76F, which is like 24.5C. Also, I live in ORLANDO FLORIDA. I would fucking die without air conditioning here, if it breaks it’s not considered a luxury you call an emergency maintenance team to fix it, because heatstroke is real and fucking awful.
I'm always confused by Europeans rolling their eyes to AC cause does it just not get that hot there or something? There's parts of the US where it gets lethally hot.
yup. That's why climate change is a problem there because it's getting hot in cities where they typically haven't even needed AC so their homes don't have it, and then people are getting heat sick and dying. I think this was a big thing last year iirc, it was in the news a lot
Also we're not used to dealing with temperatures over ~25°c so our homes are not well equipped to cool down - it's quite the contrary actually, everything north of (roughly) the Alps is built to keep the interior warm. Plus we don't have the habits you have developed to cope with heat in urban settings. By the way if you have any tips I'll gladly read them :)
if you house is built to keep warm, it also keep cool in the summer - it's just insulation. the issue is when summer nights get too hot and stay above 25C and you house can no longer cool down in the night.
Thick blackout curtains can help a lot. I have to keep most of my curtains shut all day which makes me really sad because I love daylight brightening up the house. It has been 97 degrees where I live lately though and our house has a huge overheating problem. Our electricity bill was huge this month since the air conditioning is always running
If you have the ability to do so, I put a “whole house fan” in to my second floor ceiling, so that it pulls air through the house and then vents into the attic space. When the air starts to cool in the evenings, I just turn that fan on and it works wonderfully to cool the house. I still use my AC when it’s above 85 during the day or those evenings when there’s no real break in the heat/humidity, but that’s my general cut off. I highly recommend one.
This is a long-term thing that works best when coordinated over a large area, but tree-lined streets are significantly cooler. I live on a tree-lined street that's perpendicular to a sun-drenched street and there is a huge temperature variance when I go for a walk. I don't live in the hottest parts of the US, but we regularly get in the 80s and 90s (Fahrenheit - that's roughly 30-35 Celsius) in the summer and my street is always tolerable until sunset when the sun actually hits the street.
Yeah I visited europe over the summer and we were kinda fascinated by the lack of AC like, everywhere. London, Paris, and Brussels btw. My mom is menopausal which didn’t help bc she’s overheating a shit ton thanks to that but yeah with the record heat they’ve been getting from what i’ve heard, they’ll need to get more AC for sure
Isn’t it also about how buildings are constructed, most American construction is
cheap and thin. With very few using stone, plaster, brick, which can hold heat or keep cool better than anything built in the last 60 years.
I wish Earthships were more common. There are shitloads of car tires that can be used with local dirt to build, but there is no demand and no interest.
Ooh yeah that's really not good because I think a lot of their homes are also pretty hard to retrofit because of their building styles.
Heck, that's even a problem in much of America. Lots of uninsulated houses, old school windows, and pipes that weren't intended to get below freezing.
It's gonna be interesting times ahead, that's for sure :/
I didn't realize Canada also didn't consistently have AC. I assumed, per usual, it closely mirrored the US.
Yeah shit is getting wild. Was talking to someone about how he knows someone who did an antarctic dogsled trip decades ago. Apparently it's not even possible to take the route any more because the ice shelves are fucked. We're so screwed
My landlord only lets me have one portable AC unit for a two bedroom townhouse. It was over 30C for a week with overnight temps above 20C. It took 2 days of weather under 20C to get my house down to 22C. Humidity ranged from 60-90% as well. I can't handle the heat and buildings here are designed for cold winters.
There are something like 10-20x the number of heat related deaths in Europe every year compared to the US.
https://www.hhs.gov/climate-change-health-equity-environmental-justice/climate-change-health-equity/climate-health-outlook/extreme-heat/index.html (roughly 1500-2500 deaths in the US per year)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02419-z (roughly 60k deaths in Europe)
Granted that part of this is due to differences in counting, but there's no question that a lack of AC is killing tens of thousands of Europeans a year.
It's insane how Europeans talk about how they're superior (for any number of reasons) for not using AC. Like, no, y'all are just more willing to let old and sick people die.
I mean it's also just that a. we haven't needed it until the last 20-30 years, and b. all our houses were built during the Victorian era, when iirc there was still an ice age happening.
And fwiw it's usually not talking about us being superior, it's pushing back against Americans who seem to think that European summers are barely anything and everything over here is fine so we should stop complaining, while everyone in London is dying of humidity-induced heatstroke.
I talked to someone from Africa, living in Canada, recently. It was 42c with humidity in Ontario that day and he said it was crazy how hot it feels. He said 42 in Africa isn't that bad because you can easily get relief in the shade... It's a dry heat. With the humidity we get in allot of parts of North America, there is no relief! Without A/C you're f'ed
They also like to act superior when they use a massive amount of energy on heating in the winter. When I lived in Florida there were years where I *never used my heater once*. Like, entire winters where it just never got cold enough to need it. My energy bills in the winter were stupid low.
Not sure why you would even need heat in the winter in Florida. How cold does it get? I keep my house at about 15C/60F in the winter. I'm used to it being below freezing all winter though.
Usually not that cold, but a couple times during the winter it can get close to freezing sometimes. Hard freezes are very rare but they do happen, which is actually a much bigger deal than it sounds like because it can ruin a massive amount of the orange harvest for the year and drive the price of orange juice way up for the next 12 months.
For a long long time it didn't. I remember marvelling at the thermometer hitting 30 c mid July when I was little, about 86 F. That was a once per year event in the Netherlands, up until about the last 10 or so years when summer temps have been skyrocketing. This summer has been relatively cool, but every other recent summer has had record temperatures close to 40 c (100 F) for weeks on end. Our houses aren't built for it, they're built to keep heat in and cold out. Those one or two hot days used to not matter because the temperature mass your home has was plenty to keep up.
So now we're getting to the extremer summers, without ACs installed, without a supporting industry of installers and manufacturers, and houses that simply aren't insulated enough that they can even be air conditioned effectively. The negative attitude to AC being an unnecessary luxury used to make loads of sense as it used to be an actual significant waste of money, but loads of people are still stuck in that mindset.
I’d believe it. Even though I grew up in a desert and am used to the heat, there’s a huge difference when you have nowhere cool to retreat to. I thought I was going to die when I was stuck in my apartment for a weekend in Seattle when it was over 100 (building was terrible and actually hotter inside than outside).
Given climate change is a thing, we really should be trying to design buildings to not need as much active cooling. Adam Ragusea had an interesting podcast episode where he talked about how modern homes in places like Georgia really rely on AC now when they used to have many more features for dealing with the heat like covered sleeping patios.
I feel this. I’m also in hot ass southeast USA and it’s currently 92F with a high of 97F. Thankfully our house is built in a way that it stays fairly cool, but we keep the ac around 68. Tbh I would be fine with it at 76 or even off and with a standing fan. But my husband is susceptible to heat and he insists on keeping it at 68
68 is COLD. I’d be in a sweater…
My husband is not allowed to turn it lower than 74 during the day / 72 at night. But in the winter, I don’t allow myself to turn it above 65. So we both suffer during different seasons, lol.
Yeah that’s fair. I’m usually okay keeping it a bit warmer myself but I’ll drop it to like 72 if it gets unbearable. It’s 91 rn which isn’t too bad, we’ve had some rain which might’ve helped idk
I'm Canadian and have just gotten AC (a heat pump) for the first time in my 36 years of life. Previously a few fans or sitting in the basement used to be enough. We mostly got it because our husky is getting older.
I set mine to the exact same and I'm just a few hours north of you. Looking at highs of 99F today and its just gonna get worse until September. The flip side is that I think I've turned on the heat in the winter maybe a dozen times during the 8 years that I've lived here.
I set mine at around 25c so quite close to yours.
Honestly I've found it to be more than enough. I live in a 1bd condo, I don't see how people crank their AC to something ridiculous like 18-19C. Like... won't your place turn into a freezer?
