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During the 1800s, at least two deep southern cities were in the top 10 biggest cities in the USA, Charleston and New Orleans.
New Orleans is known for being one of the worst places in the south today for summer heat and humidity, yet it developed into one of the biggest cities in the USA during the 1800s, and that's without A/C. The architectural legacy is still around.
Whereas, we had heat a lot before A/C. But if we didn't, all northern cities would be empty. You can live in the south fine without A/C, but you can't live in the north without heat. Actually I'd go so far and say that heat is vastly more important in most of the South than A/C. If you could only have one, I'd pick heat unless I'm living in well, Miami
Technically I suppose you could, but who would want to? It's not suitable for our modern lifestyle. Cars, most modern houses and other buildings are not built in such a way as to be comfortable in the heat without AC. It's not usually socially acceptable nowadays to run around covered in a sheen of sweat unless you're at the gym or the beach. I mean technically we could live without refrigeration too, but what would be the point?
I live in south Texas. The August average day here is 99 high, 76 low. Compared to Tucson August, which is 99/73, and New Orleans 92/75. I live here by choice -- I'm retired and I can live wherever I want.
Yes, I use AC, but I never have it on more than 12 hours in any day. It goes off when (or before) I go to bed at night, and not back on until it starts to heat up around noon the next day. The AC is needed daily only about three months of the year, and usually never gets turned on at all until June. Otherwise it is just windows open and ceiling fan on. My apartment, of course, was designed around the AC, and is architecturally unsuited to a hot climate.
Sure you can live and survive. Buy why would you want to? Its miserable. I lived in the Philippines without AC and let me tell you your quality of living is affected. On the worse nights I could not sleep. And this is with LOTS of windows and the homes built for circulation.
Living in CO our AC went out and everyone in the household was griping at each other. When you are uncomfortable you are cranky. And this was in CO where it's dryer, not humid and mountain air. But it can get very hot too. The kids were crying because they could not sleep. I went out and purchased fans for every room of the house since CO homes don't come with ceiling fans.
Power went out for a few days after a large storm in VA. We had just moved there but did not have our furniture yet. We spent the day at the mall for comfort. Why be miserable if you have a choice?
I would have died in the South if I didn't have central air. OP is full of it.
People actually do drop dead in St. Louis every year over the summers because they don't have AC, so I can only imagine what the Deep South must feel like without it.
The south isn't hot for the whole year, as soon claim. I assume pre-A/C life slowed, economic activity was at a leisurely pace for a few months.
The south really isn't hotter than the north, it's just that the heat lasts longer.
Go by the worst 2-weeks in the north during the summer, the "dog days of summer" and expend this to include several months and that's a Southern summer. No heat that northerners haven't dealt with before, that's out west in Arizona. Most northerns don't have AC in their homes, their homes are geared to store heat, so you already survived the heat.
The south really isn't hotter than the north, it's just that the heat lasts longer.
Go by the worst 2-weeks in the north during the summer, the "dog days of summer" and expend this to include several months and that's a Southern summer. No heat that northerners haven't dealt with before, that's out west in Arizona. Most northerns don't have AC in their homes, their homes are geared to store heat, so you already survived the heat.
Kinda true, but once you get far enough north such as here, the heat + humidity combos are usually somewhat fleeting. The difference between Philadelphia and Atlanta is smaller than here and Philadelphia. The length of heat also makes it harder to deal with after a while.
These days, most northerners do have at least room A/Cs. 30% of New Englanders have no A/C, and the rate would be higher in northern New England. From an old post I made:
Quote:
Originally Posted by nei
Some might find this interesting. I looked up how common A/C is in different parts of the country. Found stats for 1980 and 2005.
For the Northeast 1980:
Central A/C: 9%
Room A/C: 36%
No A/C: 55%
For the Northeast 2005:
Central A/C: 29%
Room A/C: 52%
No A/C: 19%
For New England 2005:
Central A/C: 14%
Room A/C: 55%
No A/C: 30%
Central A/C hasn't caught much here. Here are the sources if you want to look at stats for other parts of the country:
Off topic for this thread (I'd need to dig for a heating thread), but this webpage shows northerners tend to set their heat colder than southerners. With Vermonters setting it to the coolest setting, living up to their thrifty reputation:
Interesting to what the difference with A/C would be. I suspect it would be smaller, as in the south some set the A/C to rather cold levels (< 68°F) to extinguish any feeling of heat while others who get used to the summer heat set it at rather warm level (close to 80°F). In Vermont, the latter type wouldn't use or probably have A/C (and central A/C ownership is probably lower than the New England average, maybe around 10%).
My aunt moved to a custom-built home in upstate NY and didn't add central A/C nor does she have a room A/C. Lives at 1400 feet, though.
If this is any insinuation you could live along the Gulf Coast in cities like Houston or New Orleans without AC, that is one of the craziest things Ive heard in my life. Thats a one way ticket to misery.
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