, and the fans helped during the day but we didn’t do a whole lot during the hottest part of the year, mostly just hung around on the (screened in) back porch or sat in front of a window (to get the breeze from the ceiling fan). It was just too friggin’ *hot*.
Would lack of A/C have hindered migration to the Sun Belt? Well… the Arizona house I lived in was built pre-A/C, it had a swamp cooler on the roof. For 10 months of the year it was quite livable without turning on the A/C. Used a lot of water (for the swamp cooler), but so it goes. For 2 months of the year, the heart of monsoon season, the swamp cooler was less useful because the dewpoint rose as high as the 80′s and simply didn’t cool the air coming through the swamp cooler enough (made it damp and clammy, rather than comfortable), but I doubt that the lack of A/C would have greatly hindered things there, it would have just changed the architecture significantly (to allow the large plenums and openable windows required for swamp coolers to operate, and there would have been no downtown high rises because you couldn’t cool them).
As for the local climate, the humidity can be surprisingly high here. But I’m still surviving okay without air conditioning. I might be in shorts sprawled on my bed under the ceiling fan with the floor fan whipping around while I read a book, but no big deal. But I suspect things are warmer here than when you lived here, because a) more of the Valley is paved (less greenery to soak up heat), and b) global warming. Still, livable, if you’re in a pre-A/C home that has proper cross-ventilation.
- Badtux the HVAC Geek Penguin
That proper cross-ventilation is key, isn’t it? At least this apartment has it – in theory – but by the time temps are sinking down to 80 or so, it’s way past bedtime, and I’m leary of leaving open the window in the boys’ room (the Tiger has a history of sleepwalking) or the window/door onto the balcony (because we’re only one level up from the ground).
I’d actually give a lot for a swamp cooler right about now. My mom used to have on in Placerville. Eventually she replaced it with central AC but it was pretty useful. I think it eventually got stinky, and she felt it wasn’t worth the replacement cost. Placerville also usually cools down at night, even after a 105F day, which is a great mercy. (It was, however, apparently also the home of that idjit you posted about who thought he was smarter than the average bear – I swear I don’t know the dude, but I was *not* surprised by his P-Ville provenance.)
I’m probably remembering the humidity levels in PA through rosy, youth-colored glasses. I did spend most summers there at the time, but I was younger and more resilient. It’s depressing to think that all the paving is heating the place up, but from my perch in the middle of a fairly green but still concrete city: yeah, I can see how that would be inevitable.
They say bloggers sit around in their pajamas. If they only knew just how nekkid we actually are! Let us just say that Megan McCain, in her flirty tank-top-jammie tweet that led to so much abuse? Well, Megan’s got nothin’ on me. But I’m not gonna tweet my present state. And I’m still too hot, and it’s 1:30 in the wretched morning, and all I can wonder is: WTF is a penguin doing in Louisiana, Arizona, and California? I know there are warmish-weather penguins, but no wonder you are suffering!
One word: Screens. My local Big Box hardware Store has the “cat-proof” screen material (and the framing material for creating frames to mount it in) which should fit your needs tidily for securing your windows and doors. These screens are not an impediment for firefighters armed with sharp utensils, but certainly are sufficient to stop random cats (and tigers) from exiting the doors and windows unawares. If I did not have screen doors for my front and back doors, cross-ventilation would be seriously impaired, because my place is long and narrow so there’s only one window and a door on each end.
Well, unlike more Germans, we *do* have a few screens. They were fine with Grey Kitty, back in her salad days. I’m less optimistic that a fifty-pound sleepwalking Tiger would be deterred.
I’m sorry you’re baking, too. Sounds like your new digs are pretty suboptimal for hot spells – as are mine. Vive la global warming!
[...] 2010 by Sungold The heat spell grinds on. The German Rail company now blames global warming for its massive breakdown of high-speed trains. They were built to a “Norm” (standard) of functioning that went all the way up to 32 C [...]