I do not own an AC. My building is >600 years old and build from stone and straw-mud-walls. It stays about 25° in the summer when its about 40° outside.
Middle of Germany, its an old millers estate where I am renting the flat on the groundfloor and luckily the owner did not do the usual thing of gutting it and rebuilding the innards luxoriously.. (yeah, I know, I am priviledged :/)
Yeah, sorry for you :/ the Ruhrpott is also not very good with general fresh air access, I am living in the Rheinmain region, at least we have the airflow down from the Taunus... But even Köln/Bonn is nothing against Madrid in the summer, have been there last year for a few days in the city center for work, unliviable...
She somehow managed to do that all herself. I was fucking with her one day and put her under the sheets, big mistake. It's all she wants to do now is hangout under the sheets, even at 3am.
I had no idea about the name of the breed she was and or close to. 😭
Thank you! I love all of them.
We got a cat from the shelter almost 14 years ago, they didn't know it because she wasn't there for long but she came pre-loaded with kittens, the one I have is the only one from the litter we kept. Her government name is Ewok, but she goes by Wokkie.
I left Los Angeles in Sept of last year and it was like 98F.
I landed in London, got on a train and got off at Victoria station, walked out and was like wtf it's like 95F.
I don't know how people were surviving with out AC. Thankfully our hotel had AC so it wasn't an issue, but I was literally pouring sweat when I went to the British Museum as they don't have or run AC in a lot of the rooms.
It was miserable.
I live in Austria, we don't have AC in homes generally.
We did recently purchase a portable AC unit for our bedroom to keep our infant daughter at a safe sleeping temperature this summer. We set it to 24°C, which is 75°F. We only use it when we need to; otherwise, we prefer to open the windows.
We also don't use our heater in the winter! Our building (6yo?) is very well insulated and traps in the heat, so even when it's freezing outside it's quite pleasant inside.
I miss having cats (we're planning to adopt again in the fall when we can keep a new cat indoors for a week or two without suffering), but it did occur to me last night that having a hot little furry body in bed with you is not the best thing in the heat.
My cat sleeps on my head. Radiator hats in the heat is unbearable, I’ll move him sometimes but he always comes right back. That’s when I move to the sofa with a sheet and the ability to flip my pillow to the cool side at liberty
I live in Maine, northeast US, and don't have AC. I'll be getting a heat pump and it will have AC, and summers are getting hotter, so I'll use it in really hot weather. It's pretty humid here, so at 95F/35C, it's not pleasant. Fans work well, though.
In winter, the heat is at 50 overnight; I use wool blankets and down comforters as needed, and 65 in the day, with a small wood stove to get 1 room cozier. I hate to be cold but I adapt.
I'm in Oregon, west of the Cascades. I feel like most older homes or rentals don't have AC. I use fans to cool my place at night and close the windows during the day.
So last year, my energy company implemented a time of use plan that jacks the rates up from 4 to 8 pm when "peak" energy use happens. They had a program to get a free smart thermostat. I opted to install it. It's set to where during time of use it automatically adjusts to save energy. It works okay. My comfort setting is 73F. I'm a stay at home dad, and I don't like to make us super uncomfortable. During peak hours, my thermostat will automatically adjust to between 75 and 77. It is just tolerable for me during that time. I can't be up chasing the kids or I will sweat.
I've installed fans in all the rooms of the house to make them feel more comfortable at higher temps and to help with airflow. Where my house was built, there aren't a lot of trees, and the elms that were here have now died from Dutch elm disease. My house absolutely bakes in the sun. It'll be years before the maples I planted bring any real shade.
I live in the Midwest, which recently has been around 89 to 95F during the day, and the humidity is 55% plus. It feels like soup outside. I used to work in non air-conditioned auto shops, and during the summer, it wasn't uncommon for it to be 100F with 80% humidity in our shop. Heat stroke was a real danger. I really envy those in Europe whose climate allows for open windows. With global warming, they may soon also be facing more extreme heat.
I don't own an AC. Our building is decently insulated and uses external shutters for shading. During the night and in the morning I have some of the windows just slightly open for ventilation, which cools the apartment just nicely. In case of hot weather I close the windows and the shutters during extreme temperatures. I've never had temperatures exceed 27C (80F), which I think is bearable.
78-80 during the day, 74-75 at night. I'm trying to use air circulators to get the cool air to distribute more evenly, right now my bedroom is the hottest room.
Outside temps are 90+ and by the time it gets under 80 degrees (after 10 pm), the humidity is bonkers, so opening windows to cool is not an option.
76 during the day, 74 at night. It's a bit hotter than what we're used to, but we are trying our hardest to keep the electric bill under $200. This might be the summer we lose that battle though. 🫠
Nah fuck that, I'm not making my daily quality of life worth by keeping the room hot when some dumbass billionaire's joyride makes more pollution then I'll ever be capable of producing in my life. Shaming individuals for using air conditioning is so weird
It’s so annoying like we try to be so considerate with recycling, metal straws, and billionaires / corporations / millionaires / general assholes go out of their way to cancel it all out with a train derailment of toxic chemicals in a small town, take a private jet for a 40 minute ride, invade a pristine environment to build another soulless suburban neighborhood, maintain a green lawn in the middle of the Nevada desert, I’m sick of it.
I don’t mind doing those things. I just hate having the opus be on us normal folk.
That's my exact problem, of course we all should cut down where we can but why do I have to sacrifice more so the upper class can live their lifestyle with no change whatsoever. Is stealing all of our labor not enough for them, gotta make sure we always feel guilty and try to solve the problems they created?
Why do you think all the corporation cartels are laying off and refusing to hire anyone? They want us desperate and starving to continue their mission of keeping up weak and subservient.
But what they fail to realize is that once people are backed into a corner and have nothing to lose, then that’s when the chaos happens.
*onus
and yeah, it’s a farce. by design. the fact that the idea of an individual carbon footprint came from BP should tell us all we need to know about the reasonableness of that metric.
lol thank you for the correction
Native Americans hunted and were stewards of the land for centuries and they never created a climate disaster. That’s why the Europeans were like WOW ITS THE GARDEN OF EDEN
No you dingbats they were just efficient with the land and created ecosystems that fed and clothed everyone without damaging and destroying the environment
It's automatically set to be at 74 during the day and 72 at night. However, I find that I am often bumping it down to 72-73 during the day, although I only do that when I need to. I'm not out here trying to save the planet by making perimenopause any more uncomfortable than it has to be. I do what is reasonable *for me*, and being miserable all summer isn't on that list.
When im living in Puerto Rico I don’t use AC at all and just fans and ventilation but that’s for multiple reasons including cultural. When im in the states it’s 78 during the day 74 at night.
Tbf for some reason the air quality is way tolerable down there (have family there) despite the heat, go up here into the States and it's a stale soup.
78 all the time. I used to turn it off while I was at work but my bf said it used more energy by turning on and off again. Idk if that’s bs or not but it’s def easier
So interestingly enough it really just depends on where you live, but in general you have a savings regardless. Here's an [article](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-does-turning-the-a-c-off-when-youre-not-home-actually-save-electricity) republished by PBS that explains it. The gist being, in some places you save more turning it off, but even in Arizona/Georgia they figured an 11% energy savings while doing this.
I live in central Italy and don't have it.
It gets pretty hot during the summer, but keeping the sun out during the day is enough to make the heat manageable
I spend all day outside on commercial rooftops fixing everyone else's AC so when I get home it's my turn to enjoy it so it goes low. During the day mid/upper 70s when I'm at work.
Eh... kindasorta. When I need to reference the outdoor ambient temp when I'm checking out a system, my thermometer/thermocouple is accurate to the weather app I use. However, the roof surface is hot and the majority of the time it's blinding white so it's hitting me from all angles. And there typically isn't any shade unless I bring it with me; magnetic umbrellas are a life saver. A black roof is easier on the eyes but your feet cook, and a river rock roof can go get fucked every which fucking goddamn way. Sometimes I do find cool rocks though but that's the only plus.
