Hello, All!

The perennial accusation that Americans waste oil to produce
electricity for AC has arisen again. The statement usually comes
from places that do not really need air conditioning like
Switzerland and San Francisco :-) Working in Washington DC
without AC can be most unpleasant and often sleeping at night
can be difficult. I'll admit that it is true that the
temperature is sometimes set unnecessarily low. I wonder why
fish restaurants are usually the coldest?

I was a government scientist and I once was criticized for not
obeying that prize president, Jimmy Carter, and keeping my lab
at 70F. To obey the edict I had to use an air-conditioner since
the heat came from my instruments!


James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

James Silverton wrote:

> Hello, All!
>
> The perennial accusation that Americans waste oil to produce
> electricity for AC has arisen again. The statement usually comes
> from places that do not really need air conditioning like
> Switzerland and San Francisco :-) Working in Washington DC
> without AC can be most unpleasant and often sleeping at night
> can be difficult.


Every year on rec.travel.europe there is a huge discussion about a/c
and the need for it. Of course we Yanks are always accused of being
"wasteful", etc. The majority of Yurpeens can't even GRASP the
concept of a/c, let alone why it would be at all necessary...

In poo - pooing a/c they'll say stuff like, "Just open a window...our
house is by the sea so we get a breeze...we live in a 16th century
stone house in Provence, the walls are 20 feet thick so there is no
need for artificial cooling...". They are just stubbornly ignorant...

With summers getting hotter they'll have to "succumb" to a/c too. A
few years ago France had a heat wave, tens of thousands of mainly
elderly folks died. IIRC there is only ONE hospital in all of France
that is wholly air conditioned, the American Hospital in Paris.
Apparently a/c is used in operating theaters, but the wards are not a/
c'ed - and many of these are modern buildings with "sealed window"
construction. Several posters on rec.travel.europe say this is
changing somewhat...

The majority of France's power comes from nuclear reactors, so they
can't use the lame "global warming" excuse...

Anyways, regarding DC, I can't imagine what life was like before
widespread a/c. Same with St. Louis or many other places...and that
includes here in Chicago.


I'll admit that it is true that the
> temperature is sometimes set unnecessarily low. I wonder why
> fish restaurants are usually the coldest?


Would you rather eat in a warm/hot fish resto...???


:-)


> I was a government scientist and I once was criticized for not
> obeying that prize president, Jimmy Carter, and keeping my lab
> at 70F. To obey the edict I had to use an air-conditioner since
> the heat came from my instruments!


Lol...


--
Best
Greg

Gregory Morrow > wrote in
ps.com:

> Every year on rec.travel.europe there is a huge discussion about a/c
> and the need for it. Of course we Yanks are always accused of being
> "wasteful", etc. The majority of Yurpeens can't even GRASP the
> concept of a/c, let alone why it would be at all necessary...
>
> In poo - pooing a/c they'll say stuff like, "Just open a window...our
> house is by the sea so we get a breeze...we live in a 16th century
> stone house in Provence, the walls are 20 feet thick so there is no
> need for artificial cooling...". They are just stubbornly ignorant...

I live in SoCal, went to Death Valley one August, outside temp was near
120ºF. Amazing how many German tourists were there and they were driving
along with the windows open.



--

Charles
The significant problems we face cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking we were at when we
created them. Albert Einstein

"Charles Quinn" > wrote in message > I live in
SoCal, went to Death Valley one August, outside temp was near
> 120ºF. Amazing how many German tourists were there and they were driving
> along with the windows open.

It's possible that they rented cars without a/c thinking one didn't need
them in CA, or that they conked-out? When I lived in CA, I didn't have
a/c.
Dee Dee

Dee Dee wrote:

> "Charles Quinn" > wrote in message > I live in
> SoCal, went to Death Valley one August, outside temp was near
> > 120ºF. Amazing how many German tourists were there and they were driving
> > along with the windows open.
>
> It's possible that they rented cars without a/c thinking one didn't need
> them in CA, or that they conked-out? When I lived in CA, I didn't have
> a/c.


A/C is standard in pretty near all US rental cars, and has been for decades
now. Back when A/C was still an expensive option (late 50's - early 60's),
Hertz, Avis, and other companies that had large rental fleets started
ordering factory A/C en masse for their vehicles, especially in the US
Southern states. Many folks first encountered the delights of refrigerated
air in those rental or corporate fleet cars, it helped to popularize the
spread of A/C. The first time I encountered A/C (in a "private" setting,
not a store or resto) was in the company car of a relative who lived in
Atlanta, factory air was standard in that company's entire fleet of 1960
Chevy Bel Air sedans and had been since 1958, it was considered a "must" to
improve employee productivity whilst on the road (he was an auditor who
travelled). Oil companies around Houston and other Texas locales also by
that time had air conditioned vehicles for their employees...

As for the Germans in Death Valley, they are Europeans and so don't even
grok the concept of air conditioning. I bet they didn't even understand why
drinks were iced at the rest stops in Death Valley, either...

--
Best
Greg

James Silverton > wrote:
>The perennial accusation that Americans waste oil to produce
>electricity for AC has arisen again.

This is false.

Were it not for the Palo Verde **Nuclear** Power Generating
station, the City of Phoenix would not have a fifth the
houses it now has.

And oil is never "wasted". It is purchased. Oil may
be a waste of money, and is almost certainly an overpriced
commodity, but the oil is not wasted since it otherwise
is a goopy mess in a hole in the ground.


--Blair

James Silverton wrote:
>
> The perennial accusation that Americans waste oil to produce
> electricity for AC has arisen again. The statement usually comes
> from places that do not really need air conditioning like
> Switzerland and San Francisco :-) Working in Washington DC
> without AC can be most unpleasant and often sleeping at night
> can be difficult. I'll admit that it is true that the
> temperature is sometimes set unnecessarily low.

There is some truth to that, though I have been in quite a few European
houses and have seen some of the techniques they use to reduce the need for
AC. Construction techniques and materials keep the houses cooler. The
climate in Germany is almost identical to ours. Most homes around here are
air conditioned, but their homes did not need it. Open up the windows in
the cooler evening temperatures and then shut them and close the heavy
shutters to keep out the sun and heat during the day. However, I doubt
that would help a lot in Washington's summer temperatures.


> I was a government scientist and I once was criticized for not
> obeying that prize president, Jimmy Carter, and keeping my lab
> at 70F. To obey the edict I had to use an air-conditioner since
> the heat came from my instruments!

It burns my butt when I hear announcements asking us to turn our AC down in
our homes and then go to a mall or an office building and have to put on a
sweater because they are so cold. When I was working I resented some of the
whining from our head office and district office about low productivity
during the extreme hot, extreme cold and wet and rainy times of the year.
We were working outside in those conditions when it was too miserable to
work, and those *******s were in air conditioned offices.