King of the World #2
Comments: 21
When I’m king of the world — and that day is coming — residential air-conditioning will be banned. Can’t stand the heat? Get out of the kitchen! Move to Greenland and telecommute. Or learn to revel in the baking majesty of the season (not easy, but it can be done).
Despite a record-breaking summer we didn’t once use the air-conditioner this year. Tempers frayed, yes, and sanity was questioned, but our enjoyment of the autumn (if it ever comes) will be nothing less than super-human. Every surviving cell in our bodies will sing the praises of the season and we will join a corporeal chorus of coolness you air-conditioned weaklings don’t even know exists.
This I sayeth unto you.
•••
Posted to King of the World • 2004.08.21 (Sat) • 12:01
Comments
Posted by Hans 2004.08.21, 12:28
Hmmm… You might like living in Finland. I swear, those people don’t even know what an air conditioner is. Being around in the day is fine, but sleeping is impossible. You’ve also got mosquitos to worry about (if you’re outisde of a city), so sleeping can also be a painful experience.
When you become King, please be easy on me. I deserve better.
Posted by Mary Beth 2004.08.21, 13:50
I bow to the mighty king and humbly seek to be admitted to the kingdom. When people find out I don’t even own an air conditioner they quake. They tremble to know that I might sweat.
On the other hand, when it’s really really hot, I do what should be normal for really really hot weather. I do LESS. Or I seek cooler climes like in the cellar. Or I endeavor on and enjoy being able to take a really cool shower afterwards.
It’s not hot for long even here in upstate NY. Enjoy it while it lasts, savor the brief and thrilling autumn and get ready for the blast of winter.
Posted by Gevorgian 2004.08.21, 15:14
I think that air-conditioners are bad for our planet earth. They might polute the ozone and well, just because of satisfying ourselves, we destroy our future.
Posted by jh 2004.08.21, 17:20
You know, I think I just might like living in Finland. I imagine the beaches are somewhat challenging, though.
And Mary Beth, don’t worry: I’m preparing lists of the saved and the not saved. Your place is secure (unless you cave and get an air-conditioner).
Posted by darren 2004.08.21, 18:38
so far this summer an air conditioner hasnt been needed in finland, a good supply of umbrellas has.
dw
Posted by Tim Bray 2004.08.21, 22:48
A decade ago I was doing business for weeks at a time during a hot summer in Switzerland, where (at that time) air conditioning in offices was banned for environmental reasons. Given the Swiss climate this seems hard to argue with except for it was as I said hot and the ventilation was poor and every one of the bloody Swiss business people smoked, so you’d be stuck in some four-hour meeting with 5 smoking Swiss and the temperature 32°C and after a while you could feel your brain cells dying in waves.
I think JD would make an excellent global monarch.
Posted by Quinlan 2004.08.22, 01:24
Wow! You did that this summer in Tokyo! Even on the day hottest day in recorded (Tokyo) history? (I believe it was about 39.5 Celcius.)
I’d love to follow in your footsteps with that, but with my wife being very pregnant (she’ll go into labor any day now) I don’t have much of a say. She owns the air conditioning remote, and even a local kind wouldn’t win an argument with her. Next summer’s a go though!
(For the record I never used an air conditioner before we moved into this apartment in Tokyo a few years back, so when you rule the world there should be some partial punishment for short-term users.)
Posted by Paul 2004.08.22, 03:42
… but it’s a quiet heat.
I grew up in the 50s & 60s in Florida with no A/C. I remember getting into some trouble with my buddy, who’s parents came over to conference with my parents. They lived in an air conditioned house, and 10 minutes into the meet, much to my amusement, they were breaking in a drenching sweat while my folks sat cool as cucumbers.
Long live the King.
Posted by Maktaaq 2004.08.22, 05:00
In Tokyo with an AC? That’s amazing! When I lived in Saitama, on the overheated plains of Gyoda (nice city, visit it for the miraculous 2000-year-old lotuses and the nifty burial mounds), I would ride my bike home, turn on the AC and collapse.
Re: Quinlan.
From my mother’s experience of blaming my sister and I for her pregnant miseries, I suggest all women with child be exempted from your austere laws.
Posted by Jolyon 2004.08.22, 06:11
Being from England where we don’t really have AC (well maybe some people do in cars, but I don’t have one of those either), I’m a bit bemused by this thread. Is the objection an environmental thing, or a noise thing, or a zen thing, or some other thing? Be with you or any or all of those, but just curious.
Thanks for enlightenment.
Posted by jh 2004.08.22, 10:05
Maktaaq —- Good point. Pregnant women and nursing mothers can be exempt. I will be a merciful king.
Jolyon —- It’s really an environmental thing, although (surprise!) there’s a selfish aspect, too. I’m sick of taking cooling walks around the neighbourhood and being blasted by hot air coming out of AC units pointed onto the street.
Posted by Miske 2004.08.22, 11:47
Wow … I am the world’s biggest cheapskate, but it never occurred to me to entirely give up air conditioning. Hmmm. I’m not convinced yet, since as the other guy said, I simply cannot seem to fall asleep when it’s hot (after I’m asleep I’m okay). (If I did try going without an air conditioner, I’d definitely jettison the Japanese custom of bathing atnight_, lest I smell like all those salarymen on the train.)
