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July 29, 2012

YOUR GREEN VALLEY: Family makes choice to live without air conditioning

Jane Santucci Special to the Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — The Midwest has seen one week after another with temperatures in the steady 90s, creeping into the triple digits. The heat has been relentless. Many Hoosiers have been keeping cool by staying indoors where it is air-conditioned. While it may be hard to imagine living without A/C this summer, the Morton family of Terre Haute sees it a different way. While their house is equipped with A/C, they have made the conscious decision not to use it except under extreme conditions.

“Last year we turned on the air conditioning one time, when we had guests over for a night,” Brian Morton said.

This summer has played out a little differently for the Mortons, as Indiana has been experiencing record-breaking temperatures, week after week. While the Mortons have given in a little, their use of A/C is not typical of an average homeowner.

“This summer in particular, we have used the air conditioner. We had it turned up pretty much at 80, 85, 90. We had it set so our house wouldn’t hit 100 degrees,” Robyn Morton said.

Adjust expectations

Over time, the Mortons have learned to adjust their expectations. They remember growing up without A/C and knowing that their parents and grandparents lived without it, too. It has only been in the past 20 to 30 years where people have expected A/C when entering a building.

“Being mildly more comfortable is not worth the cost and the destruction to our environment. That is where everything sort of breaks down for me at the end of the day,” Robyn said. “No one who is reasonably healthy is going to have any health problems coping with the house at 75, 80, 85 degrees. By not using A/C, it is not consuming all of the energy and not emitting all of the greenhouse gases, wasting the coal. I have hard time thinking in 30 years when we badly degraded our planet, I am going to have to sit in front of my kids and say, ‘Well, we just didn’t want to have to be mildly uncomfortable.’ Nobody’s life depends on this, it is just that we don’t want to be too uncomfortable,” she said.

Dance of the

windows

The Mortons have taken little steps to make the temperature inside feel more comfortable. The biggest help for them is what they call “the dance of the windows.”

“What we primarily do is open the windows at night, put fans in the windows to bring in as much of the cool night air as possible and then shut the windows during the day and let as much of the hot air wind its way back out of our house,” Robyn said.

The dance of the windows only works well if it gets down low at night. This summer when it seldom gets below 75 degrees they resort to other techniques.

“When it is really bad, we will sleep downstairs instead of sleeping in our normal bedrooms,” she said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says for a fan to be effective, your skin must be moist. Moving air removes heat from the skin as the moisture evaporates cooling down the body. If a person stops sweating a fan will not do good and can make conditions worse. So it is important to keep the skin moist by using dampened clothing or by rubbing the skin with a wet cloth.

“Moving air cools your skin by up to four degrees. If it is 85 and your by a fan, then it may feel like 80 degrees, which is better,” Robyn said.

Adjusting to being around A/C

Overcoming living without A/C is hardest when you work in an air-conditioned environment. Bouncing back and forth, Robyn said, can make going home to an 85-degree home seem unbearable.

“Another one of the tricks is we bought a mini inflatable pool. We found that on bad days, to take a quick dip, towel off, and then go back inside. It is amazing how much it cools you down,” Brian said.  

Every now and then someone will talk about the heat outdoors and how nice it is to be inside an air-conditioned building. Then a conversation will inflate into a discussion about living without A/C.

“People tell me ‘I would just die if I didn’t have A/C,’ I say, really you wouldn’t have survived the ’60s. I have so much trouble taking that seriously. You really believe you would die without air-conditioning,” Robyn said.

Millions of people around the world live in much hotter climates than those of us in the U.S. and do not use A/C. Brian says it is not that it is so hard or that it is so uncomfortable, it is that it is viewed as poverty by others if you don’t have A/C.

“It seems to yourself and other people that you’re living in poverty. It is a very normal thing to live without air conditioning. It is just not a very normal thing around here,” Brian said.

Save money, power

Too much energy consumption will cause power outages. Duke Energy tries to combat power outages by offering a program called Power Manager. Power Manger is a voluntary program that pays a one-time credit of $25 or $35 to install a free load management switch next to your air conditioner on the outside of your home. The radio controlled device will cycle your air conditioner off and on when demand is especially high. Cycling events will not normally exceed a four-to-six -hour time frame. To help keep you comfortable, the indoor fan will stay on to continue circulating the air through your home.

 

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