Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-home-air-conditioning-cut-premature-deaths-on-hot-days-80-percent-since-1960/2012/12/22/5b57f3ac-4abf-11e2-b709-667035ff9029_story.html?tid=socialss

by Libertatea • 14 years ago

42 41 14 years ago

washingtonpost.com

citricsquid• 14 years ago

I absolutely hate hot temperatures and find the summer truly horrendous because in England it's getting hotter and hotter, this year my apartment was over 35c / 95f on multiple days... but air conditioning just doesn't exist here, I've never known anyone to have it in their home. This article explains that air conditioning is inexpensive now, so why does America have such huge air con usage and England none? Was it a trend that coincided with a huge number of new houses being built in America, or did people start having it installed as the result of...? Some sort of nationwide air con thing? To go from <1% to 85% in ~40 years seems like something must have triggered it.

revelation• 14 years ago

Electricity is vastly cheaper in the US. Its also hotter and substantially more humid.

The quick adoption is probably just cheap mass availability of the technology?

I share your sentiment, by the way. There are quite a few days in Germany where its unbearable in the summer. Alas, aircon here is mostly fans.

fragsworth• 14 years ago

Perhaps it has something to do with the vast differences in climate across the United States, and communication among homeowners between climates?

loeg• 14 years ago

I think that part of this is that most of the lower 48 US states (24-47° North) are closer to the equator than most of England (50-54° North).

95°F isn't an extremely hot day. We get 95°F days in the summer in Seattle, the city of perma-drizzle (47° North). From personal experience, most houses in this area don't have air conditioning.

In the South, people regularly see much hotter days (I think Arizona (33°N) tops 110°F / 43°C during the summer).

trafficlight• 14 years ago

In Montana (mid 40°s North), people rarely have large, permanent air conditioners in their homes.

nostromo2• 14 years ago

Seattle is a good example because its weather is similar to London. For what it's worth, A/C is also pretty rare in Seattle homes.

michaelochurch• 14 years ago

Cumulative heat stress is the danger, so it's actually hot nights that kill people, probably because of impaired sleep quality. (Aside from heatstroke, most of these excess deaths occur in people already in poor health.) 95°F / 35°C during the day is fine, but 75°F / 24°C at night (without A/C) is deadly, especially considering that most apartments are significantly warmer than the outside at night.

InclinedPlane• 14 years ago

Wealth. Per capita GDP in the US increased by 180% in the time period mentioned (in inflation constant dollars). Which means that in the regions of the country where it is hot for a considerable period of time almost everyone will have air conditioning, and in areas where it's hot only a few weeks out of the year a lot of people will have in-window air conditioning units, since they are so inexpensive.

The UK's per capita GDP is only 3/4 that of the US so they don't have as much disposable income and the weather tends to be much colder there than the average in the US so there's not as much demand for AC.

w1ntermute4• 14 years ago

Yeah, I love how in the US (in the Midwest) you can get a hermetically sealed McMansion on a developer's salary. I don't think you can get that anywhere else in the world. There's not enough land, energy costs are too high, and the cost of living in general is too high.

kirchhoff• 14 years ago

While your second point (colder climate) is correct, suggesting that UK residents are too 'poor' to afford air conditioning is way off the mark.

jws• 14 years ago

You can get a free standing portable unit in the 9000 btu range[1] for ~£300. You will need to sit it near a window that opens as it has an air intake and exhaust that must go outside. It will take care of one small room. This will be your refuge. The units can also double as dehumidifiers which make the warm air more comfortable.

Here in the states, my house had no AC, and we have weeks of >100°F/38°C summers with high humidity. All your fine mammal evolutionary adaptations are useless. Panting? Nope, air is hotter than you. Sweating? Nope, won't evaporate. Radiating from hairless skin? Nope. We did have a tiny window unit air conditioner that about half worked that came with the house. We'd build a tent over the bed and just barely stay comfortable.

