Air conditioning: how can we avoid it?

For over a decade, former President Trump has been telling people that “global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese in order to make United States manufacturing non-competitive.” Asked in a recent interview by Fox’s Stuart Varney whether climate change was because of human activity, Trump replied, “you have a thing called weather and you go up and you go down. The climate‘s always been changing.”

Temperatures for the first week of July 2024 were the highest worldwide since record keeping began in 1940. According to NASA, the past eight years have been the warmest on record, with each of the past four decades warmer than the one that preceded it. While there are several causes for global warming, the major one is the addition of various gases to the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas, etc.).

In the U.S. and throughout the world more and more buildings are air conditioned. In the U.S. more than 20% of the electrical energy used in buildings goes for air conditioning, this number increasing every year.

Air conditioning comes in all sizes from systems for giant buildings to portable units no bigger than a small suitcase.

Choices are many and growing. But particularly when considering air conditioning for small buildings, especially a house, you should ask yourself whether you really need it. Here in the relatively mild climate of the Northwest Corner, it may well be possible to keep cool without or with very little air conditioning.

Older houses can often be altered to stay cooler during hot spells. Covered porches and breezeways were common in many older houses as were large roof overhangs and shades to keep out the strong sunlight. Light colored exterior walls and roofs to reduce heat gain through the exterior were often used to help keep interiors cooler. As much as anything, good through ventilation cools a house’s interior by replacing otherwise stagnant interior air with fresher and usually cooler outside air. Sometimes the addition of a few windows or doors can improve the airflow (as well as the daylight) of a house making it much more comfortable in hot weather.

Another form of air conditioning Northwest Corner residents might consider is an air-to-air heat exchanger. Intended for use in colder weather, these devices exhaust stale indoor air during the cold months when windows are shut and transfer the stale air’s heat to cold incoming fresh outdoor air, using only a very modest amount of energy to do so.

A system of ductwork distributes a gentle flow of fresh air aound the house.

Those building a new house have additional opportunities to stay cool in their house without any air conditioning.

Heavily insulated with the insulation located outside of any concrete or masonry walls, floors , and ceilings allows those surfaces to absorb much of the daytime summer heat, releasing it only at night when it’s cooler thereby moderating the temperature. Ample windows located so as to avoid direct sunlight inside the house might be coupled with special heat reflecting glass in more exposed locations. Exhaust fans can mechanically provide whole house ventilation but this can also be accomplished by natural means. A large operable window at the top of the house can create a Venturi effect, drawing warm air up from the body of the house and pulling cooler air in from below. Planted walls and roofs can lower summer interior temperatures considerably (and help keep the interior warmer in the winter).

A new house can be designed with the site to find the most advantageous locations for everything: house, garage, entry, driveway, gardens, views, etc. The house might sit directly north of a few large trees, thereby providing instant shade or natural air conditioning for the roof. Tree shading where cars would be parked outdoors might also make sense.

And tree plantings might be arranged to help guide gentle summer breezes towards the house. Keeping the land surrounding the house relatively cool and well ventilated does make a big difference in temperature inside the house.

Wildfire pollution will likely be more frequent and severe. However, normal residential A/C does not clean the air and must be supplemented by an air purifying system, a significant addition if wildfire smoke is to be blocked.

Many of us may need at least some air conditioning. But air conditioning is at best a mixed blessing. It’s expensive, noisy, and often doesn’t work as well as it should. And it tends to act as a barrier between us and nature which makes living in the Northwest Corner special. It not only causes climate warming but it inhibits our bodies from adapting to variation in temperature. Our best strategy might be to use natural means as much as possible to keep cool, adding and using air conditioning only sparingly, when needed, as a last resort.

Architect and landscape designer Mac Gordon lives in Lakeville.