Like the Florida weather? I challenge you to go without air condition! (Miami: tornadoes)

[RedWingsFan]

Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home

I have a good point when I make that challenge. I use the a/c all year round, just turned it on now, its 84 in my room, opening the windows lowers it to 82, still too hot! In my opinion, I dont think the weather is good, its too hot and I can not live without a/c! To those who say they love the heat so much and the weather is world class, I challenge you to go a week in the summer without a/c! If you can not do this then you have admitted its too hot and you need a/c to cool down!

That's no different than many states in the summer (going without air conditioning). I lived in Las Vegas for around 10 years and summers without air conditioning are unbearable. It's around 110 degrees. Yet the rest of the year the weather is pleasant, actually cold at times, but better than snowy states. I couldn't live without air there!

[gypsychic]

Like another poster here, I also grew up without AC, although I was in the Tampa area. Tiny frame house, tiny shared bedroom. We didn't get window units until I was a teen. It was MISERABLE! I had heat rash all the time, and couldn't sleep because I was so hot and sweaty. I also did not have AC as an adult when I moved to Sarasot into an old Spanish stucco "fixer-upper." We finally got window units in the bedrooms at least, but it was pretty hot there most of the time.

I have to say, I now live north of Tampa in the little town of Dade City which runs about 10 degrees cooler than Tampa most of the time. I can always feel the difference when I've driven into Tampa and come back and get off the interstate at my exit up here. The weather truly is cooler in the northern part of the state, but especially where it is hilly (like here) and there are so many trees. Also, not so many cars here - all the pavement and exhaust fumes greatly add to the problem.

[SouthFloridaNative]

My experience is similar to Florigidge except that I grew up in SW Florida and the house I lived in never had a/c until 1990. I don't remember ever noticing that it was really hot. And I don't remember it being so humid. But then again, we had some winter weather. I remember it always being cold on Halloween and lasting for more than a day. I really believe that each year it has gotton hotter in Florida. We have zero winter now..and that is really frustrating. I am thinking that this hot humid weather and the active hurricane cycle are hand in hand together and that maybe after the 20 year cycle Florida will return to they way it was before.

[JBrown]

I just recently got back from a 1 month "Honey do this list" at my mothers home in Deerfield beach. She's 84. She's got the heat on while I'm in shorts & no shirt! Go figure. I've never been down there in mid summer and I don't think there's a whip big enough to get me to go....but she loves it. She never has the AC on. To each his own.

[Ladywithafan]

I personally, love it hot....my boyfriend likes it freezing....but, when we did lose our a/c out on anna maria island, when our power went out due to the hurricanes back in 2005...let me tell you what....we started to smell the mold/mildew in our rental duplex and it got so incredibly hot...and it was a cloudy day, thank god....if the sun had been shining, we could not have stayed in the house.....but there was no where to go because hurricane weather had closed everything up....all we could do was just sit & wait & hope for electricity....

Because it was jul/aug...it was a killer....

And I love it hot!

[faithfulFrank]

Well, up here in NY, you have some elderly who have to make choices....do I eat or pay for heat????
Do I stop paying for my medication, or do I pay for heat???

The sad truth is that in both climates, better home construction, like better insulation and windows, etc,etc goes far in keeping utilities down. Poor people in poor houses will have double the utility bills because of that.

As to driving.....we have rusty cars, you cannot see out your windows because of snow, ice, or just frost that will not go away, so you cannot see backing up, etc.

You have "black ice" that you cannot see, but the road could be clear, then all of a sudden, you are spinng out of control.

You have to start your car 20-30 minutes ahead of time, just to defrost your windows......and gas here is $2.50 per gallon....

You have to get your snow tires on....(I have 8 rims and tires- 4 studded snows and 4 summer tires)

You drive as careful as you can, but get rear ended by some jerk who doesn't understand that 4 wheel drive does not mean 4 wheel stop, goes 10 mph too fast, and slams into you, and there is NOTHING you can do about it.

You cannot see any parking lot lines, so people park anywhere, blocking you in sometimes. Then try pushing a shopping cart through the snow/slush/ice.....almost can't do it.....your cart flips over and stuff gets all over and breaks, etc.

You get up to go to work an hour earlier, just to shovel or snowblow your driveway, only to have the snowplow "fill in" the driveway again, so you have to do it again. Our ambulance goes to many heart attack victims due to shoveling. Not to mention the elderly falling and breaking a hip on the ice....did you know that about 1/2 of elderly having a broken hip will die within a year??, Not to mention pneumonia......

Yeah, I'll pay for some Air conditioning.

Frank D.

[faithfulFrank]

Last week when we were in Leesburg, we overheard some people complaining about the huge "cold spell" coming the next day........

It was going to be in the 60's

I was flying back that day to 11 degrees.......God, please let me see my blessings, and Lord, forgive me for wanting to slap those people.

Sorry Lord.....

Frank D.

[Dee2e]

Originally Posted by Ladywithafan

I personally, love it hot....my boyfriend likes it freezing....but, when we did lose our a/c out on anna maria island, when our power went out due to the hurricanes back in 2005...let me tell you what....we started to smell the mold/mildew in our rental duplex and it got so incredibly hot...and it was a cloudy day, thank god....if the sun had been shining, we could not have stayed in the house.....but there was no where to go because hurricane weather had closed everything up....all we could do was just sit & wait & hope for electricity....

Because it was jul/aug...it was a killer....

And I love it hot!

Charley hit August 13th. We were having a heat wave. During the week after Charley temperatures were in the mid 90s with 100% humidity. It was hot! We had significate damage in our community due to numerous downed oak trees.

I have a generator, froze bottled water and gave it out to my hard working neighbors who were cleaning up.

No doubt about it, it was no comfortable with 96-98 degree temps without a/c. At least we had fans and a clean pool to keep cool!

[Jammie]

These posts are so interesting. Bet a few of us are in the same age group. My brother's wife grew up in central Fla. and they lived without AC until she was well into her teens. We also didn't have AC up here and we do get hot summer days. I grew up on a farm and we had to work outside and we had some very hot days. 100 degrees or higher is hot whether you have the Fla. humidity or not. Our big old farmhouse didn't have a furnace either. We had an oil burner in the living room, but something (possibly the fan on it) was run by electricity and when we have major snowstorms or ice storms, we'd lose electricity for days. All we had to use was the cookstove in the kitchen and we burned mainly cobs. And you guys know, we get COLD up here. It was awful to wake up to 30 below zero and only have that little cookstove for heat, but at least we didn't freeze to death like some people have done. We'd lay our clothes on the open door of the stove to warm them so it wouldn't be so terribly cold to get dressed. It's very possible to live without AC or a furnace, but the main problem is we're all so used to those things, it's awful when we lose them. And also, we don't have things like the cookstove anymore to keep us from freezing.

[AJ67]

I believe some of us have done this already, when we went thru a week or more during the Charley ,Frances or Jeannie Hurricanes? with no power, that includes no HOT WATER! ,its not pleasant!