Posted on 06/22/2012 4:14:16 PM PDT by Timber Rattler
The economist Thorstein Veblen once quipped that "invention is the mother of necessity." That was before the age of air-conditioning, but no technology better illustrates Veblen's point. Having developed efficient cooling, we've designed homes, businesses and transportation systems that are completely dependent on it, while the resulting greenhouse emissions create the need for even more air-conditioning.
(snip)
We must break this feedback loop, but what does one say to someone living in one of the tropical nations where much of the increase in cooling demand is expected? Surely not that Americans are addicted to air-conditioning and can’t give it up, but we expect Southeast Asians to get by without air-conditioners because they're used to the heat.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
In Wilmingtgon, NC, there is a nicely restored mansion built on the eve of the War of Southern Independence built by a doctor and merchant by the name of Bellamy.
It is now a museum.
The top of the mansion features a “belvedere,” a sort of large cupola or small upper room with windows on all four sides, from which you get a nice view of the surrounding city. It also serves as an upper terminus for vents coming up from the lower floors, and thus cools the house with a chimney effect if you open the windows.
When I visited it in the early summer, the windows on the belvedere were closed. And it was toasty to say the least, a testament to the venting effect I would say.
[The mansion has an interesting history. Completed in 1861, the Bellamys lived in it a little under 4 years, finally removing to one of their distant properties before Wilmington fell to the Union, at which time the Northern Army used it as a regional headquarters for a while.
A few months later, in the Fall of 1865, the Bellamys moved back in. The last surviving Bellamy daughter, born in the mansion after the war, died there in 1946.]
I suppose that's true, in a way. It made it possible for us Yankees to immigrate there.
Sorry, Pontiac's gone.
Ohh, "transoms." Neeevvverrrr Minnnnd.
That'll be the next big scare-und-fascist-Putsch: Global Entropy Increase. No, make that Universal Entropy Increase.
And it has to be stopped NOW!!! Or were' all gonna DIE! The German climate scientists (well, OK, actually physicists) saw this already a hundred fifty years ago; they even had a word for it: Wärmetod.
Decades ago, I still vividly recall the experience.
Now, for almost my entire adult life, I've lived in the southwest and south, and never been without air conditioning. Except for when it was broken, and I'd have to rent a hotel room.
Have u guys ever been down South in August?
94 at 10pm and 80% humidity.....like say Dallas or Mobile
You'd be begging for AC
I grew up in Jackson MS in the 60s with none till i was 15
And i am under no illusions.....
Saginaw ain't DeFuniak Springs in summer trust me
Let alone even worse hot steamy spots worldwide like Asuncion or Managua or Delhi
So you live in an igloo in Caribou and need no AC.....well helll isn't that special.....we are just wussies needing our air conditioning and all
Sam is right though.....night critters are cool.....to a point
In real jungle that insect cacophony of hum can keep an old fart like me awake
I hear everything.....my dog farts in the den 25 yards away and i hear it....i cant sleep without a fan on
Yep
The single greatest reason we have been overrun by non southerners
That proves it
He really is more black than white
There are unintended consequences, and then there are intended consequences.
It actually cools nicely at night where those boys live and even daytime rarely tops 85 on the Mara
SAM.....with all due respect
I lived on the Hudson in Upper Nyack.....
There is no comparison.....none
U can survive without AC up north easy....though Manhattan can be a dog for brief periods which pass
Not so in Dixie.....trust me
Hotter than Satan’s spitcup
All the Enviro-Whacks like to point to third world nations as an example of their Utopia. Well most southeast Asia nations have higher death rates. Gee I wonder why?
I live in Houston and my grandfather’s house was in Texas.
I just don’t know which half of him is racist. He must be in a constant argument with himself, sort of like Dom DeLuise in the move “The End.”
I like evap cooling, however, the building codes today promote heat pumps and mechanical ventilation using AC.
AC only requires about 1/3 the air flow of evap cooling. This means most construction today build in duct work capacity at 1/3 that of evap cooling requirements.
It’s easy to move from evap cooling to AC, but it frequently is less expensive to demo the house and rebuild it, than to remodel and install larger ductwork in modern designs.
The same applies to natural ventilation. IBC mandates far less fenestration than the older UBC. IBC also mandates a lower ventilation rate. (Newer homes might be better insulated, but they also tend to stink more due to less outside air or ventilation.)
Regarding older designs, from the 30s through the 60’s, it was considered good design to install and calculate out long eaves on the south side of the bldg and narrower eaves on the north side,...to favor more shade on the bldg walls in the summer and more sunlight in the winter.
That feature is no longer in the codes. Most newer homes leave off the eaves except for snow melting.
Reminds me of a communications room for an older supermarket remodeled into a furniture store, where the communications racks were built in an old meat locker,...with the AC units and condensers installed inside the meat locker. They could have at least used the meat locker refrigerant system, but at least 2/3 of their power consumption was spent on that internal window unit.
Not just deeper eaves on the southerly exposure but second floor porches such that sunlight never hit the exterior wall. Used to see many such wood frame houses in Newport News, in the fifties. Quite comfortable for most of the summer until you got closer to triple digit heat with high humidity.
Keep in mind also that there were virtually no heat producing electrical appliances such as we have now. Light bulbs were rarely larger than 60 watts and used more for task lighting; desk and table lamps and maybe a floor lamp or two. So there was very little heat gain from lighting.
As for electric appliances there were virtually none aside from a refrigerator which was tiny by today's standards and maybe having a freezer shelf or an ice tray or two. Aside from that add a tube radio and record player that was it until television came along.
If they would build houses right; we wouldn’t need a/c. My husband’s mothers house was practically in desert; but it was built right and didn’t need a/c. Same way with my grandfather’s house.
You are correct, the problem with that of course is modern zoning boards make building houses and other buildings designed for the local conditions very difficult. Their rules are pretty much cookie cutter from North to south and east to west.
For instance my great grandmothers home in Ada Ohio was a semi-traditional Summer Winter house design. In the summer they lived in the northern half so that they didn’t have the sun heating up the bedrooms and other living spaces, the Master Bedroom had a larger balcony and doors that would be opened at night to allow the cooler night air in.
During the Winter they lived in the south half of the house so that the sun would help warm up the rooms. Those rooms had lower ceilings than the northern half so that the heat would be more concentrated.
There were a lot more things that were designed into that house that made it very comfortable to be in all year round with little or no electricity needed. But try to build it today and the costs would very extreme and just getting the plans approved would be a long term process by the code authority.
So in a way you can also blame the increased use of A/C on the Bureaucrats as they make it very difficult to build and live in alternatively designed structures.
Well, I am not paying someone to do it for me. Many yard care people in our area are illegals.
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