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Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#21

Post by raverbashing »

jws wrote: post #12
citricsquid wrote: post #3

I absolutely hate hot temperatures and find the summer truly horrendous because in England it's getting hotter and hotter, this year my apartment was over 35c / 95f on multiple days... but air conditioning just doesn't exist here, I've never known anyone to have it in their home. This article explains that air conditioning is inexpensive now, so why does America have such huge air con usage and England none? Was it a…

You can get a free standing portable unit in the 9000 btu range[1] for ~£300. You will need to sit it near a window that opens as it has an air intake and exhaust that must go outside. It will take care of one small room. This will be your refuge. The units can also double as dehumidifiers which make the warm air more comfortable. Here in the states, my house had no AC, and we have weeks of >100°F/38°C summers with h…

Thanks. You just explained why heat is so annoying!

It is not possible to deal with (humid heat) without modern technology.

The only workable evolutionary way to do it would be to significantly shut down self-heat production, short of a biological heat pump (that does not exist AFAIK)

But of course, in the UK, it's hot for a couple of weeks, as opposed to the US where depending of the region is hot from half-year to almost the whole year.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#22

Post by raverbashing »

switch007 wrote: post #15
michaelochurch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cumulative heat stress is the danger, so it's actually hot nights that kill people, probably because of impaired sleep quality. (Aside from heatstroke, most of these excess deaths occur in people already in poor health.) 95°F / 35°C during the day is fine, but 75°F / 24°C at night (without A/C) is deadly, especially considering that most apartments are significantly warmer than the outside at night.

Can anyone explain why you can stand the heat in the day, but when it comes to night, while it may be a comfortable 15c outside you can't sleep, and it seems much hotter? Maybe it's just me. I'm talking about those (rare) 30c hot days in an English summer (no sniggering). Is it internal, bodily factors or external factors (e.g. the house absorbing the heat? I don't buy that, though, as I can have all the windows open…

One of the issues is that your house heats/cools with a certain thermal inertia, so at the end of the day it's almost as hot as it gets (as it cools during the night and heats through the day). In the morning it's as cold as it gets, in the sunset it's as hot as it gets

There are probably some biological factors (still, I feel colder when sleeping, but of course I have a bad time sleeping when it's hot)

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#23

Post by dhughes »

jws wrote: post #12
citricsquid wrote: post #3

I absolutely hate hot temperatures and find the summer truly horrendous because in England it's getting hotter and hotter, this year my apartment was over 35c / 95f on multiple days... but air conditioning just doesn't exist here, I've never known anyone to have it in their home. This article explains that air conditioning is inexpensive now, so why does America have such huge air con usage and England none? Was it a…

You can get a free standing portable unit in the 9000 btu range[1] for ~£300. You will need to sit it near a window that opens as it has an air intake and exhaust that must go outside. It will take care of one small room. This will be your refuge. The units can also double as dehumidifiers which make the warm air more comfortable. Here in the states, my house had no AC, and we have weeks of >100°F/38°C summers with h…

I bought my Dad a portable AC unit at Home Depot this past spring it's a great idea since it's an older house without central AC.

In this area SE Canada summers are usually low 20s usually 25C is a typical hot summer day, but now 30C to 35C seems to be the new normal hot, I think it got to 38C this year. It's also very high in humidity here 80% to 90%, which makes sense being on an island.

Anyway dad has a lung disease (IPF) and heart problems plus bearing 70 years old and overweight, this portable unit I see almost as life support.

It would be bad for any elderly person to die due to the heat but I think in area where it only gets hot for a month or less it's deceptive. Most elderly would think it wasn't hot in the old days and they can't afford or pay for an AC unit and will probably die from heat stroke.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#24

Post by hnriot »

citricsquid wrote: post #3

I absolutely hate hot temperatures and find the summer truly horrendous because in England it's getting hotter and hotter, this year my apartment was over 35c / 95f on multiple days... but air conditioning just doesn't exist here, I've never known anyone to have it in their home. This article explains that air conditioning is inexpensive now, so why does America have such huge air con usage and England none? Was it a…

I should have thought that the answer would have been obvious. In the US, it stays summer for months, it's hot as hell for months. 95 is not even worth bothering to get up and switch the AC on.

tl;dr, it was hotter and for longer and English houses were not already better suited to keeping heat in and out, you'd likely see more air conditioners.

