30 ms·

This past summer I tried to forgo AC. It lasted until the dog days of July/August where the humidity was so high that it made me lethargic. I gave up and setup

This past summer I tried to forgo AC. It lasted until the dog days of July/August where the humidity was so high that it made me lethargic. I gave up and setup my AC in the window. Then I traveled to Spain in August and was hosted at someones house for a week. They had no AC. And their method is simple: split the day in two resulting in the siesta. During the day in the intense heat you're tired by 3 PM and nearly dead by 5. The Spaniards? They go home and go to sleep for an hour or two then wake up when the sun has gone down and it cools down. Most things close at 5PM and reopen around 8PM. People stay out late too - I saw parents chatting on benches at a playground after midnight while their children played. We have ways around this heat problem. Though I know people so spoiled that they INSIST their home and workspace must be at 60F even in 100F heat. They'll burn forests just so they wont be inconvenienced by a bead of sweat.

joe_mamba 7mo ago
>Most things close at 5PM and reopen around 8PM. Shops and stuff that require outdoor labor yeah for sure. This doesn't work for workers mandated in the 9-5 jobs like office work. And personally, I'd rather my workday is finished at 5 PM instead of 8 PM with a long break towards the mid-end of the workday.
- anon7000 7mo ago
  There are cultures around the world that pull this off very broadly. It takes a different attitude towards work and human wellness than what we have in the US
  - joe_mamba 7mo ago
    I live in Europe, not the US, where 9-5 (more like 8-5) is common. Not everything revolves around the US you know, we are allowed to have and talk about our own issues too. And US is on the winning side here because residential AC use is more normalized there instead of accepting people will have to die from heat strokes just to "save the environment" like it is in some EU countries. 15K to 19K people died from heat strokes in summer of 2003 France. In 2022 about 10k died from heat strokes. Not great in my book when we're talking about a rich western country that has the technology and the money to prevent such deaths, but we choose not to out of environmental and regulatory idealist Martyrdom. And I'm sure my current country of Austria won't adopt Spanish way of work and life anytime soon just because summers are hot an people don't have AC at home/work. Societies, especially the Austrian one, are incredibly stubborn to change for a variety of reasons even when the evidence and solution is right in front of you. How do I know this? Well, Covid proved we can do a lot of work from home. Did that stick? Of course not, we still have to go to the office for most white collar jobs, even IT ones, just because management said so. We don't live in a world run by proof and rationale, we live in a world run by the status quo, vibes and feelings of the boomer and asset owning class.
rconti 7mo ago
My home doesn't have A/C, but the only time I wish I had it was to sleep on hot nights, which this doesn't really solve.
megaman821 7mo ago
If you are doing it for the environment, you should forgo heat. 100F to 70F is only a 30 degree delta. If you have a heat pump, this is the same amount of energy heating your home to 70F from 40F. If you have natural gas heating, now we are talking about the same amount of energy when it is low 50's outside. How many forests will you burn to not just wear two sweaters and blanket?
- MisterTea 7mo ago
  > How many forests will you burn to not just wear two sweaters and blanket? Nice try. I wear a sweater.
dawnerd 7mo ago
This also kills a lot of people. Spain isn’t immune to it. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/heatwaves-spain-caused-1180-deaths-past-two-months-ministry-says-2025-07-14/ https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/heatwa...
- kube-system 7mo ago
  Cold is generally much more dangerous to humans, which is part of the reason why it is typically seen as more of a necessity: https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/70fc01a2-f23a-47e0-a00c-d80469f9bd4e_1600x1130.png https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7...
ortusdux 7mo ago
A study from 2023 estimated a worst case blackout in Phoenix AZ could approach 1% fatality. Considering power demand would be at its highest during a heat wave, the odds of this worst case scenario are quite high. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c09588 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c09588 "In Phoenix, where the lowest daily high temperature over the 5 day heat wave is 43 °C and daily minimum temperatures average 32 °C, the rate of heat-related mortality increases by about 700% relative to the Power On scenario, reflecting the extremity of heat exposures in a desert city in the absence of mechanical AC. As reported in Figure 3, the estimated rate of heat-related mortality for the Power Off scenario in Phoenix is 917 (approximate total =13,250 deaths), which approaches 1% of the synthetic population."
- tencentshill 7mo ago
  AZ better ramp up subsidies for home-installed solar then. When conditions are worst, they receive the most relief! https://resilient.az.gov/resiliency-programs/energy-programs/energy-affordability/solar-all-arizonans https://resilient.az.gov/resiliency-programs/energy-programs... "The Office of Resiliency received a termination notice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding the Solar for All grant on August 7, 2025. The program is unavailable until further notice." Or they can wait for the worst case scenario to actually happen, and THEN do something, as is tradition.
- rconti 7mo ago
  Yeah; loss of utility heat in the wither has a much higher fatality risk, I'd think. The difference is, many homes have multiple heating methods available to them. If the natural gas is out, use an electric spaceheater, for example. Some homes use electric heat, others natural gas, others heating oil (which is a distributed solution.. or at least, involves a caching layer!) Many homes have fireplaces or wood-burning stoves, again, for backup.
  - bryanlarsen 7mo ago
    OTOH typical heating in North America is forced air natural gas. So if either the gas or the electricity is down, you have no heat.
GuB-42 7mo ago
> We have ways around this heat problem I don't consider that being uncomfortable is a solution. There are actual solutions used by hot countries to deal with the heat: ventilation, vegetation, construction techniques, etc... But adjusting work schedules so that you have a hour or two of poor quality sleep when you can't do anything else is the kind of thing you do when you have no other choice, not a solution. I have nothing against the Spanish schedule, but I would rather not do my siesta in an unbearably hot place. And yes, AC is a solution. AC doesn't have to be that bad. Set a reasonable temperature, combine it with good insulation, etc... Same idea as for heating in the winter.
- kube-system 7mo ago
  The siesta is a part of the solution to being uncomfortable. Rather it works with the nature of the earth and human biology, instead of using brute force to work against it. It is a different solution to the same problem.
  - rconti 7mo ago
    I think the parent means they don't want to take a nap in the midday heat. That said, presumably it's still cool enough to sleep indoors, because, while the outdoors is hot, the indoors has not yet fully heat soaked.
    - kube-system 7mo ago
      Right, the idea is that you go find a comfortable place and rest rather than staying in the heat and exerting yourself at whatever job you were doing.
throw5545675 7mo ago
This might work in Spain, but it won’t work in Singapore because it’s just as hot and humid at night.

