Summer in Pittsburgh

[jinxd_13]

This post makes me have to laugh a little inside. When I tell people I am moving to PGH here (New Orleans) they ALL exclaim that I will freeze my butt off. People here are terrified of cold. It is almost phobic with some. We had a "cold front" come through this weekend plummeting the temp from a high of 91 to a high of 61 and, I swear, people were pulling the scarves and earmuffs back out. Ya'll appear to be the same with heat. You have no concept of humidity until you have lived in this godforsaken swamp. Honestly, at times, it feels as if you need flippers on just to "swim" through the still and heavy air. Someone earlier said "even poor people have AC". Here, it is not even conceivable that a home would be without doctored air. I hate AC too and hold out as long as I can with windows open and screendoor in place. That usually lasts until about May if we are very lucky and it won't cool down again until December. (You can dress up as a sychronized swimmer for Halloween) So I look forward to your horrific summers and your dreary winters. Anything to escape this hell!! LOL.

[By~Tor]

A sidebar topic for the benefit of our friends from New Orleans:

I moved to NYC from Chicago, and was amazed at how anytime the temps here dropped below 60 degrees, everyone pulls out & dons their North Face gear, as if they were in the Yukon Tundra!.... Here I am, a Native Texan, waltzing around in even 50 degree weather with no sweater, jacket or outerwear at all, and these New Yorkers acted as if they were protecting themselves from the advancing re-glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere!....

I laughed at them, and still do, because I know they'd never even make it through a typical Chicago winter.... but I hear tell that Pittsburgh's winters (to get back on-topic) are quite a bit snowier than NYC's, and the summer humidity is about on-par, although there might be quite a few less sunny days.

Summer, however, withOUT some form of air-condiioning, even up here in the northern climes, is complete and uter lunacy.... it gets to 100 on occasion, and certainly well into the nineties during much of the summer. And for me, sleeping in a sweatbath of 80-degree evening indoor ambient temps is NOT an option..... which is probably why I never did move to N'Awlins and wouldn't even visit it after about Mardi Gras, out of fear the Dengue Fever might claim me....

I think the ideal climate anywhere in the US would HAVE to go to the Pacific Northwest, where 70 degrees is about the average, and in the winters, unless you happen to live upslope, the lows are still manageable, in the upper 30's & 40's....

[BrianTH]

I'm a big fan of AC, but it is actually possible to get away without it in some Pittsburgh homes.

Basically, you need a full Pittsburgh basement and good air circulation, which results in the basement acting as a source of natural AC. The ideal setup would be something like some small open windows in the basement and a whole-house fan running at a relatively low capacity, which would serve to slowly draw air into and through the basement for cooling, then up to the living spaces, and finally venting the warmest air into the attic and outside. Note for this to work as well as possible you want reasonably good doors and windows, since if they leak a lot of air, that will substitute for the basement air.

It also helps if you have trees, porches, awnings, wide eaves, close neighbors ... anything to keep direct sun off the main part of the house. If you really want to take this to the logical extreme, you can make sure to locate your bedroom on the north side of the building. Finally, add some ceiling fans and understand that you want them set to pull air up during the summer (as opposed to pushing it down).

Do all this, and you can actually get a pretty liveable home without AC, even during the worst days of summer. Although you might want to keep a window unit around, just in case.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

The heat and humidity indexes for D.C. and Pgh. are about the same.

U.S. Humidity
7:30AM, 1:30PM, 7:30PM

Wash. D.C. - January: 73-56-64 July: 78-52-64 July Temp. = 95
Pittsburgh - January: 77-67-63 July: 80-52-63 July Temp. = 95
US Design Outdoor Temperature and Relative Humidity - Winter and Summer

Yearly

D.C. AM = 83% PM = 55%
Pgh. AM = 79% PM = 57%
Moderator cut: link to a competitors site removed

However, the average Pittsburgh low in January is not 0, which the table used, it is 20. The average Pittsburgh high in July is not 95, it is 83. The average January low in DC is 27, July high 88. DC is hot and humid.

