5 ms·

But that doesn't solve the heat problem for everyone who's living in a house that's already been built, and I don't think you're suggesting to rebuild all the e

by cr1895 7y ago

But that doesn't solve the heat problem for everyone who's living in a house that's already been built, and I don't think you're suggesting to rebuild all the existing housing to have passive cooling. It would be great to see this type of preparation put into new builds.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
But that doesn't solve the heat problem for everyone who's living in a house that's already been built I have a serious medical condition. Years ago, while getting divorced and crammed into a single bedroom with my two teenaged sons fir nearly a year in Georgia, we discovered that getting rid of all cardboard boxes from food items stored in our room reliably and consistently dropped the temp 5 degrees Fahrenheit, lowered the humidity and stopped the invasion of roaches. I am routinely told I'm full of shit for telling that story. It's merely an anecdote. I've lived without upholstered furniture for years. I currently have no carpeting and no mattresses. We remain strict about removing cardboard and papers from our rental. I'm in a hundred year old building with no AC. When things get hot, other tenants open their window and door trying to get a cross breeze and are clearly miserable. We just open the window. Once in a great while, I will go run errands or spend time at the library to reduce the number of bodies in our cramped room from three to two to bring down the temperature in our room. I've lived this way more than a decade. I'm an environmental studies major who wanted to be an urban planner as my dream career. I get ignored, mocked, dismissed, attacked, treated like I'm stupid and crazy and have no idea whatsoever what the hell I'm talking about. The world treated me with potentially deadly callous disregard while I was deathly ill and homeless. Now its bullshit misogyny and classism is causing it to continue to turn a deaf ear to suggestions that actually work. While the world burns and wrings its hands I get on with making my life work. It's increasingly hard for me to believe people actually want to solve this. If they wanted to solve this, they would jump on such anecdotal evidence, do some research to confirm it and start spreading the word. I've been on HN nearly a decade. I appear to be the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board here. Men here routinely get told they must be smart if they have a lot of karma. I routinely get told I'm a fool obsessed with worthless internet points and shut up. You don't have to rebuild the entire world. Just make some lifestyle tweaks. But it won't happen because I'm a woman and everyone wants to explain to me why I shouldn't worry my silly little head about such things and I simply don't understand how anything works.
- atombender 7y ago
  I don't understand your comment, because I don't store "cardboard boxes from food items" and don't know of anyone who does. I may have some cardboard in my recycling bin from Amazon packages occasionally, but the food I buy isn't stored in cardboard. It's also unclear what your comment is railing against exactly. Cardboard, or upholstered furniture and rugs? Are you saying that your home is somehow cooler because everyone else is storing lots of cardboard? How much cardboard does one have to store in order to elevate indoor temperatures? Of course, I can understand about living into a temporary apartment with moving boxes stacked everywhere. Cardboard is an excellent insulator, so obviously living in a tiny room insulated with cardboard is going to bring up the temperature. Not a common situation, though.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    You don't ever buy: Cans of soda in cardboard boxes and leave them in the boxes? Cereal in cardboard boxes and leave it in the box until it used up? Cookies, crackers, etc in cardboard boxes and store them in their original cardboard box until you are done consuming them? Cake mixes, instant meal prep items, etc in cardboard boxes and leave them in the box (that has the instructions on the outside) until you are ready to actually cook it? I mean, it's possible to just buy meat and produce and so forth and never bring home a food item in a cardboard box, but I'm quite shocked to hear that you never buy such and none of your friends do either. That seems statistically unlikely to me if you are an American or live in most developed countries.
    - atombender 7y ago
      No, I don't eat cereals (though I sometimes make my own granola), cookies, crackers, cake mixes or instant prep meals. I try to stay healthy and not consume heavily processed foods. I make cakes and meals from scratch by hand. I do have dry pasta that comes in thin cardboard containers, but that's the only thing I can think of. Thinking about my girlfriend's house or our friends' houses, they don't hoard cardboard either. We're all in the US. I also lived in Europe for many years, where this also didn't happen. But that's all immaterial, because I don't at all buy the argument that the average person would hoard so much cardboard that it would have an effect on indoor temperature. So I still don't understand your comment.
itronitron 7y ago
If you own your house and need a new roof then installing one that reflects sunlight will really drop the interior temperature during the summer.