joe_mamba 7mo ago

>Most things close at 5PM and reopen around 8PM. Shops and stuff that require outdoor labor yeah for sure. This doesn't work for workers mandated in the 9-5 jobs like office work. And personally, I'd rather my workday is finished at 5 PM instead of 8 PM with a long break towards the mid-end of the workday.

anon7000 7mo ago
There are cultures around the world that pull this off very broadly. It takes a different attitude towards work and human wellness than what we have in the US
- joe_mamba 7mo ago
  I live in Europe, not the US, where 9-5 (more like 8-5) is common. Not everything revolves around the US you know, we are allowed to have and talk about our own issues too. And US is on the winning side here because residential AC use is more normalized there instead of accepting people will have to die from heat strokes just to "save the environment" like it is in some EU countries. 15K to 19K people died from heat strokes in summer of 2003 France. In 2022 about 10k died from heat strokes. Not great in my book when we're talking about a rich western country that has the technology and the money to prevent such deaths, but we choose not to out of environmental and regulatory idealist Martyrdom. And I'm sure my current country of Austria won't adopt Spanish way of work and life anytime soon just because summers are hot an people don't have AC at home/work. Societies, especially the Austrian one, are incredibly stubborn to change for a variety of reasons even when the evidence and solution is right in front of you. How do I know this? Well, Covid proved we can do a lot of work from home. Did that stick? Of course not, we still have to go to the office for most white collar jobs, even IT ones, just because management said so. We don't live in a world run by proof and rationale, we live in a world run by the status quo, vibes and feelings of the boomer and asset owning class.

rconti 7mo ago

My home doesn't have A/C, but the only time I wish I had it was to sleep on hot nights, which this doesn't really solve.

megaman821 7mo ago

If you are doing it for the environment, you should forgo heat. 100F to 70F is only a 30 degree delta. If you have a heat pump, this is the same amount of energy heating your home to 70F from 40F. If you have natural gas heating, now we are talking about the same amount of energy when it is low 50's outside. How many forests will you burn to not just wear two sweaters and blanket?

