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I'll get in line to agree with the posters saying that if you live close enough to the ocean in Southern Calif. you can get by pretty well without heat or air conditioning. How close is "close enough"? Well, five to ten miles. Generally when you're that close to the ocean, you are NOT in the low rent districts! LOL
I live about thirty miles from the ocean, and I would not be content to do without either heat or air conditioning, although I don't use either one very extensively. I've never tried to tally up the number of days per year that either one is running, but a wild guess would be that the air is running perhaps 30 days a year and the heat a bit less than that.
But then again I don't like it real cold inside in summer nor do I like it real hot in winter inside. The air thermostat is set for 83 degrees Fahrenheit and the heating thermostat to 62 or 63 degrees. Many folks would use both air and heat more than I do.
Part of the answer to this whole question is how cool do you need to keep the house in summer and how warm do you need to keep it in winter? I have found in other C-D "thermostat" threads that the answer to that question varies within an astoundingly wide range.
Yes, I'm looking for utopia and well aware it does not exist. From my research, San Diego comes up on the list for being temperate year round. Although on a recent visit, my friend had to turn the a/c on. She said this wasn't typical San Diego. It was also very muggy.
Are there any other cities I'm missing in my research with a temperate climate? How about cities that don't require A/C? (Heat is ok).
Most temperate is along the Pacific coast within 5 miles of the shore. I think San Diego has the best and most temperate climate you'll find in the USA and it gets slightly cooler as you head north...by the time you get to the oregon coast, you do not need ac (lived near the coast and as someone that hates heat and humidity, ac was rarely called for and I didn't have it.).
By far the best most temperate climate where no ac or heat is ever needed was what I experienced in Arequipa, Peru....the HVAC systems there consist of, if it's hot open the window and if it's cool, close it. When you're outside, if you're hot get in the shade and if you're cool in the sun.....loved loved loved the climate there, even better than the wonderful climate of San Diego for me. By the way the average high temperature by month in Arequipa varies between 70F to 73F and that's it.
True, but along the coast I have read it's not as cold in winter as one might think, and probably most of the area you can get away without A/C - provided you are OK with sweating a little.
Again, I have visited the area occasionally for work, but never lived there.
Yeah, it gets pretty cold in the northeast, even along the ocean. There is no way you're going without either, unless you enjoy suffering.
I live in San Francisco, and AFAIK, most residential buildings here do not have a/c. But there can be a few weeks each year when we wish we had it. BTW, a new all-time temperature record was recently set here: 106.
But if you're looking for a place where there's no need for heating, you probably need to go to Hawaii!
So, it's not realistic to live without any sort of climate control anywhere in the world.
It's becoming less realistic, due to a warming climate, even in areas known for a cool climate. But if the OP is willing to suffer through a few days or a week or two here and there of high temps late spring through fall in the East Bay, or perhaps a little less frequently in San Francisco (if the Op can afford San Fran), those would be the best bet. Or Pacifica, south of San Fran, on the coast. Or Monterey. Actually, that coastal strip will be more consistently cool than even those East Bay cities directly across from the Golden Gate.
San Jose had two huge heat waves this summer. Even people on the north end of SJ by the Bay are getting A/C now, while people on the hotter, south side have always needed it. The coolest parts of the Bay Area are Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito and Albany, but if these heat anomalies continue in future summers, even they may not escape the need to add A/C, though it would only be needed for those fairly rare heat-wave weeks.
Vallejo is another community on the Bay with a good climate, with much more affordable housing than anywhere else on the Bay. The OP might consider that, while bearing in mind that it's on the ground floor of gentrification, and all that implies.
San Jose gets these kinds of hot summers every 12 to 15 years or so, actually 10 to 15 years if you look at the records. It also gets regular hot summers with temps reaching 102 or 103 every 3 or 4 years and 104 or 105 every 7 years or so. This is at the official reporting station at the Civic Center station or Airport.
So the final answer is that no matter where you are, nothing beats a well-insulated place with both heat and A/C where you can pick a temperature and then just set it and forget it.
We live in Oxnard on the coast. A couple miles from the ocean. You can find similar temperature between Santa Barbara and Malibu. Yearly averages are around low 60's to mid 70's hardly any muggy days. Mostly mild weather all year round.
Our home has a furnace and it has not been on in maybe three years. When it did come on it was only for the morning time and did not last long.
We do not have an air conditioner.
This year has been anything but normal We have had a couple weeks of hot and humid weather. It got into the high 80's and the humidity was uncomfortable. Now it is back to normal. I had not seen the weather that bad since 1990. I remember the year because we were living in our first apartment. Only times I remember when it was hot at night was back in 1990 and this year. Not sure how anyone lives in those kind of conditions. Fortunately it was only a matter of keeping the fans on during the night.
We do get fog and overcast skies. Usually May and June are overcast. We call it May Grey and June Gloom. Usually just before the 4th of July the skies clear up and summer time can start.
We use our AC about 1 day a year here. Some rainy, cool days we'll use the fireplace/wood burning stove but that's it.
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no a/c