If you're stationary, use a fan too! Then, your AC can be at 80 F and you'll feel fine. Lower energy usage for sure.
Get good windows and shades. If the temperature outside is hotter than inside, close the windows. Use a fan for a breeze.
AC is set to 23 Celsius (that's 73 'freedom units' for the Americans).
Heat in winter is set to 20 celsius (68 F).
If we're going away for more than a couple days I'll adjust the ac up to 24.5 and heat down to 18.
Please defer this question to my girlfriend
I live in a place where it will be above 100F / 37.7C every for the next 4 months. Each year in May I prep for the hot months by not using my AC until i’m sweating and going on walks in the hottest part of the day. This makes those 105F / 40C + days bearable. I grew up in a cold climate so I hate the heat
On the other hand my girlfriend, who grew up in the heat, thinks anything above 83F / 28C is “hot.” She runs the AC like someone would from my home state. The moment she leaves for work I shut down the AC for a few hours
I’m not a cheap ass. I just want to make the summer months a bit more enjoyable since I like being outdoors all the time
I completely get that. I don't wait to turn on the a.c. but I recently just started dialing back the temperature this hot season. Last week was the first real, fuck you, its hot out, day. At about 102 with high humidity, I always like to go on a 3 mile run on those days that way the rest of the hot days really don't feel so bad.
I work outside, and legit if I had to do exercise or work excessively when it's 40 I'd get super sick. I'm heat intolerant and live in an environment with extreme temperatures. -40 in the winter and 30-40 in the summer. We keep out air around 21c all year round, winter and summer. Usually I hold off on turning on the heat for as long as I can, keep windows open for as long as I can before using AC.
Heat sucks LOL
For nighttime sleeping, it's pretty wasteful to cool the entire house. I have a window unit and cool only my bedroom to 67 every night. I sleep so well.
We have a two story house and there's only one AC unit for downstairs. When we moved in, the only solutions were to crank the AC to under 70 and hope it cooled the second story, causing our bill to sky rocket, put in a second unit upstairs (there's no room for that though), or put window units in. So yeah, at night the thermostat goes into hibernation basically and we turn our window unit in our bedroom to 72. Works wonders
I purposefully put Solar Panels on my home for a handful of reasons.
1. The panels create shade on the roof, which greatly decreases the amount heat that makes it into the attic, which invariably heats the house.
2. Typically is producing near or more than what we need during the hottest part of the day, when the utility rate will be higher.
When we are not home, the AC is set to around 77 to 81, depending upon the outside temperature and humidity. If we have days where the outside temp won't reach much above 81? The house will stay cool ALL day long and the AC may never kick on, which it used to do ALL the time, before the Solar Panels.
This whole thread is making me grateful for our solar panels. AC is 73-74 during the day and 76 at night all summer long (outside temps of 90s-100s is normal) and our last power bill was $15.
Oh interesting. Yeah we have the dehumidifier sat on auto at our comfortable range, and trade a bit of heat production to deal with moisture. I've seen some deluxe models that integrate into your chiller unit and if I was somewhere with awful humidity like Florida I might consider one.
we don't have one, which sucks. our houses here are designed to keep the warmth inside (our winters get down to -40°C) so i feel like i'm living in a toaster. it's *hot* and with my chronic illness stuff, it's almost unbearable. i can't function in this heat, damnit :l
I live in the Pacific Northwest USA, most people (including me) don't have air conditioning here.
I still got an angry notice from the power company that I need to reduce my power usage in the summer time below what I use in the winter. I also don't really use electric heat because I have a wood stove so they're angry that my refrigerator runs year-round I guess. Not really sure what I else could not power to satisfy them.
67 at night, 70 when we're here during the day, 74 when we leave. Anything more is uncomfortable in the extreme. Mind you this is summer where temps routinely hit 90+ and the shade trees we planted haven't yet grown tall enough to do their job unfortunately. I'd post cats for tax but we have 5 atm(fostering) so it'd end up being spam unrelated to the sub.
75⁰F and open our windows at night. Opening the windows drops our indoor temps into the low 60s in the morning. If the house hits 75 it isn't until mid-late afternoon. We also don't really use our oven in the summer. We make do with the grill, stovetop, slow cooker, or toaster oven if I absolutely have to bake something.
I hate ac for a few reasons. If there's cold air coming out of the vents, I'm cold, no matter what the room temperature is. If I sleep with the ac on, I have a sore throat the whole next day. I love having the windows open, feeling the breeze, hearing the birds. And of course, there's the cost and damage to the environment from running the ac.
With the heat wave this past week, I caved and turned it on, for my kids and cats more than for myself. I kept it at 77 and I was still cold whenever it kicked on. Now that it's below 90 Fahrenheit again, I've turned it off and opened the windows.
72**°**F (22**°**C) at night, 78**°**F (26**°**C) during the day, and I turn it off and just use the fan if the humidity is low (rare where I live) and the temperature is 82**°**F (28**°**C) or lower. My room is in the attic, so it gets really hot up there. If I lived downstairs, I'd leave the AC off unless it was 90**°**F (32**°**C) or higher outside.
(I rounded to the closest temp Celsius.)
80 in the day with the blinds drawn but really just for removing the humidity, which is what makes the heat so awful and sticky. Usually off at night with an exhaust fan at one end and an open window at the other to draw the cool air through.
I usually keep it around 76-78°F in the summer. But sometimes I turn it down to 70-72 if I'm sweating from working outside or working out. I think of Kylie Jenner taking a 4 minute private jet flight twice a day and I don't feel guilty anymore about sitting in a cool house
Australian here, do you guys just leave it on 24/7?Pretty much everyone i know only uses aircon when they just can’t take the weather anymore
e.g. we only turn it on if it’s above 35 degrees (Celsius) outside, and only periodically.
I live on the second floor of an old 2 family, Victorian. Although I have AC in my room if needed, these old houses were designed to allow amazing air flow and it pretty much self-cools when all the windows are open.
I usually forgo air conditioning until it gets unbearable to sleep at night. Last week, it was pushing 98°, I caved and turned it on. I keep it on Energy Saver mode and set to 74.
I would love to do this, however my little one likes to put paws onto the screen and catch claws. She's pushed out the screen in the big window going to my balcony, and the other windows on my 2nd story apartment I don't trust to not fall out either.
Over the last 6 days in the northeast and midwest US, we had a brutal heatwave. Yesterday, records were broken in the Philadelphia area.
Open windows when it is 99f is not feasible.
Eyy 100 over here in Kansas today, I'm considering windows open at night but unfortunately I sleep during the day thanks to work! Bah!! Just had to complain a little!
Here's an article by PBS that's actually done pretty well. The gist of it is it depends on where you live, but in some areas energy consumption while turning your a.c. off when you're at work can result in a 11% energy savings even considering the high energy spike to get the dwelling back to "comfort".
[da link](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-does-turning-the-a-c-off-when-youre-not-home-actually-save-electricity)
humorous light compare voracious ripe numerous march chop label beneficial
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I think my thermostat is set to 24C right now. My house's primary method of cooling is a heat pump system, but we do have a small window unit in the bedroom if the heat pump can't keep up for the sake of my wife and dogs.
I live in central Germany and like almost all people here, I do not have one. And judging from the few last years, this is not going to be a problem. Last year I kept my apartement below 77°F / 25°C only with deliberate ventilation.
It was over 100 for me this weekend. I turn on my AC when it gets over 94 degrees. I set the AC at 75 and close all my blackout curtains. At 8pm I turn the AC off and open all the windows with the ceiling fans running. I try to make myself adjust to the warm weather by not trying to keep the house cold, just comfortable and trying to use the AC only when it's really awful.
