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

[Miami Vice]

I think that I would be miserable having to do that stuff.

[Need_affordable_home]

Originally Posted by Jammie

NAH, that's a very good point that you're making. I couldn't make it up HERE all summer long with no AC and the humidity is much worse down there. But I'll bet that no one could make it in the northern states without heat either.

The thing is heat has been around since cavemen times. All you need is wood and know how to make fire and presto! Imagine Florida as endless summers. If you dont like being hot and sweaty, youll have that everyday without a/c in Florida

[florigidge]

as you know, my family moved to miami in 1951. it was a small concrete block house in hialeah (working class suburb), three small bedrooms, one bathroom, jalousie windows (the small slim jalousies, not those big wide ones.)

i was the youngest of three kids, the girl, so i had one bedroom to myself. as an adult, i have literally had closets bigger than my childhood bedroom. one window, jalousies, facing east. one window.

NO AIR CONDITIONING in the entire house from 1951 until about...well, i am trying to think. i think it was in the early to mid-60s. my aunt and uncle were getting rid of their window a/c to replace it with a newer model and i asked if i could have it. i was a teenager by then, concerned about my hair, etc. it was installed under my window (jalousies didn't allow for it to be otherwise).

the folks didn't get a bedroom air conditioner until a couple of years later - and their bedroom wasn't all that large either, with two windows. it was installed not under their windows but up on the wall.

and it wasn't until the early 70s, if i recall correctly, that they got a larger a/c for the living room. it was a reverse cycle - it would also put out heat. up til then we had used a small gas heater in the living room to heat in winter and i remember many a winter morning as a kid crawling out of my cold bedroom and standing in front of the gas fire to get warm. it could heat up the living room and the kitchen and that was about it.

that house never did have central air - and one bedroom never got an a/c ever. the common practice was to install room a/c's directly into the concrete block. in fact, i can't recall any house on our block with a/c until the early 60s. and some of my playmates/friends in the neighborhood, and those i went to school with didn't have a/c either until the later years, if ever.

i didn't grow up with cars that had air conditioning - my aunt and uncle, more well off, always had a/c in their cars however. my teenage car never had a/c (it was a family car - a small renault); the first car i ever bought (a datsun) never had a/c.

and this was all in MIAMI.

even in gainesville, when the a/c died on my car (a nissan) i never got it fixed and drove it for years (i keep cars until they completely fall apart; never owned a brand new one in my life) without a/c in gainesville. bought a VW Fox used when the nissan blew its engine and the a/c never worked in that one either.

soooooo, i'm here to tell ya, that yes, people did live without a/c in miami for years...and people even drove cars without it.

imagine that. kinda makes the rest of ya....um, the p-word. LOL. (no offense, i'm just trying to make you realize that there was a time when a/c didn't rule miami. think about the 1920s!)

[Miami Vice]

The "p" word??? Oh... never mind. LOL

[Dee2e]

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!

I have not had my air on since October. Ceiling fans run 24/7. My inside temps don't get to 84 until the outside temps are steadily in the 93-94 range. Then my equipment needs the a/c more than I do. I just jump in the pool to cool off! And when I turn it on, I set the a/c to 80. My house is well insulated and my ceiling fans are inexpensive to run.

[Dee2e]

Originally Posted by Jammie

Oh yes!!! And have you ever been locked out of your car because your doors froze shut and you can't get them open?

I remember those days from when I lived up north!

[florigidge]

Originally Posted by Dee2e

I remember those days from when I lived up north!

i have them now.... in oregon.

i absolutely hate it. the snow we had was "only" six inches (paltry compared to other places, i know) but it was on top of ice and then more snow and then more ice. i had to drive into town (i'm 15 miles away from eugene in the eastern hills) during the evening a week ago (eugene-proper only had about three or four inches) and when i returned to my car my door had frozen shut...couldn't get my key in at first and then it wouldn't turn. i was alone, downtown, at night and well, it was cold as poooooopie.

by some miracle, the side passenger key lock worked after a bit of work and i managed to get inside.

yep...you can have cold/rainy/snowy/hailing weather. give me 80 degrees any day.

[heatwave13]

My mom and her brothers have told me their side of the story about growing up in central Florida without A/C. My mom says that they simply didn't know any differently than the normal Florida warmth and they didn't know it was super hot because they were born and raised there and didn't have anything to compare it to.........until they went to a nice restaurant that had A/C.

[wacahootaman]

You dont need AC at all in North Florida in the winter. It usually cools off in late October and you dont really need to crank it up again till late April.

Right now, I have a fire going in the wood stove as it is 42 degrees outside this morn. Once the chill is gone from the living room, I will let the fire die and the house will be warm till next morning. I hardly ever run the central heat in the winter but depend on the wood stove. My elect bill in the winter is less than half of what it is in the summer. The last months bill was 70 bucks verses 150 in the summer for a 2200 sq ft house.

I get my wood for free cept for the cost of gas for my chain saw. And wood warms you several times before you burn it. Cutting, spliting and stacking it is pleasant if done on a cold day. The burning is just the icing on the cake.

Also we get lots of beautymus, sunny days in the 60s with LOW HUMIDITY here in the winter too.

[ellie]

I'm far more acclimated to the heat than the cold too. I leave my A/C off until the inside thermometer gets close to 90 during the day, then I set the thermostat to 80, just to get the humidity out of the air. Ceiling fans make a huge amount of difference in your perception of heat.

I lived in a little cabin outside of Micanopy the first summer I was here, with no A/C. I had lots of ceiling fans, but it got pretty sticky after the afternoon thunderstorms.

We also went without power twice for nearly a week each time when the hurricanes came through in 2004. Thank goodness the people who built this house used big windows with screens. I'm sure a lot of you suffered worse than I did.

Gist of it is, yes a person can survive without A/C but maybe if we got rid of it, we'd have alot fewer people rushing down to live in the lower south.