How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America

Re:How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America by mechanical_fish on Sunday July 17, 2011 @09:46AM (#2773295)

The point about humidity has already been made. I was astonished at how comfortable 115 degrees was in Phoenix. I went on a hike, no problem... Except that I carried a huge water bottle and the bottle ran out in an hour, so there's that.

In humid places, however, sweating is almost useless and you can suffer in mere 90F heat.

The other important point is that somehow folks in Singapore manage to survive, but in Singapore there's never any winter. I once heard a physiologist remark that humans can adjust to a wide range of temperatures, but it takes a few days for the body to reprogram itself for freezing ambient temperatures after spending months in roasting ambient temperatures. That's why the first few days of cold weather in the fall and winter feel really cold and everyone dons parkas, but when spring rolls around the exact same weather feels really warm and everyone puts on their shorts.

So maybe if I set out to live without A/C I'd get more used to it after a while. But the first few days are a killer, and at some point one just gets sick of being listless and warm and starts subconsciously looking for excuses to visit nice air-conditioned buildings.

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Re:How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America by lutorm on Sunday July 17, 2011 @10:13AM (#2773327)

it takes a few days for the body to reprogram itself for freezing ambient temperatures after spending months in roasting ambient temperatures

I noticed this empirically with myself whenever I traveled from California to Sweden in the winter. Coming to Sweden, I'd be cold all the time for the first couple of days, and then back in CA, I'd have hot flashes for a few days there. Nice to know that I wasn't imagining things. :)

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Re:How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America by chopsueyar on Sunday July 17, 2011 @10:59AM (#2773394)

I always assumed the heat-capacity of my bones took much longer to change temperature than the muscles and flesh of my body, but once it does, it lasts longer too.

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Re:How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America by wwkeyboard on Sunday July 17, 2011 @12:10PM (#2773533)

The problem for most of us in the US is that we can't control how much they refrigerate moste public places. We keep our home ~80F(it makes going outside in south Texas much more comfortable), but that makes my office very uncomfortable at 74F.

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Re:How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America by saurik on Monday July 18, 2011 @03:50PM (#2777906)

You are making an assumption that the Middle East is nothing but a dry desert; the forecast for tomorrow afternoon in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is 101 degrees with a 29% humidity.

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