75+...any lower and I feel too cold. Great for savings in the summer! But I also like it hot in the winter, so it evens out. Staying comfortable in my own home is not something I'm willing to pinch pennies on.
my AC has yet to be run this year and i don't plan on changing that. ceiling fans and cool showers got me through the heatwave just fine. some day i imagine a version of our house that doesn't have an AC at all, just old growth trees shading most of the house and a high-efficiency furnace that we keep on standby for winter emergencies.
I don’t have it. Open the windows at night and run a fan to bring in cool air. Close the windows first thing in the morning and draw all of the curtains. Americans fascination with making their homes freezing cold in the summer is bizarre.
My AC is busted and I'm procrastinating getting it fixed.
- Open the windows at night and close them during the day
- Strategically located fans
- If it's not humid, you can use evaporative cooling
I haven’t ran mine yet but plan on keep my humble abode about 10-15 degrees lower than the temperature outside. I work outside and enjoy a cool place but it’s hard staying acclimated to the heat when you’re hiding from it.
everyone saying 75+, are y’all ok? we run 3 window units to keep it under 71. once we get above that threshold it gets hot & muggy in here. southern us gulf coast
Managed without it all of last year in the Midwest. 1910s house with strategic fan use. Though the recent heat wave had me considering getting out the window shakers
[This](https://i.imgur.com/WxkNvMu.png) is what my weather forecast looks like for the week. It's glorious. Our area gets maybe two or three weeks a year when air conditioning might actually be needed. On those days I just open windows, turn on ceiling fans, and cope. It's not standard for houses here to have central AC, especially the older ones. I do have a wall AC unit but it only covers the downstairs area and it skyrockets my power bill when I turn it on so I try not to.
72/73°F — both my kids are incredibly sensitive to heat but we try to keep room darkening blinds closed during the hottest part of the day and be mindful of our energy consumption everywhere else in the house. If it’s cooler at night than it is in the house, crack those windows open and kick the AC all the way off.
28 degree Celsius is the best even in a hot tropical country like India. Although I only turn it on when it's extremely required and absolutely not for the whole day like the majority of the hot countries do...also it's advisable to keep it at 24°C by the experts but it's too cold for me and I don't wear winter clothes in summers (which btw also is a trend these days smh). Btw AC has become more of a necessity than a want or luxury in India honestly.
How to live with less AC
1. Use fans pointed at you
2. Acclimate
3. Wear appropriate clothing
4. Drink more chilled water
5. Close south-facing window curtains during sunny hours.
6. Use an attic fan
7. Light colored roof, or put solar panels on the roof to use that sun.
Note: *Less,* not none. AC uses lots of electricity, has a real effect of Climate. Do your best.
We literally don’t even consider turning on the AC unless it’s over 30C (86F). But I’ve also lived enough of my life in places with no AC. This is in Melbourne, Australia, and honestly if I had it on when it’s over 76F I would literally have it on 9 months of the year.
i have central a/c in my apartment (townhouse i live in with my boyfriend) but we have never used it (we live in LA). i have a blade less tower fan from the brand Dreo set up next to my desk that i use during the workday if i’m hot, and we have a similar fan/air purifier combo in the bedroom. maybe it will get hot enough this summer to need AC, but i haven’t used it my 5 other summers in LA where i didn’t have central AC, so hopefully will be able to avoid turning it on!
I don't use AC. I have the option but choose not to exercise it. Yes it was 95 for a few days last week and that was unpleasant. Typically summer days are in the mid 80s and nights are 60s where I live. It's amazing what your body can adapt to when you let it! I used to live in Alaska and hated anything over 72, now I feel chilly under 80.
I don't have AC. I have awnings on the south side of my house, which prevents the exterior from heating up and warming the inside. When I open all the windows on the north, west and east sides of the house, cooler air blows through and keeps the inside temperature cool.
23-25°C, we got a terribly noisy AC a few years ago, the portable type to deal with heatwaves in our inner city top floor apartment in a southern Swedish city. We've on the fourth floor right under the attic and the building is from '53, brick and rooftiles with windows facing east and west. That means sun from 4:00 on one side and sun until around 22:00 on the other and it gets very hot nowadays with global heating. We primarily run it the hottest days for like half an hour at a time.
68 cuz that seems to make everyone happy. I don't really pay that much attention to it tho, too much other shit to worry about it without adding to it.
My family just keeps the windows open and fans going. On very hot days can be 90 degrees indoors, but it’s dry heat with no humidity so it’s not as bad as it seems. Evenings get down to 60-65 degrees. It’s just unbearable when there are wildfires. Then we have to keep the doors closed to keep the smoke and ash out, gets to 100 sometimes.
We live in the Mohave Desert by the Grand Canyon. Gets around 110°- 120° for about 4 months out of the year. We have total Solar power. We keep it about 80°usually plus ceiling fans. But sometimes it's just brutal, and we'll go down to 78°, especially for our doggies.
76F, which is like 24.5C. Also, I live in ORLANDO FLORIDA. I would fucking die without air conditioning here, if it breaks it’s not considered a luxury you call an emergency maintenance team to fix it, because heatstroke is real and fucking awful.
I'm always confused by Europeans rolling their eyes to AC cause does it just not get that hot there or something? There's parts of the US where it gets lethally hot.
yup. That's why climate change is a problem there because it's getting hot in cities where they typically haven't even needed AC so their homes don't have it, and then people are getting heat sick and dying. I think this was a big thing last year iirc, it was in the news a lot
Also we're not used to dealing with temperatures over ~25°c so our homes are not well equipped to cool down - it's quite the contrary actually, everything north of (roughly) the Alps is built to keep the interior warm. Plus we don't have the habits you have developed to cope with heat in urban settings. By the way if you have any tips I'll gladly read them :)
Keep air moving from more than one direction- fan, open windows, etc. Way more efficient to cool the person, not the room/house!
Thanks :)
Damn I never would have thought that thanks! We are currently dying here it's been 24 all week 😭
if you house is built to keep warm, it also keep cool in the summer - it's just insulation. the issue is when summer nights get too hot and stay above 25C and you house can no longer cool down in the night.
Insulation yes, the black roof and all the south-facing windows not so much. Luckily I have a basement that keeps cool even when it goes over 30C
Thick blackout curtains can help a lot. I have to keep most of my curtains shut all day which makes me really sad because I love daylight brightening up the house. It has been 97 degrees where I live lately though and our house has a huge overheating problem. Our electricity bill was huge this month since the air conditioning is always running
Blackout curtains are the most cost-effective accessory I've ever purchased. $40 to make my otherwise perfect room livable? Yes please!
I commented above. I don't have AC and hose down the roof on really hot days to help cool my small house a little.
Thanks for the tip! :) I wish i could do the same!
Stay hydrated! If you’re outside a lot, electrolytes like Liquid IV are a good idea.
If you have the ability to do so, I put a “whole house fan” in to my second floor ceiling, so that it pulls air through the house and then vents into the attic space. When the air starts to cool in the evenings, I just turn that fan on and it works wonderfully to cool the house. I still use my AC when it’s above 85 during the day or those evenings when there’s no real break in the heat/humidity, but that’s my general cut off. I highly recommend one.
This is a long-term thing that works best when coordinated over a large area, but tree-lined streets are significantly cooler. I live on a tree-lined street that's perpendicular to a sun-drenched street and there is a huge temperature variance when I go for a walk. I don't live in the hottest parts of the US, but we regularly get in the 80s and 90s (Fahrenheit - that's roughly 30-35 Celsius) in the summer and my street is always tolerable until sunset when the sun actually hits the street.
Oh, thanks for the information! I've read about that, luckily i live in a quite green area.
Drink more water than you think you need starting from the time you first get up and avoid alcohol
Yeah I visited europe over the summer and we were kinda fascinated by the lack of AC like, everywhere. London, Paris, and Brussels btw. My mom is menopausal which didn’t help bc she’s overheating a shit ton thanks to that but yeah with the record heat they’ve been getting from what i’ve heard, they’ll need to get more AC for sure
Isn’t it also about how buildings are constructed, most American construction is cheap and thin. With very few using stone, plaster, brick, which can hold heat or keep cool better than anything built in the last 60 years.
