Good point. It’s not profitable to build passively cooled housing. But it’s essential that we do. That doesn’t get you all the way to temperatures that won’t kill anybody, but it does mean you go from using 1500 W on average to something much less, and for MOST people, it might even be enough on its own.
Is one 750 W window-mounted air conditioner, running 12 hours a day (270 kWh/month = $40), not enough to prevent someone in that room from getting heat exhaustion?
I’d argue that even in hot climates, the temperature 2 meters under the ground is going to be a consistent 70 F year-round, and a fan drawing air through a pipe at that depth is sufficient to provide cool enough air to survive in the summer. Across Southwest Asia people have been putting principles like this to use since the beginning of civilization.
The problem is not access to technology or affordability per se, the problem is a cultural norm of overconsumption.
Yes you can use the ground to cool you, provided you live near the ground. If you live in the eleventh floor on the sun-facing side of an apartment building, it’s a little more difficult to use the ground to cool you. There are, of course, other clever passive tricks in building design that would work if we cared to spend the money on them.
But yes, running a little window unit (I think 750 W is conservative for those things but regardless) during the hottest hours in a small room would be fine for anyone in terms of survival.
People living on the 11th floor of an apartment building are not the ones being struck by $400 electric bills.
The article is mentioning Floridians. Maybe Miami and Tampa have some tall buildings, but there’s an incredible amount of sprawl, covering whole sections of the state. I’m pretty sure there are at least twice as many Floridians living in Fort Myers-like “communities” as ones living in 4+ story apartment buildings.
Basements have nothing to do with it- if you can fit a water pipe and a sewer pipe and a gas pipe, you can fit an air pipe.
LIHEAP is one thing; anyone who’s not on energy assistance and owns a house gets no sympathy from me. May the great simplification come sooner rather than later, and destroy the viability of Burgerlander lifestyles.
Good point. It’s not profitable to build passively cooled housing. But it’s essential that we do. That doesn’t get you all the way to temperatures that won’t kill anybody, but it does mean you go from using 1500 W on average to something much less, and for MOST people, it might even be enough on its own.
Is one 750 W window-mounted air conditioner, running 12 hours a day (270 kWh/month = $40), not enough to prevent someone in that room from getting heat exhaustion?
I’d argue that even in hot climates, the temperature 2 meters under the ground is going to be a consistent 70 F year-round, and a fan drawing air through a pipe at that depth is sufficient to provide cool enough air to survive in the summer. Across Southwest Asia people have been putting principles like this to use since the beginning of civilization.
The problem is not access to technology or affordability per se, the problem is a cultural norm of overconsumption.
Yes you can use the ground to cool you, provided you live near the ground. If you live in the eleventh floor on the sun-facing side of an apartment building, it’s a little more difficult to use the ground to cool you. There are, of course, other clever passive tricks in building design that would work if we cared to spend the money on them.
But yes, running a little window unit (I think 750 W is conservative for those things but regardless) during the hottest hours in a small room would be fine for anyone in terms of survival.
People living on the 11th floor of an apartment building are not the ones being struck by $400 electric bills.
The article is mentioning Floridians. Maybe Miami and Tampa have some tall buildings, but there’s an incredible amount of sprawl, covering whole sections of the state. I’m pretty sure there are at least twice as many Floridians living in Fort Myers-like “communities” as ones living in 4+ story apartment buildings.
Yes, but there’s a reason Floridian houses typically don’t have basements.
Basements have nothing to do with it- if you can fit a water pipe and a sewer pipe and a gas pipe, you can fit an air pipe.
LIHEAP is one thing; anyone who’s not on energy assistance and owns a house gets no sympathy from me. May the great simplification come sooner rather than later, and destroy the viability of Burgerlander lifestyles.