by cr1895 7y ago

DoreenMichele 7y ago

But that doesn't solve the heat problem for everyone who's living in a house that's already been built I have a serious medical condition. Years ago, while getting divorced and crammed into a single bedroom with my two teenaged sons fir nearly a year in Georgia, we discovered that getting rid of all cardboard boxes from food items stored in our room reliably and consistently dropped the temp 5 degrees Fahrenheit, lowered the humidity and stopped the invasion of roaches. I am routinely told I'm full of shit for telling that story. It's merely an anecdote. I've lived without upholstered furniture for years. I currently have no carpeting and no mattresses. We remain strict about removing cardboard and papers from our rental. I'm in a hundred year old building with no AC. When things get hot, other tenants open their window and door trying to get a cross breeze and are clearly miserable. We just open the window. Once in a great while, I will go run errands or spend time at the library to reduce the number of bodies in our cramped room from three to two to bring down the temperature in our room. I've lived this way more than a decade. I'm an environmental studies major who wanted to be an urban planner as my dream career. I get ignored, mocked, dismissed, attacked, treated like I'm stupid and crazy and have no idea whatsoever what the hell I'm talking about. The world treated me with potentially deadly callous disregard while I was deathly ill and homeless. Now its bullshit misogyny and classism is causing it to continue to turn a deaf ear to suggestions that actually work. While the world burns and wrings its hands I get on with making my life work. It's increasingly hard for me to believe people actually want to solve this. If they wanted to solve this, they would jump on such anecdotal evidence, do some research to confirm it and start spreading the word. I've been on HN nearly a decade. I appear to be the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board here. Men here routinely get told they must be smart if they have a lot of karma. I routinely get told I'm a fool obsessed with worthless internet points and shut up. You don't have to rebuild the entire world. Just make some lifestyle tweaks. But it won't happen because I'm a woman and everyone wants to explain to me why I shouldn't worry my silly little head about such things and I simply don't understand how anything works.

atombender 7y ago
I don't understand your comment, because I don't store "cardboard boxes from food items" and don't know of anyone who does. I may have some cardboard in my recycling bin from Amazon packages occasionally, but the food I buy isn't stored in cardboard. It's also unclear what your comment is railing against exactly. Cardboard, or upholstered furniture and rugs? Are you saying that your home is somehow cooler because everyone else is storing lots of cardboard? How much cardboard does one have to store in order to elevate indoor temperatures? Of course, I can understand about living into a temporary apartment with moving boxes stacked everywhere. Cardboard is an excellent insulator, so obviously living in a tiny room insulated with cardboard is going to bring up the temperature. Not a common situation, though.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  You don't ever buy: Cans of soda in cardboard boxes and leave them in the boxes? Cereal in cardboard boxes and leave it in the box until it used up? Cookies, crackers, etc in cardboard boxes and store them in their original cardboard box until you are done consuming them? Cake mixes, instant meal prep items, etc in cardboard boxes and leave them in the box (that has the instructions on the outside) until you are ready to actually cook it? I mean, it's possible to just buy meat and produce and so forth and never bring home a food item in a cardboard box, but I'm quite shocked to hear that you never buy such and none of your friends do either. That seems statistically unlikely to me if you are an American or live in most developed countries.
  - atombender 7y ago
    No, I don't eat cereals (though I sometimes make my own granola), cookies, crackers, cake mixes or instant prep meals. I try to stay healthy and not consume heavily processed foods. I make cakes and meals from scratch by hand. I do have dry pasta that comes in thin cardboard containers, but that's the only thing I can think of. Thinking about my girlfriend's house or our friends' houses, they don't hoard cardboard either. We're all in the US. I also lived in Europe for many years, where this also didn't happen. But that's all immaterial, because I don't at all buy the argument that the average person would hoard so much cardboard that it would have an effect on indoor temperature. So I still don't understand your comment.

itronitron 7y ago

If you own your house and need a new roof then installing one that reflects sunlight will really drop the interior temperature during the summer.