If you dress lightly temperatures below 100°F(36°C) feel good if you take the time to adapt. The problem is at night, a mattress is a very thick cloth covering half your body. The solution is to sleep without a mattress. Sleeping on the floor or other hard surface can be harsh though. My solution is to sleep in a hammock. In tropical America millions of people comfortably sleep in hammocks every night.
I grew up in broward without air conditioning. You get used to it. A couple days in the summer you hang out in the bathtub or escape to the library, otherwise its fine.
> I grew up in broward without air conditioning. You get used to it.
I've been on the gulf coast since 1992. How much longer until I get used to it? Because not wringing out clothes after the nightly walk sounds pretty sweet.
> If you live in Miami or Phoenix, you need air-conditioning to survive the summer. But if you live in the middle of the country, try leaving the air-conditioning off when it’s hot but not too hot.
The more accurate description of this opinion piece is therefore "if you live in areas where it's not too hot [Kansas, where the author is situated, seems like it has average upper temps of mid 80s right now], you don't really need AC much". ....Well, no kidding?
It's easy to swear off AC if you just don't have one. Sometimes there is a bit of extra swearing involved. And sleep deprivation, 3 showers a night and laying dripping in front of the fan, 5 minutes until dry. (GA)
With increasing global temperatures, increasing numbers of people are vulnerable to heat related illness.
In my case, whenever it's above 36C I have a significantly higher chance of sudden death (Brugada Syndrome), so I hide from heatwaves in air-con. Since we've had 3 days above 30C this week, and winter is officially over today, I think it's a good air-con summer ahead.
The a/c in my apartment in Chicago is broken. It's a custom size so it's taking a while to fix. The heat is bearable, but challenging. I can see how much more efficient they make things. Just falling asleep takes much longer now. When it gets too hot it can get distracting, it makes it hard to think. I don't want to get up and walk around, I plant myself in front of a fan. I think the level of heat adaptation the human body is capable is limited. You can bear it but it'll affect performance. Even when I maintain a sauna habit, I never adapt to the point that I'm unbothered by the heat. As much energy as cooling homes consumes, it's pretty damn worth it considering you gain comfort and performance benefits
I lived without AC til I was 30. Worked outside, no car AC, windows open in the summer. I never once remember thinking about the weather before going to live life, and I lived in a place with 110° summers, no problem. Then around that time I started working in an office and got accustomed to it.
I feel weaker and less healthy. I think AC (and canned air in general) is bad for you and I try not to use it and to spend more time outside, probably the only reason I haven't gone cold turkey on it is my family like the comfort.
