4 ms·
As someone who grew up without ac in Houston, it's pretty miserable. Lots of showers + a silly number of fans helps, but not that much. If you look at the histo
by nsp 9y ago
As someone who grew up without ac in Houston, it's pretty miserable. Lots of showers + a silly number of fans helps, but not that much. If you look at the historical population of Houston, it skyrocketed starting in the 50s as central air became widespread, so to answer your question most people didn't.
- eesmith 9y agoAs someone who grew up w/o a/c in FL, it's doable ... in a house built before the 1950s so it wasn't designed around central air. High ceilings, entire house on cinder blocks so there's a 3 foot crawlspace under the building, a large porch, roof-vents, etc. Florida cracker style. It helps that we had the option to visit the public library or movie theater for a/c on the worst days, or go to a public pool. Worst is to live in a house designed for a/c but not using it. Did that one summer, because we weren't home during the day and wanted to save money. Just left the windows open. Mold started to form, so we decided it was better to run the a/c with its built-in dehumidifier.
- CalRobert 9y agoIt's amazing how quickly people forget the value of a good awning, double-hung windows, and the high ceiling you mentioned. To be fair, there were days when it wasn't too hot outside but the apartment was sweltering.
- eesmith 9y agoAs a downside, because there was effectively no insulation, when it was 40F outside, it was also 40F inside. We pulled out the space heaters to warm up the bathroom for the couple of weeks of winter.