Rachel Markel
I feel like a point that Edward Ozimek brought up this week that ties into our discussion last week was when he was talking about how people should just get more comfortable with life. He brought up that people should just get used to temperatures in their houses being not exactly what they want it to be. He gave the example of how his neighbors would have their air conditioning running when they could easily open the windows and let the cool air in. People are just so used to having their comfort set by artificial air.
I never had central air conditioning in my house when I grew up, so last year when I lived in the Clifton-Fullerton resident’s hall; the air conditioning was very extreme to me. My roommate always had our air on in our room and I would be sitting in our room during the first few weeks of school in sweatshirts and heavy socks because I would be so cold in the room.
I feel like I have grown up without central air and I have managed just fine. If everyone would take the advice to just let the natural air or fans cool you, they would eventually adapt to that.
This year I live in a dorm that does not have the central air, and the beginning of school brought a lot of very warm days, but my roommate and I managed just fine. I feel like if the option was just taken away, everyone would find a way to adapt and start the beginning of not wasting energy and resources on cooling a room that would be comfortable with a natural breeze.
It's funny, I have been thinking about this all week too. I just moved and my new apartment is more spacious and has more windows. So for the last week it's been kind of chilly outside and my roommate keeps turning the heat on. I keep turning it off. I have tried explaining my reasoning to her, but she doesn't seem to care that it's such as waste of energy considering that it's only October and really, 65 degrees inside is not terribly cold.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you write about this because this past summer I was living in an apartment that is on the first floor and the basement of a 2 flat building. I live in the basement and on the hot summer days (though we had very few this year), it would not really get over 75 degrees ever, and even cooler at night. Yet every single night, if i checked the air conditioning control, it was on. My roommates even once stated to me something like "we have it so why not have it on." I think that my roommates have just grown up with the idea that the AC has to always be on if the weather is hot out, thats just the way it is. I tried to explain to them the idea of opening windows and turning on fans, and eventually one of them started to agree with me and turn the air off. I wish they could hear a presentation about what they're actually doing, because I just dont think they understand.
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