Air conditioning in Seattle houses? How common? (move to, trees)

[kimmiek]

Originally Posted by dcoolbro

In my first apartment I lived on the first floor so those rare hot days in Seattle didn't bother me at all since heat travels up. But when I moved to a third floor apartment the heat did become somewhat annoying. But the fan was enough for me. I guess we all have different tolerences. Here in Houston you can't survive without the AC.

This is all too true about not being able to survive it Texas without A/C. I can't count how many people have died in the past 2-3wks in their home because it wasn't air conditioned. It's mostly the elderly that can't get out of the house, but there are plenty of reports of people dropping like flies because of heart attacks induced by high heat, stroke...you name it. Very sad

[MaikeerinWA]

Just an issue of comfort and not safety around here (fortunately) - but it will be nice to use our air conditioning to cool the house down when my wife and I get home from work this evening. The first floor of our house tends to stay pretty cool, but the upstairs are a different story, and today looks like it will be a warm one.

[texastrigirl]

We moved here from TX and have not felt the need for AC unless temps get above 90 which happens a few days each summer. Even then it's just a few days and at night the house cools down just fine. A few of our Texas friends have put them in but don't use them very often at all. I grew up in Iowa and my dad was frugal...wouldn't turn the AC on unless the relative temp was 90 or above. He was a farm kid and didn't like our whinin' so we learned to deal. This is not bad at all compared to that. Coming from TX, even 90 and no air feels okay compared to some of the days where I was outside training for a race in 90+ degrees.

[goldengrain]

We will, at some point, move to Seattle. We will have A/C.
From my readings, I have heard that Seattle is chilly and humid for a good part of the year, but in the summer it is dry.
Also, in the summer at night the temp is supposed to drop - well, more than it does where I am.
So I am thinking, if you own your own house in Seattle you could do what I have done. I have had two full house fans installed on the highest part of my roof. At night I open a few of the lowest windows in the house and the cool air comes in very quickly, cooling the whole house.
The fans are also attached to a thermostat, so they will go off automatically if the temp in the attic reaches I think 75F degrees. There is also a switch in a closet that will turn them off manually.
This is much better than fans in the windows.
I also have ceiling fans in each room.

[Eastside Native]

Anyone who's ever lived in Seattle for more that a couple years know that anyone with a Southern or Western exposure needs Air Conditioning.

I moved into my Townhome 10 years ago during July. It was 98 degrees that day and 104 inside my home.

I grew up in Bellevue with no A.C., so I didn't think I would need it.

My community has 26 units, all with no A.C. to start with. I paid $1000 extra, just to get the HVAC guy to come the next day which was a cool down (Only 96).

4 years later 20 out of the 26 units had installed A.C. and basically agreed that I was smart to get it all along.

Now I set my thermometer at 70 degrees 365 days/year. My A.C. is used from April to October (Off and on) and every day from June - September.

Ever since getting A.C. I sleep like a baby at night, and find it totally uncomfortable to visit friends who don't have it.

It was worth every penny to me!

[obsidian97]

Having moved from Dallas to Seattle.... we're getting quotes on AC. I lived in Texas for 22 years, and most of the time I was there the temperature in the summer was 72F.

Yes, 72F.

It's so hot outside you just don't go outside for long, so the temperature outside is irrelevant if you're going from one air-conditioned space to another. That's the key.

Here, with a southern exposure on the house, long days, and no A/C, it gets a lot hotter than 72F. It wouldn't be so bad if it were just outside. I wouldn't care a bit, but when it's inside, and you can't get away from it, that's a bummer.

It does depend on the exposure of your house though. We knew that going in to it. We can get A/C for the house, but we can't get sun for the house, so we picked sun over more temperate exposure.

[obsidian97]

Here's an analogy to explain my point.

Let's say you are from Siberia, and you were looking to move to Sixtydegreeville. It's always 60F in Sixtydegreeville. It would seem silly to expect, as a Siberian, that you wouldn't need a heater in Sixtydegreeville because you were used to it being -6000F in Siberia even though you're always in a heated location there where it's 72F inside.

You're not going from living in a house that is -6000F to one that's 60F. You're going from one that is 72F to 60F if you don't have a heater. So, although it's a huge improvement if you're outside a lot, it's worse inside than where you started from.

[VeronikaW]

Originally Posted by obsidian97

Here's an analogy to explain my point.

Let's say you are from Siberia, and you were looking to move to Sixtydegreeville. It's always 60F in Sixtydegreeville. It would seem silly to expect, as a Siberian, that you wouldn't need a heater in Sixtydegreeville because you were used to it being -6000F in Siberia even though you're always in a heated location there where it's 72F inside.

You're not going from living in a house that is -6000F to one that's 60F. You're going from one that is 72F to 60F if you don't have a heater. So, although it's a huge improvement if you're outside a lot, it's worse inside than where you started from.

Very well said.

I was talking to my stepmom a few days ago, and she lives in Phoenix and I told her it was almost 90 outside, and she said, "Oh it's over 110 here today." But I pointed out that she has an air conditioned house (which she was sitting in and was probably 73 degrees), and a beautiful pool in her backyard.

All I had was a sweltering house even with 10 fans running throughout.

During our little heat wave this week, I literally used a whole tank of gas sitting in my parked minivan in front of my house, because my son, who is teething, could not sleep in the house because it was so hot, and once asleep in the car, I couldn't take him out. I had to take my laptop with me, since I work from home.

Not to mention how filthy your house gets constantly having window fans blowing dust and dirt in. Or how you have to smell your neighbors smoking or cooking or hear their children playing or the trash trucks or the gardeners, etc.

I would never buy a house in WA, but if I did, the first thing I'd do would be to add central air.

V. =)

[argo69]

San Francisco is probably the only major city in the U.S. that you could live in year-round without ever (even for a day) wishing you had A/C. Seattle would probably be second after SF, but there will be a couple weeks a year of weather that is a bit uncomfortably warm...how warm depends on your specific living situation. An apartment like mine, on the second floor, with minimal western exposure and shady trees outside, never gets really unmanageably hot but an upper level apartment with western exposure could easily get horribly hot during the hottest days of the year.

[seattlerain]

To me the key to this whole air conditioning debate is this; you just don't miss what you have never had.

Except for when I was living in TX and the southeast, I've never lived in a home with A/C.

Most native Seattleites I know do not have, nor do they feel the need for A/C. From my experience it is for the most part people who have moved here from elsewhere who feel the need for air conditioning.

If I were to ever move to someplace with a warmer climate I would expect A/C, here I personally I can't justify the expense.