Meanwhile, you can buy one on Amazon if you can't keep your curtains closed for those multiple days of 95f.

"England it's getting hotter and hotter" - Wolfram Alpha would disagree with you there. At least it hasn't averaged any hotter since the 70's.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#25

Post by Vitaly »

ronnier wrote: post #18
nostromo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is a good example because its weather is similar to London. For what it's worth, A/C is also pretty rare in Seattle homes.

I bought an AC for my home in Seattle before last summer. Cost about $4,200 and was worth it in my opinion.

crazy. here in Israel everyone have AC. There are cities where some kind of AC is mandated if you are bulding a house.

And the price is rock botton. you can have a simple one that can cool a small to medium room for about 200$ and a bigger one for the main room is about 500-700$. installation is usually another 150$. 4200$?? - crazy.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#26

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

citricsquid wrote: post #3

I absolutely hate hot temperatures and find the summer truly horrendous because in England it's getting hotter and hotter, this year my apartment was over 35c / 95f on multiple days... but air conditioning just doesn't exist here, I've never known anyone to have it in their home. This article explains that air conditioning is inexpensive now, so why does America have such huge air con usage and England none? Was it a…

"why does America have such huge air con usage and England none?"

Because a significant part of America is hot, and England is not(I had lived in England for years). It is not an "It will be fine if we install AC", but an "if we don't install air conditioner we will die" and I am being serious here, Las Vegas would be inhabited without AC .

Also England is wet so this means that before cooling the air, you will have to condense the water, and that takes lots of energy, making them inefficient in UK.

South of North America is very hot in summer but also dry, so it is very efficient in energy consumption.

35c on multiple days!! That is nothing. In most of Spain you will get 40-45 peaks with 35c minimum over months in summer, very few clouds for three months.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#27

Post by 3825 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #19
InclinedPlane wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wealth. Per capita GDP in the US increased by 180% in the time period mentioned (in inflation constant dollars). Which means that in the regions of the country where it is hot for a considerable period of time almost everyone will have air conditioning, and in areas where it's hot only a few weeks out of the year a lot of people will have in-window air conditioning units, since they are so inexpensive. The UK's per c…

Yeah, I love how in the US (in the Midwest) you can get a hermetically sealed McMansion on a developer's salary. I don't think you can get that anywhere else in the world. There's not enough land, energy costs are too high, and the cost of living in general is too high.

A decent-sized house with a decent-sized lawn still costs around $200k.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#28

Post by w1ntermute »

3825 wrote: post #27
w1ntermute wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I love how in the US (in the Midwest) you can get a hermetically sealed McMansion on a developer's salary. I don't think you can get that anywhere else in the world. There's not enough land, energy costs are too high, and the cost of living in general is too high.

A decent-sized house with a decent-sized lawn still costs around $200k.

That is quite affordable to a developer in the Midwest.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#29

Post by alexjeffrey »

3825 wrote: post #27
w1ntermute wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I love how in the US (in the Midwest) you can get a hermetically sealed McMansion on a developer's salary. I don't think you can get that anywhere else in the world. There's not enough land, energy costs are too high, and the cost of living in general is too high.

A decent-sized house with a decent-sized lawn still costs around $200k.

sounds pretty good to me - a decent house in England anywhere except London will cost you at least £120,000, and developer salaries average out at £30,000.

[edit] oh, and my impression is that a decent sized house here is quite a bit smaller than in the States.

Re: Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

#30

Post by kirchhoff »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #9
citricsquid wrote: post #3

I absolutely hate hot temperatures and find the summer truly horrendous because in England it's getting hotter and hotter, this year my apartment was over 35c / 95f on multiple days... but air conditioning just doesn't exist here, I've never known anyone to have it in their home. This article explains that air conditioning is inexpensive now, so why does America have such huge air con usage and England none? Was it a…

Wealth. Per capita GDP in the US increased by 180% in the time period mentioned (in inflation constant dollars). Which means that in the regions of the country where it is hot for a considerable period of time almost everyone will have air conditioning, and in areas where it's hot only a few weeks out of the year a lot of people will have in-window air conditioning units, since they are so inexpensive. The UK's per c…

While your second point (colder climate) is correct, suggesting that UK residents are too 'poor' to afford air conditioning is way off the mark.
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