Can you do without Air Conditioning?

Yes

Having done a few house exchanges in summer, one thing I noticed about the Europeans who stayed in our house – they didn’t turn the air conditioning on at all. I’m not sure about the car. But it poses a question: if they objected to using it, and they did so for ecological and health reasons, do we really need the AC on? It’s been a cool summer so far and I haven’t used it but, as the map shows, these temperatures have been an anomaly and they are going to go back up.

I think everybody kind of knows that AC use increases global warming and that increases temperatures, which increases AC use. It’s a vicious circle and most people prefer to ignore the fact that fossil fuels are being burnt to power their AC.

Homeowners can take steps to cut their electricity bills and keep the house cool. Some things are obvious: (1) grow deciduous trees to shade the house, (2) install ceiling fans or floor fans – these work better if a window is open to create circulation (closed doors and windows reduce their effectiveness), (3) only open windows away from the direct sun to create air circulation, while using curtains and shutters on the sunny side. Other changes can be more expensive: (4) when you change your roof or paint the house, switch to a lighter color, (5) improve your window insulation, (6) build a patio or porch with overhead grapevines and relax under there during the hottest hours.

In other words, learn to enjoy it. A little sweating and a few bugs are OK, right? I happened to be out mid afternoon yesterday and it was 88 degrees. The world was full of grumpy people shrieking at their kids. I think we should ban summer shopping during the hottest afternoons and encourage siestas. As a Washington Post writer once wisely put it: “Summer is God’s way of telling us not to dash about like headless chickens. It is not as necessary as some people think to see how many quarters of the city can be traversed between 2 and 3:30 p.m.” (article here)

On the health front, it’s a mixed bag. Some people with allergies are dependent on AC. But AC can dehydrate the air and circulate airborne bacteria and fungi. Equally interesting is the proposition that if we use technology to regulate our body temperature all the time, our body will lose its ability to be self-adjusting, potentially leading to obesity (that’s according to one study, anyway, at the University of Alabama in Birmingham – overview here).

The map shows Global Temperature Anomalies, May 2010: “January–May anomalies show 2010 to be the warmest out of 131 years (2005 is the fourth warmest and 1998 is the fifth warmest). Moreover, Arctic temperature anomalies are especially pronounced” - NASA Earth Observatory (including photo).