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.
I agree. I was lucky enough to see two houses that were well built.
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