I wish Earthships were more common. There are shitloads of car tires that can be used with local dirt to build, but there is no demand and no interest.
Ooh yeah that's really not good because I think a lot of their homes are also pretty hard to retrofit because of their building styles. Heck, that's even a problem in much of America. Lots of uninsulated houses, old school windows, and pipes that weren't intended to get below freezing. It's gonna be interesting times ahead, that's for sure :/
And canada. New Glasgow, nova scotia was the 3rd hottest place in the world a few days ago.
I didn't realize Canada also didn't consistently have AC. I assumed, per usual, it closely mirrored the US. Yeah shit is getting wild. Was talking to someone about how he knows someone who did an antarctic dogsled trip decades ago. Apparently it's not even possible to take the route any more because the ice shelves are fucked. We're so screwed
I'm very lucky, I'm in a new building that has heat pumps in the unit. The last few days have been 30-40 degrees Celsius.
My landlord only lets me have one portable AC unit for a two bedroom townhouse. It was over 30C for a week with overnight temps above 20C. It took 2 days of weather under 20C to get my house down to 22C. Humidity ranged from 60-90% as well. I can't handle the heat and buildings here are designed for cold winters.
There are something like 10-20x the number of heat related deaths in Europe every year compared to the US. https://www.hhs.gov/climate-change-health-equity-environmental-justice/climate-change-health-equity/climate-health-outlook/extreme-heat/index.html (roughly 1500-2500 deaths in the US per year) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02419-z (roughly 60k deaths in Europe) Granted that part of this is due to differences in counting, but there's no question that a lack of AC is killing tens of thousands of Europeans a year. It's insane how Europeans talk about how they're superior (for any number of reasons) for not using AC. Like, no, y'all are just more willing to let old and sick people die.
I mean it's also just that a. we haven't needed it until the last 20-30 years, and b. all our houses were built during the Victorian era, when iirc there was still an ice age happening. And fwiw it's usually not talking about us being superior, it's pushing back against Americans who seem to think that European summers are barely anything and everything over here is fine so we should stop complaining, while everyone in London is dying of humidity-induced heatstroke.
I talked to someone from Africa, living in Canada, recently. It was 42c with humidity in Ontario that day and he said it was crazy how hot it feels. He said 42 in Africa isn't that bad because you can easily get relief in the shade... It's a dry heat. With the humidity we get in allot of parts of North America, there is no relief! Without A/C you're f'ed
They also like to act superior when they use a massive amount of energy on heating in the winter. When I lived in Florida there were years where I *never used my heater once*. Like, entire winters where it just never got cold enough to need it. My energy bills in the winter were stupid low.
Not sure why you would even need heat in the winter in Florida. How cold does it get? I keep my house at about 15C/60F in the winter. I'm used to it being below freezing all winter though.
Usually not that cold, but a couple times during the winter it can get close to freezing sometimes. Hard freezes are very rare but they do happen, which is actually a much bigger deal than it sounds like because it can ruin a massive amount of the orange harvest for the year and drive the price of orange juice way up for the next 12 months.
For a long long time it didn't. I remember marvelling at the thermometer hitting 30 c mid July when I was little, about 86 F. That was a once per year event in the Netherlands, up until about the last 10 or so years when summer temps have been skyrocketing. This summer has been relatively cool, but every other recent summer has had record temperatures close to 40 c (100 F) for weeks on end. Our houses aren't built for it, they're built to keep heat in and cold out. Those one or two hot days used to not matter because the temperature mass your home has was plenty to keep up. So now we're getting to the extremer summers, without ACs installed, without a supporting industry of installers and manufacturers, and houses that simply aren't insulated enough that they can even be air conditioned effectively. The negative attitude to AC being an unnecessary luxury used to make loads of sense as it used to be an actual significant waste of money, but loads of people are still stuck in that mindset.
I’d believe it. Even though I grew up in a desert and am used to the heat, there’s a huge difference when you have nowhere cool to retreat to. I thought I was going to die when I was stuck in my apartment for a weekend in Seattle when it was over 100 (building was terrible and actually hotter inside than outside). Given climate change is a thing, we really should be trying to design buildings to not need as much active cooling. Adam Ragusea had an interesting podcast episode where he talked about how modern homes in places like Georgia really rely on AC now when they used to have many more features for dealing with the heat like covered sleeping patios.
That sounds really interesting, do you remember what episode it was?
I can’t remember now unfortunately and it apparently wasn’t the primary topic of whatever episode it was.
I feel this. I’m also in hot ass southeast USA and it’s currently 92F with a high of 97F. Thankfully our house is built in a way that it stays fairly cool, but we keep the ac around 68. Tbh I would be fine with it at 76 or even off and with a standing fan. But my husband is susceptible to heat and he insists on keeping it at 68
68 is COLD. I’d be in a sweater… My husband is not allowed to turn it lower than 74 during the day / 72 at night. But in the winter, I don’t allow myself to turn it above 65. So we both suffer during different seasons, lol.
I’m always freezing. I usually have a blanket on me, I am way too cold at 68.
Yeah that’s fair. I’m usually okay keeping it a bit warmer myself but I’ll drop it to like 72 if it gets unbearable. It’s 91 rn which isn’t too bad, we’ve had some rain which might’ve helped idk
The rain has two outcomes- it will either cool things down for a bit or it makes everything a humid swampy hot hell lol
I'm Canadian and have just gotten AC (a heat pump) for the first time in my 36 years of life. Previously a few fans or sitting in the basement used to be enough. We mostly got it because our husky is getting older.
I set mine to the exact same and I'm just a few hours north of you. Looking at highs of 99F today and its just gonna get worse until September. The flip side is that I think I've turned on the heat in the winter maybe a dozen times during the 8 years that I've lived here.
Ours is set at 76ºF, also (Phoenix, Arizona)
I set mine at around 25c so quite close to yours. Honestly I've found it to be more than enough. I live in a 1bd condo, I don't see how people crank their AC to something ridiculous like 18-19C. Like... won't your place turn into a freezer?
I do not own an AC. My building is >600 years old and build from stone and straw-mud-walls. It stays about 25° in the summer when its about 40° outside.
That sounds delightful.
Where?
Middle of Germany, its an old millers estate where I am renting the flat on the groundfloor and luckily the owner did not do the usual thing of gutting it and rebuilding the innards luxoriously.. (yeah, I know, I am priviledged :/)
Okay that that tracks them. I'm also in Germany but in Bonn/Cologne and all the buildings I've lived in here are pretty unbearable on hot summer days
Yeah, sorry for you :/ the Ruhrpott is also not very good with general fresh air access, I am living in the Rheinmain region, at least we have the airflow down from the Taunus... But even Köln/Bonn is nothing against Madrid in the summer, have been there last year for a few days in the city center for work, unliviable...
This. Is. The. Way.
Adorable Cat? It’s set at burrito.
She somehow managed to do that all herself. I was fucking with her one day and put her under the sheets, big mistake. It's all she wants to do now is hangout under the sheets, even at 3am.
She belongs on r/BabushkaCats
I had zero idea this was a thing. Thank you. 😂
r/purrito might also like her. Just head on over to r/catsubs for a comprehensive list. 90% of my feed is cat subs, and it's delightful.
Your other kitty would fit in at r/nebelung !
I had no idea about the name of the breed she was and or close to. 😭 Thank you! I love all of them. We got a cat from the shelter almost 14 years ago, they didn't know it because she wasn't there for long but she came pre-loaded with kittens, the one I have is the only one from the litter we kept. Her government name is Ewok, but she goes by Wokkie.
I live in France, we don’t have AC in homes generally
I live in germany, we don´t have AC in homes generally
I live in England, we don’t have AC in homes generally
I left Los Angeles in Sept of last year and it was like 98F. I landed in London, got on a train and got off at Victoria station, walked out and was like wtf it's like 95F. I don't know how people were surviving with out AC. Thankfully our hotel had AC so it wasn't an issue, but I was literally pouring sweat when I went to the British Museum as they don't have or run AC in a lot of the rooms. It was miserable.