Originally Posted by jinxd_13

This post makes me have to laugh a little inside. When I tell people I am moving to PGH here (New Orleans) they ALL exclaim that I will freeze my butt off. People here are terrified of cold. It is almost phobic with some. We had a "cold front" come through this weekend plummeting the temp from a high of 91 to a high of 61 and, I swear, people were pulling the scarves and earmuffs back out. Ya'll appear to be the same with heat. You have no concept of humidity until you have lived in this godforsaken swamp. Honestly, at times, it feels as if you need flippers on just to "swim" through the still and heavy air. Someone earlier said "even poor people have AC". Here, it is not even conceivable that a home would be without doctored air. I hate AC too and hold out as long as I can with windows open and screendoor in place. That usually lasts until about May if we are very lucky and it won't cool down again until December. (You can dress up as a sychronized swimmer for Halloween) So I look forward to your horrific summers and your dreary winters. Anything to escape this hell!! LOL.

Originally Posted by By~Tor

A sidebar topic for the benefit of our friends from New Orleans:

I moved to NYC from Chicago, and was amazed at how anytime the temps here dropped below 60 degrees, everyone pulls out & dons their North Face gear, as if they were in the Yukon Tundra!.... Here I am, a Native Texan, waltzing around in even 50 degree weather with no sweater, jacket or outerwear at all, and these New Yorkers acted as if they were protecting themselves from the advancing re-glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere!....

I laughed at them, and still do, because I know they'd never even make it through a typical Chicago winter.... but I hear tell that Pittsburgh's winters (to get back on-topic) are quite a bit snowier than NYC's, and the summer humidity is about on-par, although there might be quite a few less sunny days.

Summer, however, withOUT some form of air-condiioning, even up here in the northern climes, is complete and uter lunacy.... it gets to 100 on occasion, and certainly well into the nineties during much of the summer. And for me, sleeping in a sweatbath of 80-degree evening indoor ambient temps is NOT an option..... which is probably why I never did move to N'Awlins and wouldn't even visit it after about Mardi Gras, out of fear the Dengue Fever might claim me....

I think the ideal climate anywhere in the US would HAVE to go to the Pacific Northwest, where 70 degrees is about the average, and in the winters, unless you happen to live upslope, the lows are still manageable, in the upper 30's & 40's....

And yet another sidebar:
People in California are afraid of the cold as well. Some never get used to it, nor to driving in snow, even the tiniest amount. I had a supervisor from Cali who cancelled meetings and stayed home b/c of two inches of snow. She felt it was unsafe to drive.

There are a lot of people who think you don't need A/C in Pgh. I disagree. I see that BrianTH posted before I finished with this one; I think his advice is good. It helps, too, if you don't go in and out all day long, which makes it hard for SAHM moms. Most people who have A/C use it.

I would reserve judgement on the Pittsburgh weather until you have experienced it. The comment a lot of non-natives make is "Does the sun ever shine here? Does it rain every day here?" I will add it doesn't bother me that much.

[BrianTH]

By the way, the first time I stepped into a home set up more or less the way I described, it felt like it had central air. I was fortunate enough to mention how it was nice to be inside with the AC, and the owner explained to me that he was actually using a whole-house fan.

Now if I was building a new place in Pittsburgh, I would put in central air without a second thought. But if you have ever priced out adding central air to a home without existing ductwork, then the whole-house fan approach starts to look like it might be worth at least trying. Even if you still end up with AC anyway, the whole-house fan can be used when you don't really need the AC, and it certainly complements the window unit approach.

[fleetiebelle]

My first two apartments here didn't have AC, and it was doable. Not great, but doable. With windows open and fans on the cross ventilation could make a nice breeze. And it's only really really hot for a few days a year.

[By~Tor]

Well, perhaps my views here are just a bit slanted, as I do suffer from hyperhydrosis (too-much sweating), and I notice little air temp changes a great deal more than many regular folks might... for me, the humid, hot air is like a choke-hold, and I have been known to have the air-conditioning going, even in January.... scary, huh?....

I think brian's approach sounds feasible enough, on its face, and it's a shame that my body chemistry won't allow me to enjoy that experience so easily....

In any event, I think the New Orleansian will find things a bit more temperate in PGH, even if the humidity is still rather high....

[Geeo]

I once owned an old Second Empire house on the North Side and did not need AC. The trick they used back then was high ceilings (over 10 feet) and transoms, which are those little "windows" that open above the doors to all the rooms that circulate the air. The only place it got warm was the third floor, where we had window units. I now live in a newer mid-century house where AC is mandatory.