Deep Thoughts on Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning
My father worked for 40 years or so as an engineer who specialized in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. His speciality was to take old buildings - hospitals and schools and such - and find a way to make them comfortably warm in the winter and comfortably cool in the summer. With this expertise in the US, he was able to earn a respectable living and to keep his family from going hungry and keep a roof over our heads.
In Europe, I think he could become a millionaire ten times over.
July was hot and there were few places to go for relief. The problem was not that the heat was breaking records - it wasn't. (In fact, the high 80s to mid 90s were not near as bad as the humid summers I remember from my teen years in Indiana.) The problem was not that buildings lack air conditioning (though most homes have no AC, most public buildings do). The problem is that, near as I can tell, no one in France knows how to size a cooling unit to fit the heat load. Couldn't do it if their life depended upon it.
If you go to a theater it is cooler than outside, but the air is stale and in the mid 80s. If you go to a store, it is the same. If you ride the tram, it is the same. (Actually, it is worse because you get the steamy aroma of body odor.) Our offices are portable buildings that heat up like a hay loft when the sun shines. I am serious, they get about as hot as a hay loft because the installed-after-the-fact air conditioning kicks off when the sun shines on it.
Of course, in the winter, it is the same problem in reverse. Nothing ever really gets warm. People layer on the sweaters in both home and office.
Part of it, I have to admit, is that we middle-class Americans have become spoiled. The locals think it natural to dress in layers that can be peeled off or put on as the temperature changes during the day. They are also tougher than we are. I have gone to meetings where the conference room is 100 degrees, I swear. The locals toss of a comment about how hot it is, and then they plow right on with the meeting for an hour and a half. In the U.S., we would have had to cancel the meeting out of health concerns.
I suppose that the tepid air-conditioning is more environmentally responsible. I suppose by sleeping with the windows open at night and the fan blowing on high we are reducing our carbon footprint and saving the earth. If nothing else, we are learning to sweat again.
Knowing that one is spoiled does not change the fact. I miss my 72 degrees +/- 2 year-round climate control.
In Europe, I think he could become a millionaire ten times over.
July was hot and there were few places to go for relief. The problem was not that the heat was breaking records - it wasn't. (In fact, the high 80s to mid 90s were not near as bad as the humid summers I remember from my teen years in Indiana.) The problem was not that buildings lack air conditioning (though most homes have no AC, most public buildings do). The problem is that, near as I can tell, no one in France knows how to size a cooling unit to fit the heat load. Couldn't do it if their life depended upon it.
If you go to a theater it is cooler than outside, but the air is stale and in the mid 80s. If you go to a store, it is the same. If you ride the tram, it is the same. (Actually, it is worse because you get the steamy aroma of body odor.) Our offices are portable buildings that heat up like a hay loft when the sun shines. I am serious, they get about as hot as a hay loft because the installed-after-the-fact air conditioning kicks off when the sun shines on it.
Of course, in the winter, it is the same problem in reverse. Nothing ever really gets warm. People layer on the sweaters in both home and office.
Part of it, I have to admit, is that we middle-class Americans have become spoiled. The locals think it natural to dress in layers that can be peeled off or put on as the temperature changes during the day. They are also tougher than we are. I have gone to meetings where the conference room is 100 degrees, I swear. The locals toss of a comment about how hot it is, and then they plow right on with the meeting for an hour and a half. In the U.S., we would have had to cancel the meeting out of health concerns.
I suppose that the tepid air-conditioning is more environmentally responsible. I suppose by sleeping with the windows open at night and the fan blowing on high we are reducing our carbon footprint and saving the earth. If nothing else, we are learning to sweat again.
Knowing that one is spoiled does not change the fact. I miss my 72 degrees +/- 2 year-round climate control.
posted by jcweber at 1:01 PM
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