
Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960 - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-home-air-conditioning-cut-premature-deaths-on-hot-days-80-percent-since-1960/2012/12/22/5b57f3ac-4abf-11e2-b709-667035ff9029_story.html?tid=socialss
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citricsquid
I absolutely hate hot temperatures and find the summer truly horrendous
because in England it's getting hotter and hotter, this year my apartment was
over 35c / 95f on multiple days... but air conditioning just doesn't exist
here, I've never known anyone to have it in their home. This article explains
that air conditioning is inexpensive now, so why does America have such huge
air con usage and England none? Was it a trend that coincided with a huge
number of new houses being built in America, or did people start having it
installed as the result of...? Some sort of nationwide air con _thing_? To go
from <1% to 85% in ~40 years seems like something must have triggered it.

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loeg
I think that part of this is that most of the lower 48 US states (24-47°
North) are closer to the equator than most of England (50-54° North).

95°F isn't an extremely hot day. We get 95°F days in the summer in Seattle,
the city of perma-drizzle (47° North). From personal experience, most houses
in this area don't have air conditioning.

In the South, people regularly see much hotter days (I think Arizona (33°N)
tops 110°F / 43°C during the summer).

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nostromo
Seattle is a good example because its weather is similar to London. For what
it's worth, A/C is also pretty rare in Seattle homes.

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ronnier
I bought an AC for my home in Seattle before last summer. Cost about $4,200
and was worth it in my opinion.

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Vitaly
crazy. here in Israel _everyone_ have AC. There are cities where some kind of
AC is mandated if you are bulding a house.

And the price is rock botton. you can have a simple one that can cool a small
to medium room for about 200$ and a bigger one for the main room is about
500-700$. installation is usually another 150$. 4200$?? - crazy.

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nostromo
We have those in the US too -- but if you're trying to cool an entire house,
you'd use a central air conditioner to get better efficiency.

These are placed in the yard away from the house. Here's a picture:
[http://www.getgreenair.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/03/home_h...](http://www.getgreenair.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/03/home_heating_airconditioning.jpg)

~~~
Vitaly
Well, yes, you can have those here too, but most homes still have stand alone
units in every room.

The point is if you can't afford to spend $4K on air conditioning, $600 might
be within the budget.

Also I'm not sure central one is more efficient. it cools entire house while
using individual units you can cool just one room. Of course it has the
capability to limit the airflow per room etc, but I'd guess most people don't
do that and just cool/head the entire house.

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gdubs
Perhaps slightly off topic, but I was reminded of this story about how the
political transformation of the "new south" may be linked to air-conditioning:
[http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/new-south-
made-p...](http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/new-south-made-
possible-with-the-help-of-air-conditioning-11282.html)

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marshray
I've lived in the South and Midwest US my whole life. Reading the title and
the article I had the reaction "Is this study a joke, air conditioning keeps
people cooler?" Reading the comments here I see that many folks are, in fact,
surprised that the heat and humidity can be (literally) unbearable.

Florida for example, was largely considered largely uninhabitable until the
invention of refrigeration and pesticides to control the Malaria-spreading
mosquitos.

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carlob
I wonder how long it will take until this gain will be offset by the
environmental damage the increased American energy use is causing.