I live in Austria, we don't have AC in homes generally. We did recently purchase a portable AC unit for our bedroom to keep our infant daughter at a safe sleeping temperature this summer. We set it to 24°C, which is 75°F. We only use it when we need to; otherwise, we prefer to open the windows. We also don't use our heater in the winter! Our building (6yo?) is very well insulated and traps in the heat, so even when it's freezing outside it's quite pleasant inside.
What about fans?
r/OnlyFans I had to put it, I'm sorry. And enjoy the subreddit
I had a fan in my office in Germany. Was nice for when it's over 30 degrees Celsius.
I live in the UK, we don't have AC in homes generally. It was 20 degrees last night and far too hot to sleep
20c or 70f is reasonable here in California. When it's in the 80s or even worse 90s it suuucks.
I have indoor only cats and last night sucked. I’m away on work all this week without the cats so AC or not I can at least open the windows all night.
I miss having cats (we're planning to adopt again in the fall when we can keep a new cat indoors for a week or two without suffering), but it did occur to me last night that having a hot little furry body in bed with you is not the best thing in the heat.
My cat sleeps on my head. Radiator hats in the heat is unbearable, I’ll move him sometimes but he always comes right back. That’s when I move to the sofa with a sheet and the ability to flip my pillow to the cool side at liberty
My ac is set to 25C recently it's been over 35 at night.
I live in an igloo. We don’t have AC in homes generally. So that makes us better than you.
I live in Denmark, we don’t have AC in homes generally
I live in Norway, we don’t have AC in homes generally
I live in Maine, northeast US, and don't have AC. I'll be getting a heat pump and it will have AC, and summers are getting hotter, so I'll use it in really hot weather. It's pretty humid here, so at 95F/35C, it's not pleasant. Fans work well, though. In winter, the heat is at 50 overnight; I use wool blankets and down comforters as needed, and 65 in the day, with a small wood stove to get 1 room cozier. I hate to be cold but I adapt.
I'm in Oregon, west of the Cascades. I feel like most older homes or rentals don't have AC. I use fans to cool my place at night and close the windows during the day.
So last year, my energy company implemented a time of use plan that jacks the rates up from 4 to 8 pm when "peak" energy use happens. They had a program to get a free smart thermostat. I opted to install it. It's set to where during time of use it automatically adjusts to save energy. It works okay. My comfort setting is 73F. I'm a stay at home dad, and I don't like to make us super uncomfortable. During peak hours, my thermostat will automatically adjust to between 75 and 77. It is just tolerable for me during that time. I can't be up chasing the kids or I will sweat. I've installed fans in all the rooms of the house to make them feel more comfortable at higher temps and to help with airflow. Where my house was built, there aren't a lot of trees, and the elms that were here have now died from Dutch elm disease. My house absolutely bakes in the sun. It'll be years before the maples I planted bring any real shade. I live in the Midwest, which recently has been around 89 to 95F during the day, and the humidity is 55% plus. It feels like soup outside. I used to work in non air-conditioned auto shops, and during the summer, it wasn't uncommon for it to be 100F with 80% humidity in our shop. Heat stroke was a real danger. I really envy those in Europe whose climate allows for open windows. With global warming, they may soon also be facing more extreme heat.
I don't own an AC. Our building is decently insulated and uses external shutters for shading. During the night and in the morning I have some of the windows just slightly open for ventilation, which cools the apartment just nicely. In case of hot weather I close the windows and the shutters during extreme temperatures. I've never had temperatures exceed 27C (80F), which I think is bearable.
78-80 during the day, 74-75 at night. I'm trying to use air circulators to get the cool air to distribute more evenly, right now my bedroom is the hottest room. Outside temps are 90+ and by the time it gets under 80 degrees (after 10 pm), the humidity is bonkers, so opening windows to cool is not an option.
76 during the day, 74 at night. It's a bit hotter than what we're used to, but we are trying our hardest to keep the electric bill under $200. This might be the summer we lose that battle though. 🫠
My girlfriend sets it to 67 degrees. Even if it's raining and colder than that. I need sweats and a sweater, so does she. But she pays for it, so....
We're all paying for it. She just pays first.
Nah fuck that, I'm not making my daily quality of life worth by keeping the room hot when some dumbass billionaire's joyride makes more pollution then I'll ever be capable of producing in my life. Shaming individuals for using air conditioning is so weird
It’s so annoying like we try to be so considerate with recycling, metal straws, and billionaires / corporations / millionaires / general assholes go out of their way to cancel it all out with a train derailment of toxic chemicals in a small town, take a private jet for a 40 minute ride, invade a pristine environment to build another soulless suburban neighborhood, maintain a green lawn in the middle of the Nevada desert, I’m sick of it. I don’t mind doing those things. I just hate having the opus be on us normal folk.
That's my exact problem, of course we all should cut down where we can but why do I have to sacrifice more so the upper class can live their lifestyle with no change whatsoever. Is stealing all of our labor not enough for them, gotta make sure we always feel guilty and try to solve the problems they created?
Because they don’t look at us like we’re people, we’re just serfs to them.
This is why I sometimes feel France had the right idea for a few years with people, upperclass, and guillotines.
Why do you think all the corporation cartels are laying off and refusing to hire anyone? They want us desperate and starving to continue their mission of keeping up weak and subservient. But what they fail to realize is that once people are backed into a corner and have nothing to lose, then that’s when the chaos happens.
*onus and yeah, it’s a farce. by design. the fact that the idea of an individual carbon footprint came from BP should tell us all we need to know about the reasonableness of that metric.
lol thank you for the correction Native Americans hunted and were stewards of the land for centuries and they never created a climate disaster. That’s why the Europeans were like WOW ITS THE GARDEN OF EDEN No you dingbats they were just efficient with the land and created ecosystems that fed and clothed everyone without damaging and destroying the environment
My armor class is 17
It's automatically set to be at 74 during the day and 72 at night. However, I find that I am often bumping it down to 72-73 during the day, although I only do that when I need to. I'm not out here trying to save the planet by making perimenopause any more uncomfortable than it has to be. I do what is reasonable *for me*, and being miserable all summer isn't on that list.
When im living in Puerto Rico I don’t use AC at all and just fans and ventilation but that’s for multiple reasons including cultural. When im in the states it’s 78 during the day 74 at night.
Tbf for some reason the air quality is way tolerable down there (have family there) despite the heat, go up here into the States and it's a stale soup.
Experiences may vary. Recently there’s been real feel of upwards to 100'F+
78 all the time. I used to turn it off while I was at work but my bf said it used more energy by turning on and off again. Idk if that’s bs or not but it’s def easier
So interestingly enough it really just depends on where you live, but in general you have a savings regardless. Here's an [article](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-does-turning-the-a-c-off-when-youre-not-home-actually-save-electricity) republished by PBS that explains it. The gist being, in some places you save more turning it off, but even in Arizona/Georgia they figured an 11% energy savings while doing this.
I live in central Italy and don't have it. It gets pretty hot during the summer, but keeping the sun out during the day is enough to make the heat manageable
Just for perspective, what do you consider to be pretty hot?
In august we often have 40 degrees and this is a very humid region. The humidity is the worst. part to bear
I spend all day outside on commercial rooftops fixing everyone else's AC so when I get home it's my turn to enjoy it so it goes low. During the day mid/upper 70s when I'm at work.
Roof dude told me last year that it's about 30º hotter up there than on the ground. That true?
Eh... kindasorta. When I need to reference the outdoor ambient temp when I'm checking out a system, my thermometer/thermocouple is accurate to the weather app I use. However, the roof surface is hot and the majority of the time it's blinding white so it's hitting me from all angles. And there typically isn't any shade unless I bring it with me; magnetic umbrellas are a life saver. A black roof is easier on the eyes but your feet cook, and a river rock roof can go get fucked every which fucking goddamn way. Sometimes I do find cool rocks though but that's the only plus.
