Is Phoenix livable without air conditioning? (Casa Grande: 2015, food, horses)

[LagunaMom]

Um, no.
Yes, people used to live here before a/c, but there wasn't a heat island then.

[LBTRS]

Definitely NOT livable without A/C.

Could someone survive? Sure and many did in the past but today it would not be practical to live here without A/C.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I'm not sure that is a great option anymore either. I had the misfortune of having to wait until Saturday to go north this weekend. The traffic was awful. Bumper to bumper all the way up 17. Accidents and stress and lane-hogging motorcycles going ten under the whole time. And when you get where you're going you now find that 2 million other people got there first. Everything is overrun by the millions of people who have moved to Phoenix in the last couple decades. Going back into the inferno in even worse traffic after the weekend leaves you angry and exhausted as you prepare for another week of misery in the valley. You will find more peace in your own backyard and cooler temps from the AC. Really, it just sucks here, and there is no where to get away from it anymore.

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

I tried going to Sedona last summer to get out of the heat for the weekend. Biggest. Mistake. Ever.

Traffic up 17 was awful. A truck actually burst into flames and shut down the highway for over an hour while they extinguished the fire and got the traffic going again. Driving into Sedona was absolutely maddening. The whole one road in, one road out thing is a joke. Throw in 10s of 1000s of visitors who dont know how to use a roundabout (which there are a ton in Sedona) and it was just one giant traffic jam all the way in and out of town, even at 8PM.

I deal with the summer heat by riding/hiking early when I can, or swimming at night. During the day I try not to get out as much as I can. So we basically wait all summer for the temps to cool down, and when they do, we get swamped with snowbirds who jam up our roads here in the Valley and clog up the attractions.

Originally Posted by bigbuglf

Funny, sad and absolutely true Ponderosa and Big Cats! We won't even go out on 1-17 between the valley and Sunset Point on the weekends anymore unless we have no choice. It used to mostly be really bad on holiday weekends, but I swear the freeway is shutdown or majorly blocked every weekend now.

Come on, guys. There are many other places you can go to escape the heat besides Sedona. I don't even consider Sedona a respite from the heat. When it's 115 here, it can easily be 100 there. Payson and Prescott are the same way: maybe 15 or 20 degrees cooler at the most, which isn't a big relief when it's 110 or 115 in the Valley. I think we all know how much of a hassle I17 can be anyway, especially on weekends.

We just got back from a week's vacation in the White Mountains, so we escaped a good part of the "excessive heat" last week. The place we went to was literally 30 or 35 degrees cooler by day, and a good 40 degrees cooler at night. We even had a rare June thunderstorm one day early last week! I also avoided the traffic by going on a weekday instead of a weekend. Went fishing at Big Lake one day & spent nearly the entire day there, and left around 5:00 in the afternoon. On highway 260, there were only three cars on the road as we drove back to our cabin ... that's "rush hour" in the White Mountains! What a world of difference between there and Phoenix!

[Pacifico]

If it's 110-115 degrees in the Valley (Phx), I feel a 10-15 degree drop in Sedona or Prescott is actually a major, major difference. Makes a world of difference IMO.

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by Pacifico

If it's 110-115 degrees in the Valley (Phx), I feel a 10-15 degree drop in Sedona or Prescott is actually a major, major difference. Makes a world of difference IMO.

It does. Going to Sedona from Phoenix feels amazing. Their daytime highs are lower than our nighttime lows, put it that way.

[hikernut]

As I type, the temperature in Sedona is 101, while the temp in Phoenix is 110. I wouldn't do that drive just to get ~10 degrees cooler during the day. I'll just get up at dawn to run or whatever. The forecast low for Phoenix tonight is 85, and in suburban areas it's a few degrees cooler in the early morning... 82 tomorrow morning for Chandler.

If I can stay over a couple of nights, it's worthwhile going to Flagstaff. But a day trip or even a single night in Sedona isn't worth it to me as "heat relief". YMMV...

hikernut

[locolobo13]

I grew up in Casa Grande and Phoenix in the 60s & 70s. My parents didn't have AC. We had swamp coolers. Dad finally bought a room AC for Mom in the late 70s. Dad never did change completely over. He used the swamp cooler even in his later years.

It wasn't near as bad as some people think. Sure the high humidity during the monsoons made for a little discomfort but really the house was still in the low 80ish, I think. And you sweated inside. You know what? Sweating isn't the end of the world.

As a kid during the summers I thought the kids who lived in AC houses were kind of funny. Didn't like to come outside and play. What was wrong with them?

Of course nowadays, I live in a house with AC and work in buildings with AC. Even my pickup has AC! And I spend too much time sitting in front of the computer and TV.

So to answer the OP. IMO yes Phoenix is livable without AC. But it is more comfortable with it.

[cjs123]

I suppose you could live here without AC, but I wouldn't want to. I find that having AC in my home, car and office building really helps keep things comfortable--and I find it also helps my allergies, which seem to be worsening.

I moved here with a truck that didn't have AC, and I was reluctant to get it installed after market since I had heard horror stories of people's vehicles getting messed up due to faulty installation. But after a few years I started getting lightheaded while driving and knew I needed to do something about it, so I had AC installed. It worked great, and I wished I'd had it done sooner.

When I moved here in 1990, I thought nothing of walking around on a 117-degree day. I won't do that now, and I wouldn't consider living without AC in my home--not in the Phoenix area, anyway!

[atler8]

Maybe to long time Valley residents or hardy souls it is livable there without ac but personally, I don't think so.
I recall my first visit to the Valley in late August in the mid 1980's. An Atlantan myself, I discovered that my dad & his wife had a swamp cooler operating in their home. My cousin's house, where we socialized repeatedly during my visit, apparently had the same setup. The upshot is that I was EXTREMELY warm & uncomfortable & sat & slept in constant, dripping sweat. The ceiling fans didn't provide me with any relief but instead blew on my wet clothes.
After three sweat-soaked days of misery, I developed a sore throat which was the first symptom of the worst sinus infection episode I had ever experienced up to that point in my life.
When at last my visit drew to an end, I was on board the plane & ready for takeoff. The pilot came on the intercom and mentioned the current conditions in Atlanta. A big cheer went up from the passengers when he said, "72 degrees in Atlanta."
Just relating my own personal experience with the heat, the failure of a swamp cooler to give me relief & my humble opinion. By the way, I hate the heat in Atlanta too when it occurs.

[AZtrails]

@JGMotorsport was right about the house style making a difference. I had friends in the old part of Phoenix with an irrigated lawn, tall trees that kept the house mostly shaded, foot thick adobe walls, high ceilings, true saltillo floors, and a linear floorplan that accommodated moving air. Their house was comfortable with swamp cooling -- more so than modern, wood frame construction sitting directly in the sun with a swamp cooler thrown on the roof. Both were "liveable", but the adobe created a thermal mass and was the more comfortable of the two.

Before electricity was common -- so not even swamp cooling existed -- many people would've agreed with the OP. So many, that the City of Phoenix actually had a city park near Prescott where citizens could take a break from the summer heat.