More Musings of an Energy Nerd
Residential air conditioning—the invention that allows residents of hot, humid climates to retreat to a cool, dry oasis—only became common in the U.S. after World War II. So how did our great-grandparents manage to live with high indoor humidity?
Interest in this question isn’t just limited to historians, of course. Some Americans—including a few green builders—are interested in designing houses for hot, humid climates that work well without air conditioning. Whether or not these designs are successful depends in part on the expectations and flexibility of the residents.
Comfort is subjective
Some people feel comfortable in hot, humid weather, even without air conditioning. As long as they have a few ceiling fans, they’re happy.
That said, when it comes to living with high humidity, human comfort isn’t the only issue. Condensation and mold can cause hard-to-solve problems for indoor objects and furnishings.
For example, some types of camera equipment and computer equipment can malfunction in humid conditions. The worst problems occur when equipment is transferred from a cool location—perhaps an air-conditioned car—to conditions that are hot and humid. When hot, humid air contacts a cold surface, the result is condensation—and condensation can easily cause problems with cameras or computers.
Moreover, in humid conditions, porous materials like drywall, shoes, and all kinds of fabric (including clothes, curtains, and upholstery) are susceptible to mold. If conditions aren’t extreme, mold can be often prevented by tricks that encourage air circulation: by regular use of a fan, by leaving closet doors open, by moving furniture away from walls, or by designing houses to catch breezes.
While these methods can help, they aren’t foolproof.
A visit to Costa Rica
My wife and I were recently delighted to accept an invitation to visit…
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2 Comments
I haven’t lived in a hot climate but I am fascinated by the topic of what Americans -and an increasing number of people worldwide- consider unlivable without AC. This has tremendous implications for the future of the planet.
While this issue has been written about, it rarely makes the news headline. A good book on the topic is "Losing Our Cool" by Stan Cox. It presents some eye-opening facts. Among other things it mentions that in the early 2000, the US (300 million people) used more energy for cooling alone than the entire African continent (1 billion+ people) consumed for all uses combined.
The vast majority of American would consider living in a Miami-like climate without AC a cruel punishment. I posted below the link that compares the climate of Miami where AC is everywhere, to Port Au Prince and Chennai (10 million people and growing) as an example. A hot day in Miami is a decent day in P-au-P or Chennai where living without AC is the norm for a majority of people.
Hundreds of millions -if not billions- live in considerably hotter conditions than the hottest US cities without AC. It is changing as a fast-growing number folks in the Global South buy an AC (and a car with AC) as soon as they can afford it. That's a huge problem, although we, Americans (energy-waste-champion of the past two centuries), are the last people who can assign the blame.
https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/110123~18622~25360/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Chennai-Miami-and-Port-au-Prince
Regardless of what one thinks about what levels of heat and humidity people should be be able to tolerate without complaint, climate change is pushing more and more places beyond whatever threshold a given individual or population tolerates.
Thanks for the weatherspark comparison. While it compares how often those places are "muggy" or worse (65 F dew point or higher), those places often go way beyond that, into "oppressive" and, their worst category "miserable". Looking at the individual pages, one can see that Chennai has the highest dew points "miserable" much of the time for most months of the year, and "oppressive" most of the rest of the time. Port-au-Prince is significantly better--almost never "miserable", and "muggy" more often than "oppressive". Miami is a little different, in that it's only bad from June through Sept., but during that time it's worse than Port-au-Prince, miserable a significant amount and oppressive the rest of the time.
You can see that comparison more clearly on this web site, using the first item in the dropdown menu to display dew point.
https://www.weatherbase.com/compare.php3?first=93487&second=20227
https://www.weatherbase.com/compare.php3?first=97234&second=20227
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