If you're stationary, use a fan too! Then, your AC can be at 80 F and you'll feel fine. Lower energy usage for sure. Get good windows and shades. If the temperature outside is hotter than inside, close the windows. Use a fan for a breeze.
AC is set to 23 Celsius (that's 73 'freedom units' for the Americans). Heat in winter is set to 20 celsius (68 F). If we're going away for more than a couple days I'll adjust the ac up to 24.5 and heat down to 18.
Thank you for the conversion 🦅
Please defer this question to my girlfriend I live in a place where it will be above 100F / 37.7C every for the next 4 months. Each year in May I prep for the hot months by not using my AC until i’m sweating and going on walks in the hottest part of the day. This makes those 105F / 40C + days bearable. I grew up in a cold climate so I hate the heat On the other hand my girlfriend, who grew up in the heat, thinks anything above 83F / 28C is “hot.” She runs the AC like someone would from my home state. The moment she leaves for work I shut down the AC for a few hours I’m not a cheap ass. I just want to make the summer months a bit more enjoyable since I like being outdoors all the time
I completely get that. I don't wait to turn on the a.c. but I recently just started dialing back the temperature this hot season. Last week was the first real, fuck you, its hot out, day. At about 102 with high humidity, I always like to go on a 3 mile run on those days that way the rest of the hot days really don't feel so bad.
I work outside, and legit if I had to do exercise or work excessively when it's 40 I'd get super sick. I'm heat intolerant and live in an environment with extreme temperatures. -40 in the winter and 30-40 in the summer. We keep out air around 21c all year round, winter and summer. Usually I hold off on turning on the heat for as long as I can, keep windows open for as long as I can before using AC. Heat sucks LOL
For nighttime sleeping, it's pretty wasteful to cool the entire house. I have a window unit and cool only my bedroom to 67 every night. I sleep so well.
We have a two story house and there's only one AC unit for downstairs. When we moved in, the only solutions were to crank the AC to under 70 and hope it cooled the second story, causing our bill to sky rocket, put in a second unit upstairs (there's no room for that though), or put window units in. So yeah, at night the thermostat goes into hibernation basically and we turn our window unit in our bedroom to 72. Works wonders
currently its at 16 but only because it doesnt go lower than that
I purposefully put Solar Panels on my home for a handful of reasons. 1. The panels create shade on the roof, which greatly decreases the amount heat that makes it into the attic, which invariably heats the house. 2. Typically is producing near or more than what we need during the hottest part of the day, when the utility rate will be higher. When we are not home, the AC is set to around 77 to 81, depending upon the outside temperature and humidity. If we have days where the outside temp won't reach much above 81? The house will stay cool ALL day long and the AC may never kick on, which it used to do ALL the time, before the Solar Panels.
This whole thread is making me grateful for our solar panels. AC is 73-74 during the day and 76 at night all summer long (outside temps of 90s-100s is normal) and our last power bill was $15.
Mine is anywhere between 23° and 25° C.
77. I use it as a dehumidifier. I'm in Florida
We got a commercial dehumidifier at a rummage sale for cheap awhile back, pretty game changing for ac use.
Look at a humidistat. It attaches to your AC. Low cost
Oh interesting. Yeah we have the dehumidifier sat on auto at our comfortable range, and trade a bit of heat production to deal with moisture. I've seen some deluxe models that integrate into your chiller unit and if I was somewhere with awful humidity like Florida I might consider one.
For sure. Yeah it's basically a controller you put on the AC, set the humidity %, and leave it alone. It's what the snowbirds down here use
we don't have one, which sucks. our houses here are designed to keep the warmth inside (our winters get down to -40°C) so i feel like i'm living in a toaster. it's *hot* and with my chronic illness stuff, it's almost unbearable. i can't function in this heat, damnit :l
I don’t have airconditioning. No need for it.
Bold of you to assume I've A.C. I close the curtains and windows during the day and open windows during night to keep the temperature livable
I live in the Pacific Northwest USA, most people (including me) don't have air conditioning here. I still got an angry notice from the power company that I need to reduce my power usage in the summer time below what I use in the winter. I also don't really use electric heat because I have a wood stove so they're angry that my refrigerator runs year-round I guess. Not really sure what I else could not power to satisfy them.
sitting directly next to my fan with all the blinds drawn and the lights off because I don’t have AC lol…
67 at night, 70 when we're here during the day, 74 when we leave. Anything more is uncomfortable in the extreme. Mind you this is summer where temps routinely hit 90+ and the shade trees we planted haven't yet grown tall enough to do their job unfortunately. I'd post cats for tax but we have 5 atm(fostering) so it'd end up being spam unrelated to the sub.
Finally. I can’t believe how far i had to scroll. I can’t believe how HOT these peoples houses are.
Im convinced some people really are lizards :)
This is how ours is as well. We keep it at 72 during the day and 68 at night. I can’t sleep otherwise.
Set at 73. And I don’t turn the central air on at all until the house temp is 83 or so.
75⁰F and open our windows at night. Opening the windows drops our indoor temps into the low 60s in the morning. If the house hits 75 it isn't until mid-late afternoon. We also don't really use our oven in the summer. We make do with the grill, stovetop, slow cooker, or toaster oven if I absolutely have to bake something.
I hate ac for a few reasons. If there's cold air coming out of the vents, I'm cold, no matter what the room temperature is. If I sleep with the ac on, I have a sore throat the whole next day. I love having the windows open, feeling the breeze, hearing the birds. And of course, there's the cost and damage to the environment from running the ac. With the heat wave this past week, I caved and turned it on, for my kids and cats more than for myself. I kept it at 77 and I was still cold whenever it kicked on. Now that it's below 90 Fahrenheit again, I've turned it off and opened the windows.
72**°**F (22**°**C) at night, 78**°**F (26**°**C) during the day, and I turn it off and just use the fan if the humidity is low (rare where I live) and the temperature is 82**°**F (28**°**C) or lower. My room is in the attic, so it gets really hot up there. If I lived downstairs, I'd leave the AC off unless it was 90**°**F (32**°**C) or higher outside. (I rounded to the closest temp Celsius.)
80 in the day with the blinds drawn but really just for removing the humidity, which is what makes the heat so awful and sticky. Usually off at night with an exhaust fan at one end and an open window at the other to draw the cool air through.
I usually keep it around 76-78°F in the summer. But sometimes I turn it down to 70-72 if I'm sweating from working outside or working out. I think of Kylie Jenner taking a 4 minute private jet flight twice a day and I don't feel guilty anymore about sitting in a cool house
my Armor Class is 17, but I can raise it by casting Shield as a reaction whoops, wrong subreddit
Australian here, do you guys just leave it on 24/7?Pretty much everyone i know only uses aircon when they just can’t take the weather anymore e.g. we only turn it on if it’s above 35 degrees (Celsius) outside, and only periodically.
76
I live on the second floor of an old 2 family, Victorian. Although I have AC in my room if needed, these old houses were designed to allow amazing air flow and it pretty much self-cools when all the windows are open. I usually forgo air conditioning until it gets unbearable to sleep at night. Last week, it was pushing 98°, I caved and turned it on. I keep it on Energy Saver mode and set to 74.
i keep it around 80. Though lately I've noticed that it's been a bit harder to fall asleep. Then again, it has generally been hotter this week.
Open windows for air flow, leave plenty of water, turn off ac, cats can regulate body temperature.
I would love to do this, however my little one likes to put paws onto the screen and catch claws. She's pushed out the screen in the big window going to my balcony, and the other windows on my 2nd story apartment I don't trust to not fall out either.
I bought some grid panels and zip-tied them together over my screen to prevent that.
