Did you grow up in a house without AC?

[brahmanknight]

Sort of as an offshoot of my current FB status, did you grow up in a house without air conditioning at any point?

I only vaguely remember it, but my grandmother's house didn't have an AC until I was around 4, and that was a window unit. No central AC until I was 8.

 

[fabknight]

We had a/c but my parents refused to use it (we were pretty poor). During the summer, I remember sleeping on the floor with the windows open and a small oscillating fan blowing on my head while I was sweating gallons into the carpet. It pretty much sucked.

 

[UCFKnight85]

A lot of hotels I stay in while in Europe don't have AC and I cannot fathom how anyone finds it comfortable. It's disgustingly hot. I can't imagine how ANY house in the US does not have AC if they live in a region capable of getting into the 80s or 90s. Which is most anywhere.

 

[MACHater02]

I grew up in Florida with it, my wife grew up in NE Pennsylvania without it.

 

[Bob the Citronaut]

My grandparents up north don't have it, we always had it down here but as a kid we were always outside during the summer anyways so it didn't really matter.

 

[UCFWayne]

If you live in FL, AC is mandatory. My grandparents would occasionally not use it at certain times of the year. Youd be crazy not to run it in the summer.

 

[knighted]

Grew up without it in Florida. I slept on our living room couch a lot because that was the only room with a ceiling fan. My dad finally put window units in when I was in middle school. It was as terrible as you'd imagine, especially since I had a lot of seasonal allergies and my mom had chronic asthma.

 

[jetsaholic]

Didn't have A/C while growing up in the island. Makes me wonder how I ever survived without it.

 

[goodknightfl]

I was about 11 when we got our first window air. As a frosh in High school, I helped an air conditioning friend install our first whole house central system. Nothing like building duct work and crawling around under the house installing it. took us about 3 weekends to do it. But boy was it sweet the first time that 2.5 ton baby kicked on....

 

[SublimeKnight]

If you live in FL, AC is mandatory. My grandparents would occasionally not use it at certain times of the year. Youd be crazy not to run it in the summer.

When I lived in South Florida, I was surprised at the number of houses that were built without AC in the 60s-70s down there. I can only assume they were owned by snowbirds who only used them 1.5 seasons out of the year.

 

[goodknightfl]

Younger people have to remember, Air conditioning even in businesses was not real common before the 1960s. Go look at most homes built in 50's and air conditioning was not part of the original build. it was added later. Even air in cars was mostly an add on before the late 60's. My first car a 68 javelin had an add on unit that was under the center part of the dash. big chrome monster.

 

[Game_Day_Sports]

Florida houses had Dormer windows so instead of half of the window, when you cranked that baby open, you got it from the entire size of the window. They also put more windows in the homes so that you had cross ventilation and they houses had more insulation. Up until 3rd grade, we had an older house from the 60s and while we had AC, we seldom ran it. My grandparents house had a giant window unit in an addition that they put on in the 70's.

I didn't have a car with AC because my parents were either cheap or poor (depends on who you ask) and never bought a car with AC. Remember vinyl seats and no AC? If it wasn't for the sweat pouring off of your legs, you would stick but the first couple of minutes you could give yourself 3rd degree burns sitting down on those things.

My wife grew up in NE Pennsylvania so they never had anything but a window unit. When we moved in 3rd grade, we got a house with a newer more efficient AC so they ran it more often, but still not a lot. I remember watching the Earthquake baseball series with the windows wide open and the fan on full blast.

 

[crambone]

When I lived in The Bahamas we did not have AC. We ended up getting window units my last 2 years there but could only afford to run them at night when we slept. Even then, the frequent brownouts and blackouts would always interrupt the cooling.

So yeah, windows open 24/7/365 and the house was always humid. I can remember opening a new jar of Tang and the powder being clumped together by the third day after. Made for some gritty breakfast drinks.

 

[Knightshift]

We had a/c but my parents refused to use it (we were pretty poor). During the summer, I remember sleeping on the floor with the windows open and a small oscillating fan blowing on my head while I was sweating gallons into the carpet. It pretty much sucked.

I still remember the day as a little kid when my parents cut off the A/C because it got too expensive. We were kind of a low-income family early on, so we pretty much grew up with no A/C, and lived with box fans in the windows. My mom had to put wax paper between the photo album sheets because the humidity make the old pics stick together. Kids are resilient, and eventually it just became normal. But some of those nights, it was just brutal trying to get to sleep in the heat and humidity. I think we finally got a new A/C when I got to high school. Of course now, I can't live without A/C. I can't imagine ever having to live without it again. Even in the cooler spring months, my windows stay closed and that A/C is on.

 

[Ace of Knights]

Living in Pittsburgh, I had a window unit. I only used it three months out of the year. I kind of liked not really needing it.

 

[UCFBS]

I didn't until I moved to Florida. But in the north, it's maybe twelve (12) weeks a year, three (3) months, where it's difficult ... max.

I'm waiting for more studies on what it does to sweat gland growth and maturity. It's been the alleged cause of more issues with younger athletes, but we definitely need more metrics to confirm.

 

[CommuterBob]

When I did my time...err...lived in New Jersey when I was in middle school, our house did not have AC. It was brutal for the summer months. Even with a box fan and a window open, it was hard to sleep because the house just would not cool down.

 

[UCFBS]

When I did my time...err...lived in New Jersey when I was in middle school, our house did not have AC. It was brutal for the summer months. Even with a box fan and a window open, it was hard to sleep because the house just would not cool down.

Many places in the midwest and northeast US can be not only be 100% humidity, but at a higher temperature and greater heat index than Florida for 3-6 weeks of the year.

 

[CommuterBob]

Many places in the midwest and northeast US can be not only be 100% humidity, but at a higher temperature and greater heat index than Florida for 3-6 weeks of the year.

And I love pointing that out to my relatives up north who claim that Florida is too hot for them. I've lived in Orlando for 22 years, and I have yet to see temps above 98. I dealt with as much as 108 in the summers in Ohio, St. Louis, and NJ growing up virtually every year. I was up in Nashville last month and it was 96 and that heat was just damn oppressive compared to the 96 I feel in Orlando.