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Even in Los Angeles that is true for fairly large parts of the year. Cooling consists of opening the windows at night and closing them during the day, and heating consists of opening the windows during the day and closing them at night.
However, I certainly wouldn't want to be without my central heat and central air conditioning even though each may run only a total of 20 or 30 days a year. We do have outdoor lows in the 30's a few nights a year, and outdoor highs over 100 a few days a year too.
In this area double pane glass is not very common because it's just not cost effective. A neighbor just changed out his windows and sliding glass door for double pane; I am curious how much that cost him, but I'm not going to ask because he is a nut case and rather hostile.
During the 16 years I've lived in this townhouse, my highest monthly electricity bill was $42.08. It ususally runs about $20.00. Natural gas runs between $10 and $20. I would probably have to live here another 50 years or more to make double-pane glass pay off.
It must vary by how close you are to the coast. In Orange County where I grew up, we never needed heat buy BOY did we need a/c in the summer. It was an all-electric house (big deal in the 60's), of course no double-pane glass, and that electric bill was often $400/month! And that was to get the temps just tolerable. We were about 15 miles inland. You must be much closer to the ocean.
As we all know, near San Diego there is no need for heat or a/c. Homes there don't even have it. But, it is off-the-charts unaffordable. My nieces and nephews live inland from SD and it is sweltering there.
Yes, we could have chosen to be at higher elevations, like the famous Cuenca in the mountains where its spring-like all year. But we wanted the beach so have to pay for that with higher heat and humidity. So we have to run a/c for part of the year. To keep the temp at around 73 in part of the house was $60, last bill. Perfect temps in an area will be reflected in housing/land prices, if it is near civilization at all.
I went to Costa Rica. It was a nice place to visit. I don't think they are evolved enough for most. Too much crime in the city and I only felt safe in the country. I don't like their squatter laws either. It's a big decision. No bargains there either.
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