New York Times : Why don't Britain/UK homes have AC

Capt Lightning said:
Why would I want A/C for a couple of days a year when I might want heating for the other 360 odd :LOL:?
Here in Scotland we rarely see high temps, but they have occurred in the past and nobody made a fuss of it.
It's mild and overcast at present.
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you've never had these temps we're having in the South of England..that's for sure... 104 deg forecast for today.. now at 9.45am it's 90 deg f
 

Several Texas cities shattered all-time high records Monday: 112 degrees in College Station, 109 in San Antonio and Houston and 104 in Galveston.

Other areas Monday reported record highs: 111degrees in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and 107 in Del Rio.

The hottest temperature ever in Texas was 120 degrees, recorded in Seymour in August 1936 and Monahans in June 1994.
 
PamfromTx said:
Several Texas cities shattered all-time high records Monday: 112 degrees in College Station, 109 in San Antonio and Houston and 104 in Galveston.

Other areas Monday reported record highs for September: 111degrees in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and 107 in Del Rio.

The hottest temperature ever in Texas was 120 degrees, recorded in Seymour in August 1936 and Monahans in June 1994.
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we're at 104 today ALL TIME HIGHEST temps.. and NO AC.. we're going to drop 20 degrees tomorrow... thank God....and I'm a person who loves the sun, but not without AC to escape to..
 
CarolfromTX said:
Seriously, if I were forced to make a choice between heating or AC, the AC would win every time. Fortunately, we have both. AC has been runnung almost constantly, with indoor temps at 78 or higher. It’s been over 100 all summer. Oy!
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Carol.. living in a very hot state I can understand your choice.. In Spain we definitely need the AC all summer, but in winter it gets very cold inside the house, and most houses have no heating system, so we have to use portable heaters.

here in Southern England.. and there IS a big disticntion between here and the rest of the UK.. we get mostly mild winters.. and if we had to we could pretty much do without heating, even tho' we lal have central heating.... as long as we had comforters to cover over us on chilly nights
 
Pepper said:
My father & mother told me it was so hot in the 1920's & '30's in NYC that they slept on the fire escapes in summertime, as well as most of their neighbors.
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yes.. that'll be because they had no AC...
Yesterday when I was driving to the next large town.. I passed some low rise flats.. and someone has hooked up a hammock about 10 feet above the ground between trees on the communal garden.. I kept wondering how they would get up there..
 
A large part of our summer here is hot and humid. Mainly it's the humidity that bothers people. Without AC, we would all feel like a wet rag. I keep my AC at a pretty steady 78-80 degrees, which I find comfortable, and above all, the air quality is excellent.

Most of the time, the AC isn't running. The building is solid and well insulated, so it holds the cool air very well without constantly needing the AC on. I feel that this is better for my health, and have absolutely no nostalgia for the sweltering days of my pre-AC youth.
 
hollydolly said:
yes but I have no way of getting that heavy unit upstairs.. and even then it's hose has to be out of the window..
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Put window fans upstairs with the fan pointing outside to exhaust hot air and window fans facing in in the evening downstairs to pull cooler air in.

Before AC, most homes in the South had attic exhaust fans. Running those in the evening with the windows open as temps cooled removed the hot air from the home and pulled in cooler air.

There are some window units that are easily picked up. I have central HVAC but my craft room gets much hotter than others so I have a small window unit in there for very hot days.

712466ad930d71c9aa9a385a9472c731.jpg
 
AnnieA said:
Put window fans upstairs with the fan pointing outside to exhaust hot air and window fans facing in in the evening downstairs to pull cooler air in.

Before AC, most homes in the South had attic exhaust fans. Running those in the evening with the windows open as temps cooled removed the hot air from the home and pulled in cooler air.

There are some window units that are easily picked up. I have central HVAC but my craft room gets much hotter than others so I have a small window unit in there for very hot days.

712466ad930d71c9aa9a385a9472c731.jpg
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Nope.. not having those... again for 2 reasons. One they are ugly.. but most importantly I don't have the type of windows they would fit..
 
...because our summers are short, the winters are long, and our homes are designed to cope with cold weather.!!
 
Lavinia said:
...because our summers are short, the winters are long, and our homes are designed to cope with cold weather.!!
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That's true for most of the UK..especially North where you are Lavinia... but here in the South summers are usually a good 5 months long.. May to September easily.. and often hot into October ..
 

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