/End thread hijack. :-)
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 ...
Sounds to me as if there might be an even greater level of cooling available via utilization of evaporative cooling, a twist on the old “swamp cooler” familiar to residents of hot, dry climates, that does not work with humid air. The humidity has been removed to aid efficiency of traditional condensers. This would require an additional set of membranes following a means of introducing a fine mist into the now-dry air, in order to remove it again.
May be cost prohibitive but I suspect it would handle cooling needs for all but the hottest of days without use of a condenser, which could be scaled down greatly and only used for backup cooling, sort of like the supplemental heating element on a heat pump.
I agree. I was lucky enough to see two houses that were well built.
We live in a townhouse and the dues is only $50 per month; and that includes maintenance of the grounds and the pool.
I'm going to buy another pith helmet some day. I used to wear those on the farm.
W Bush's house in Crawford has something similar. I read it in a comparison between W's environmentally friendly ranch house and Al Gore's sprawling energy guzzling mansion.
W Bush’s house in Crawford has something similar.
Put on a wet t-shirt and stand in front of a fan when it is 100 degrees with low humidity. You will be freezing.
This has been demonstrated in bars and nightclubs located in communities near colleges.
It tickles me to hear yankees here gloating about not needing AC.......well of course you don’t
Telling Southerners they don’t need AC is like telling a Northerner they don’t need heat.
I say we pull all HVAC out of the UN building. If they need to heat during the winter, they may light dung fires in their trash cans.
U can survive without AC up north easy....though Manhattan can be a dog for brief periods which pass
I thought Montana got hot before moving to East Texas.
The wind on a hot day was like a hair dryer. It was scorching, but at least it wasn’t “muggy.”
Well, I do freeze those when I have a permit to hunt and when I find them, but it's been nearly a decade.
However, I do live in a place where there are 500,000 people and 16,000,000 head of cattle within a hundred mile radius, so fresh beef is not all that difficult to find and buy every day.
You probably are too young to have lived before AC, give it a try this summer.
I lived in Beaumont once....hot.
My uncle lives between Gilmer and Gladewater and Big Sandy in Pritchett
very hot and sticky
i’ll be over there soon enough...my kids love his farm but i try to wait till fall
You know, I don’t remember; but I do remember window fans.
Ohio and the Desert are not Deep South....Columbus right now is 83 with 35% humidity
Birmingham is 95 with 70% humidity
Dallas Texas can have 40 days in a row of 100 or more and high humidity though the humidity breaks as you near the Panhandle
it’s 100 in Vegas and you get out of the pool and you get cool for a minute or so till you heat back up in that dry heat and in the shade it’s tolerable especially with fans
Ohio is I reckon like when I lived in Hudson Valley...hot occasionally but usually mid 80s at most...anything over that and folks talk heat wave...and yes it is less humid than the Southeast and cools more at night
You cannot build homes in east Texas or the inland coastal areas from Texas to Virginia to withstand the oppressive heat...not dogtrots or open air courtyards or Arcadian open plans or off the ground Greek Revival...or raised Federal or Georgian
all the antebellum folks tried it in their day and they still sweated it out
sometimes in the south the only place to cool off is in water even at 1am
there are few places in the world less comfortable than the Deep South in August...the combination of humidity and heat is rough
the only place I have seen worse is Asuncion Paraguay and parts of Southeast Asia...and Port Au Prince
I am now in metro Nashville which while hot is still about 7 degrees or so less hot than say Montgomery Alabama or Alexandria Louisiana...there are places in TN above 2500 foot altitude where you can survive without AC but there will still be nights you will want it
down here your AC goes out and you go to a motel
the same thing my pals in Traverse City did this winter when that last big monster snow drop knocked out the power...they went to all the motels from TC to Grand Rapids
/End thread hijack. :-)
I guess this schmuck wants us all to smell like filthy, sweaty hippies.
My huge problem with that quote, as I'm sure most agree, is who the hell says that we have to get the okay from other countries about how we live our lives in ours?
zer0, you can take your okay from other countries and [long string of unladylike profanity and scatological suggestions to the 0-BOW-ma in chief]!!
It made it possible for us Yankees to immigrate there.
Many people immigrated to the South before the era of air conditioniong. those who were prepared to adopt the southern life style remained after their first summer. They adapted to the character of the south.
After air conditioning became common, new residents were less likely to adopt a southern life style, more likely to keep their old ways. They influenced and changed the character of the south.
As I see it, the most significant changes wrought on the south directly by air condirioning are:
- The changes in architectureTo my way of thinking the three are all interconnected: The changes in architecture and life style attracted new residents who, in turn, affected the architecture and life style even more.- The changes in life style
- The influx of new residents who would not have relocated to live in the old, pre-air conditioner south.
I lived in Vegas. It’s dry heat. That’s why you can withstand it.
I lived in Vegas. It’s a dry heat. That’s why you can withstand it. You can get nosebleeds there and your skin gets really dry.
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