Comparing our digs in Japan to my sister’s and parents’ places in the U.S., it occurs to me that split-ductless units like we use in Japan are actually rather un-wasteful. I can cool off a single room, the room where I am. In the U.S. you have to cool or heat the whole damn house, set from a central thermostat. But on the other hand, in the U.S. double-paned insulated windows are common, and insulation in outer walls and ceilings is well-thought-out. My place in Japan has leaks all over the place, and coolness/heat just flows out. I end up closing the amado even on bright sunny days just to keep the coolness in.
Posted by andrew 2004.08.22, 16:09
We have evaporative air conditioning. It uses a few hundred watts instead of a few thousands. It’s quiet, has no hot-air blast outside, doesn’t require the windows and doors to be all shut. It doesn’t chill the house like refrigerative aircon, rather knocks about 10C off the outside temperature. It’s rather like a cooling sea breeze. I love it.
On the downside, it uses a fair amount of water, and it’s mostly useless on those days of 85% humidity, when we just use the fan without the water pump.
Still, I submit that it’s worthy of remaining legal once you ascend to power. Aside from the water use, it’s quite a low-impact thing.
Posted by Aegir 2004.08.22, 18:26
So why’s that then? Would you also ban heating in countries that are normally cold, and make the shivering inhabitants move to warm countries?
I’d love to have air conditioning in my flat. I live in the UK, I grew up here and you’d think after all these years I’d be used to the 500% humidity and miserable cloying warmth that counts for “summer” but I’m not.
Posted by Alex 2004.08.23, 15:49
You did an entire summer without A/C?!?! I don’t know whether to congratulate or feel sorry for you. I would have died a slow and painful death if I didn’t have the A/C in my home, car … work. 30º+ day in and day out … water in my pool 33ºC, no wind, no rain for two months … you’d think I live in a freaking desert ;) So I can’t imagine a summer without A/C … I went to the movies more than once just to sit in a cold place for a hour or two.
Posted by Paul Griffin 2004.08.24, 04:00
Just you try to get to sleep with no A/C during a Central Florida summer. The overnight lows tend to be in the 80’s, without so much as a sea-breeze to cool things off. You might get some rain in the evening before bed time, but it’s really only enough to make for suffocating humidity. It’s hard to fall asleep when you feel like you’re breathing water and your sheets are soaked with your own sweat.
I’ll keep my A/C, thanks. I guess I’ll be a prime candidate for the air conditioner users’ reeducation camps when the time comes, eh? :)
Posted by Jason 2004.08.25, 15:26
I’ve been there. Last year Europe fried, as you recall quite literally in the case of several seniors in France. Living in Luxembourg, immediatly to the north of that I suffered through the burn as well. On a good day during those 4 weeks, the temperature in my office maxed at 105 F.
Air conditioning is a technological advancement akin to the lightbulb…i.e. GENIUS. If I wasn’t such a dang cheapskate I probably would have shelled out the 800 Euros they were asking for stand alone units. Instead, we suffered through, went to the pool everyday immediatly after work with the wife and kids, or to the park and sat in the shade waiting for the cool of night to bring relief…only to head home to our concrete home which oozed heat from its walls for the remainder of the night.
Fall was glorious that year…I remembered when it did finally rain…we all went and stood out in it.
Posted by jesus2099 2004.08.26, 22:57
American and Japanese are the biggest aircon users! But they are not living in the hottest coutries. American tend not to care about ecology.. They also are the biggest CO2 makers with their big cars and cheap fuel. Why in summer, wanting to be cold as in winter? Why use power fo that? Each time I used an aircon I got cold-sick. Either in south Vietnam, Tokyo or in Paris (France), I dislike aircon. I like to feel the season I am in. getting used to climate is very easy and makes you happy thinking you avoid being one of the selfish poluters! :)
Posted by Kevin LaCoste 2004.08.28, 13:58
Hey Jeremy,
I’m in Kyoto and I’m proud to say that I also lasted through the summer without the AC. I know our highs haven’t matched Tokyo’s but we definitely get hit with the humidity. We’ve been averaging about 34 to 36 degrees this year by my estimate. I check the temperature at the Sanjo street bridge everyday on my way to work.
It was a real shock coming over to Kyoto from Vancouver where the concept of a humid day doesn’t really have any meaning. Vancouver always has a beautiful breeze coming off the sea. I don’t think I’ve ever seen residential AC in Vancouver although I’m sure people have it.
My first summer in Kyoto I used the AC every night. I had all sorts of sinus trouble and generally felt unhealthy. Then I went back-packing for a few months around Thailand and Cambodia. As you can imagine I didn’t see much AC there. What I come away with was a healthy respect for cold showers (most of the places I stayed in didn’t have hot water) and an ability to sleep like a baby even on the hottest nights. I guess your body really does acclimatize.
For the record, I usually shower 2 or 3 times a day during the summer. Cold water, 3 to 5 minutes, in and out and extremely refreshed.
Posted by Hayes 2004.09.01, 10:49
I’ve spent the summer in Osaka with no air conditioning, and it has been a living hell. I can’t imagine doing it voluntarily. You are insane.
Posted by jesus2099 2004.09.30, 02:06
I love it when it’s 33°C ! Below 25°C in my flat I am freezing! (Paris) I tuned my heating system to switch on whenever it’s below 23°C
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