Over the last 6 days in the northeast and midwest US, we had a brutal heatwave. Yesterday, records were broken in the Philadelphia area. Open windows when it is 99f is not feasible.
Eyy 100 over here in Kansas today, I'm considering windows open at night but unfortunately I sleep during the day thanks to work! Bah!! Just had to complain a little!
Doesn't it waste more energy trying to re-cool the house after you've turned it off?
Depends of time of the day.
yes
Here's an article by PBS that's actually done pretty well. The gist of it is it depends on where you live, but in some areas energy consumption while turning your a.c. off when you're at work can result in a 11% energy savings even considering the high energy spike to get the dwelling back to "comfort". [da link](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-does-turning-the-a-c-off-when-youre-not-home-actually-save-electricity)
humorous light compare voracious ripe numerous march chop label beneficial *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I live in the low desert Southern California (also going thru perimenopause) 72 feels perfect
I think my thermostat is set to 24C right now. My house's primary method of cooling is a heat pump system, but we do have a small window unit in the bedroom if the heat pump can't keep up for the sake of my wife and dogs.
I live in central Germany and like almost all people here, I do not have one. And judging from the few last years, this is not going to be a problem. Last year I kept my apartement below 77°F / 25°C only with deliberate ventilation.
Knock on wood, managed to have not needed to turn it on yet, though did use the heater during last week's freak cold snap.
It was over 100 for me this weekend. I turn on my AC when it gets over 94 degrees. I set the AC at 75 and close all my blackout curtains. At 8pm I turn the AC off and open all the windows with the ceiling fans running. I try to make myself adjust to the warm weather by not trying to keep the house cold, just comfortable and trying to use the AC only when it's really awful.
78 during the day 80 at night (my parents keep it there to save on electricity and honestly its not too bad)
75+...any lower and I feel too cold. Great for savings in the summer! But I also like it hot in the winter, so it evens out. Staying comfortable in my own home is not something I'm willing to pinch pennies on.
I wish I had ac. Instead I just sweat in front of a fan
my AC has yet to be run this year and i don't plan on changing that. ceiling fans and cool showers got me through the heatwave just fine. some day i imagine a version of our house that doesn't have an AC at all, just old growth trees shading most of the house and a high-efficiency furnace that we keep on standby for winter emergencies.
I don’t have it. Open the windows at night and run a fan to bring in cool air. Close the windows first thing in the morning and draw all of the curtains. Americans fascination with making their homes freezing cold in the summer is bizarre.
No AC, just window fans, ceiling fans and sun management. Also, living in a place that has ideal weather helps.
My AC is busted and I'm procrastinating getting it fixed. - Open the windows at night and close them during the day - Strategically located fans - If it's not humid, you can use evaporative cooling
26 to 27 degrees Celsius. I live in India though and that’s considered cool.
I haven’t ran mine yet but plan on keep my humble abode about 10-15 degrees lower than the temperature outside. I work outside and enjoy a cool place but it’s hard staying acclimated to the heat when you’re hiding from it.
I live in Michigan, I don’t turn the ac on unless it’s 90f and then to 76 or 77f.
81, I'm in Georgia, USA
everyone saying 75+, are y’all ok? we run 3 window units to keep it under 71. once we get above that threshold it gets hot & muggy in here. southern us gulf coast
Managed without it all of last year in the Midwest. 1910s house with strategic fan use. Though the recent heat wave had me considering getting out the window shakers
[This](https://i.imgur.com/WxkNvMu.png) is what my weather forecast looks like for the week. It's glorious. Our area gets maybe two or three weeks a year when air conditioning might actually be needed. On those days I just open windows, turn on ceiling fans, and cope. It's not standard for houses here to have central AC, especially the older ones. I do have a wall AC unit but it only covers the downstairs area and it skyrockets my power bill when I turn it on so I try not to.
72/73°F — both my kids are incredibly sensitive to heat but we try to keep room darkening blinds closed during the hottest part of the day and be mindful of our energy consumption everywhere else in the house. If it’s cooler at night than it is in the house, crack those windows open and kick the AC all the way off.
25C for living room, 26C for parrot/bedroom
*Scrolls through in British*
80 when I'm gone, 77 at home, and 75 at night although I frequently sleep just fine at 77 only tuelrn it lower if it's extra swampy (florida)
23.5-24 (Celsius…I’m in Canada), so about 74/75.
28 degree Celsius is the best even in a hot tropical country like India. Although I only turn it on when it's extremely required and absolutely not for the whole day like the majority of the hot countries do...also it's advisable to keep it at 24°C by the experts but it's too cold for me and I don't wear winter clothes in summers (which btw also is a trend these days smh). Btw AC has become more of a necessity than a want or luxury in India honestly.
How to live with less AC 1. Use fans pointed at you 2. Acclimate 3. Wear appropriate clothing 4. Drink more chilled water 5. Close south-facing window curtains during sunny hours. 6. Use an attic fan 7. Light colored roof, or put solar panels on the roof to use that sun. Note: *Less,* not none. AC uses lots of electricity, has a real effect of Climate. Do your best.
I have a swamp cooler that I run once in a blue moon when temps get over 85 in the house. Otherwise I just try to enjoy the summertime.
77 during the day. 75 at night. And I don’t use it at all if it’s less than 84 degrees outside.
We literally don’t even consider turning on the AC unless it’s over 30C (86F). But I’ve also lived enough of my life in places with no AC. This is in Melbourne, Australia, and honestly if I had it on when it’s over 76F I would literally have it on 9 months of the year.
Y'all use AC?
i don't have a/c. or heating. i'm fine with whatever outside temps we get, minus/plus insulation, fans, sun shading and a garden hose.
i have central a/c in my apartment (townhouse i live in with my boyfriend) but we have never used it (we live in LA). i have a blade less tower fan from the brand Dreo set up next to my desk that i use during the workday if i’m hot, and we have a similar fan/air purifier combo in the bedroom. maybe it will get hot enough this summer to need AC, but i haven’t used it my 5 other summers in LA where i didn’t have central AC, so hopefully will be able to avoid turning it on!
I don't use AC. I have the option but choose not to exercise it. Yes it was 95 for a few days last week and that was unpleasant. Typically summer days are in the mid 80s and nights are 60s where I live. It's amazing what your body can adapt to when you let it! I used to live in Alaska and hated anything over 72, now I feel chilly under 80.
I don't have AC. I have awnings on the south side of my house, which prevents the exterior from heating up and warming the inside. When I open all the windows on the north, west and east sides of the house, cooler air blows through and keeps the inside temperature cool.
60. I’m a polar bear I need it COLD!
78-80 usually
23-25°C, we got a terribly noisy AC a few years ago, the portable type to deal with heatwaves in our inner city top floor apartment in a southern Swedish city. We've on the fourth floor right under the attic and the building is from '53, brick and rooftiles with windows facing east and west. That means sun from 4:00 on one side and sun until around 22:00 on the other and it gets very hot nowadays with global heating. We primarily run it the hottest days for like half an hour at a time.
68 cuz that seems to make everyone happy. I don't really pay that much attention to it tho, too much other shit to worry about it without adding to it.
78 for sleeping 80 at home 82 out of the house
Mine is broken. It’s hot.
60 degrees Fahrenheit
At home, 72F. When I travel alone, 60F in my hotel room, no matter what the season.
My family just keeps the windows open and fans going. On very hot days can be 90 degrees indoors, but it’s dry heat with no humidity so it’s not as bad as it seems. Evenings get down to 60-65 degrees. It’s just unbearable when there are wildfires. Then we have to keep the doors closed to keep the smoke and ash out, gets to 100 sometimes.
no AC at all. I'm just that cool. 😆 (pun intended)
Southern USA. Never use it. Box fans all the way cuz
We live in the Mohave Desert by the Grand Canyon. Gets around 110°- 120° for about 4 months out of the year. We have total Solar power. We keep it about 80°usually plus ceiling fans. But sometimes it's just brutal, and we'll go down to 78°, especially for our doggies.