MisterTea 7mo ago
> How many forests will you burn to not just wear two sweaters and blanket? Nice try. I wear a sweater.

dawnerd 7mo ago

This also kills a lot of people. Spain isn’t immune to it. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/heatwaves-spain-caused-1180-deaths-past-two-months-ministry-says-2025-07-14/ https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/heatwa...

kube-system 7mo ago
Cold is generally much more dangerous to humans, which is part of the reason why it is typically seen as more of a necessity: https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/70fc01a2-f23a-47e0-a00c-d80469f9bd4e_1600x1130.png https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7...

ortusdux 7mo ago

A study from 2023 estimated a worst case blackout in Phoenix AZ could approach 1% fatality. Considering power demand would be at its highest during a heat wave, the odds of this worst case scenario are quite high. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c09588 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c09588 "In Phoenix, where the lowest daily high temperature over the 5 day heat wave is 43 °C and daily minimum temperatures average 32 °C, the rate of heat-related mortality increases by about 700% relative to the Power On scenario, reflecting the extremity of heat exposures in a desert city in the absence of mechanical AC. As reported in Figure 3, the estimated rate of heat-related mortality for the Power Off scenario in Phoenix is 917 (approximate total =13,250 deaths), which approaches 1% of the synthetic population."

tencentshill 7mo ago
AZ better ramp up subsidies for home-installed solar then. When conditions are worst, they receive the most relief! https://resilient.az.gov/resiliency-programs/energy-programs/energy-affordability/solar-all-arizonans https://resilient.az.gov/resiliency-programs/energy-programs... "The Office of Resiliency received a termination notice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding the Solar for All grant on August 7, 2025. The program is unavailable until further notice." Or they can wait for the worst case scenario to actually happen, and THEN do something, as is tradition.
rconti 7mo ago
Yeah; loss of utility heat in the wither has a much higher fatality risk, I'd think. The difference is, many homes have multiple heating methods available to them. If the natural gas is out, use an electric spaceheater, for example. Some homes use electric heat, others natural gas, others heating oil (which is a distributed solution.. or at least, involves a caching layer!) Many homes have fireplaces or wood-burning stoves, again, for backup.
- bryanlarsen 7mo ago
  OTOH typical heating in North America is forced air natural gas. So if either the gas or the electricity is down, you have no heat.

GuB-42 7mo ago

> We have ways around this heat problem I don't consider that being uncomfortable is a solution. There are actual solutions used by hot countries to deal with the heat: ventilation, vegetation, construction techniques, etc... But adjusting work schedules so that you have a hour or two of poor quality sleep when you can't do anything else is the kind of thing you do when you have no other choice, not a solution. I have nothing against the Spanish schedule, but I would rather not do my siesta in an unbearably hot place. And yes, AC is a solution. AC doesn't have to be that bad. Set a reasonable temperature, combine it with good insulation, etc... Same idea as for heating in the winter.

kube-system 7mo ago
The siesta is a part of the solution to being uncomfortable. Rather it works with the nature of the earth and human biology, instead of using brute force to work against it. It is a different solution to the same problem.
- rconti 7mo ago
  I think the parent means they don't want to take a nap in the midday heat. That said, presumably it's still cool enough to sleep indoors, because, while the outdoors is hot, the indoors has not yet fully heat soaked.
  - kube-system 7mo ago
    Right, the idea is that you go find a comfortable place and rest rather than staying in the heat and exerting yourself at whatever job you were doing.

throw5545675 7mo ago

This might work in Spain, but it won’t work in Singapore because it’s just as hot and humid at night.