I’m not happy with myself today. I left home this morning without a jacket.
Yes, I’m aware that today’s high temperature will be in the lower 90’s with a heat index in excess of 100. And it appears there is little chance of precipitation today. But I don’t need the jacket for being outside–I need it to be in the air conditioning inside. Yes, I am that person you see putting on a coat or a sweatshirt to go inside buildings during the summer.
Put simply, I don’t need A/C. I spend 8 months out of the year complaining about how cold it is (both outside and inside), so I don’t want to be “cooled off” for the other four months. And yet, everywhere you go now, businesses have the temperatures in their buildings cranked down as low as possible–with very little humidity as well. I have to keep a mental list of which restaurants, offices, or stores are the most-frigid so that I can dress appropriately–even if it is the middle of July–so I’m not freezing my buns off.
And unfortunately, where I work is one of those places. Our chief engineer was making fun of me just the other day for getting out of my Jeep–which had the top off and all the windows rolled down–and then putting on a jacket to go inside. He would tell me that all of the electronic equipment and computers that are running constantly in the building give off a lot of heat, therefore the overall temperature inside must remain lower to compensate. I think it was last week that the HVAC guys had to make some repairs or upgrades to the system and the A/C was turned off for awhile. I actually had a chance to take off my “inside jacket” for a change, while my-coworkers complained about how “hot” it was.
It didn’t used to be this way. Air conditioning was not omnipresent in all buildings this far north. Homes used to have screen doors and screen windows that would allow natural air movement while keeping mosquitoes and flies out. Businesses would have exterior windows that actually cranked opened or large ceiling fans to circulate the air inside. But in the quest to have the most “efficient” buildings possible, today’s new structures rely exclusively on HVAC systems to control temperatures.
That sounds great in theory, but when you have dozens of internal rooms, with varying exposure to sunlight, each cannot have their own individual temperature. I cannot keep my office or studio at 82 if the person in the next office or studio wants it at 68.
I actually have an unlikely ally in my fight against over air conditioning: the Woke Left. Google “Is air conditioning sexist?” and enjoy the plethora of on-line and print articles arguing that office temperatures are kept unnecessarily low because men tend to wear more clothes in the “business culture”–so women who tend to wear lighter “formal” outfits are left to freeze at work. I’m not complaining, I’m embracing my inner radical feminist!! Cold Girl Power!!
In all seriousness, keeping our indoor spaces artificially cold and dry is also more expensive. Even on pleasant days–say low 70’s with a light breeze–A/C units have to keep cranking away to maintain the same inside temperatures that could be achieved for free by opening some windows. I would add that the reason we are seeing an increase in allergies among people is that from our earliest days now, we are kept in such tight, filtered climate-controled air that we aren’t exposed to enough allergens to develop immunity properly. And that just escalates the demand for more A/C to provide “relief”.
So what do you say we turn up that thermostat to closer to 80 today, and open the windows on the family cruiser along the highway and enjoy the few days of natural warmth we get around here. Meanwhile, if any meatpacking plants need some extra space to hang carcasses today, it was 64 in my office when I got in this morning, and the A/C hasn’t stopped blowing since then.