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[1] But not many. I just looked in amazon uk, and your choices are slim compared to the states. I say free standing, because a window unit can tear up the window frame pretty badly and if you are renting that isn't polite. The free standing units just have an adjustable width panel with two holes that you shut in the window sash.

raverbashing2• 14 years ago

Thanks. You just explained why heat is so annoying!

It is not possible to deal with (humid heat) without modern technology.

The only workable evolutionary way to do it would be to significantly shut down self-heat production, short of a biological heat pump (that does not exist AFAIK)

But of course, in the UK, it's hot for a couple of weeks, as opposed to the US where depending of the region is hot from half-year to almost the whole year.

dhughes• 14 years ago

I bought my Dad a portable AC unit at Home Depot this past spring it's a great idea since it's an older house without central AC.

In this area SE Canada summers are usually low 20s usually 25C is a typical hot summer day, but now 30C to 35C seems to be the new normal hot, I think it got to 38C this year. It's also very high in humidity here 80% to 90%, which makes sense being on an island.

Anyway dad has a lung disease (IPF) and heart problems plus bearing 70 years old and overweight, this portable unit I see almost as life support.

It would be bad for any elderly person to die due to the heat but I think in area where it only gets hot for a month or less it's deceptive. Most elderly would think it wasn't hot in the old days and they can't afford or pay for an AC unit and will probably die from heat stroke.

pcurve• 14 years ago

Average July high in New York City is 84. Boston 82. And these are relatively cool places compared to other parts of the U.S.

London and Paris July average high is 73-75. And there's a world of difference between 75 and 83.

Even if you go all the way down to Toulouse, it's still not as hot as New York.

However, it is interesting to note that A/C sale in Europe has been taking off for the past 10-15 years, presumably because it is indeed getting hotter in Europe.

jdietrich• 14 years ago

Britain is much cooler during summer than anywhere in the lower 48. Most British houses resist hot weather very well, with thick brick walls and relatively small windows. You probably live in a modern apartment with a lot of glass and very little thermal mass.

One key advantage of heat pump systems is that they can often be run in reverse, serving as both heating and air conditioning. Currently a heat pump is no cheaper to run than gas central heating, but that is set to change within the next few years.

hnriot• 14 years ago

I should have thought that the answer would have been obvious. In the US, it stays summer for months, it's hot as hell for months. 95 is not even worth bothering to get up and switch the AC on.

tl;dr, it was hotter and for longer and English houses were not already better suited to keeping heat in and out, you'd likely see more air conditioners.

Meanwhile, you can buy one on Amazon if you can't keep your curtains closed for those multiple days of 95f.

"England it's getting hotter and hotter" - Wolfram Alpha would disagree with you there. At least it hasn't averaged any hotter since the 70's.

forgottenpaswrd• 14 years ago

"why does America have such huge air con usage and England none?"

Because a significant part of America is hot, and England is not(I had lived in England for years). It is not an "It will be fine if we install AC", but an "if we don't install air conditioner we will die" and I am being serious here, Las Vegas would be inhabited without AC .

Also England is wet so this means that before cooling the air, you will have to condense the water, and that takes lots of energy, making them inefficient in UK.

South of North America is very hot in summer but also dry, so it is very efficient in energy consumption.

35c on multiple days!! That is nothing. In most of Spain you will get 40-45 peaks with 35c minimum over months in summer, very few clouds for three months.

saosebastiao• 14 years ago

Not many people realize this, but Seattle is the highest latitude major city in the US, at approximately the same latitude as Paris. Most Seattlites also do not have air conditioning. But most everywhere else does. The vast majority of American cities have climates much closer to Madrid or Rome.

gdubs• 14 years ago

Perhaps slightly off topic, but I was reminded of this story about how the political transformation of the "new south" may be linked to air-conditioning: http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/new-south-made-p...

carlob• 14 years ago

I wonder how long it will take until this gain will be offset by the environmental damage the increased American energy use is causing.

marshray• 14 years ago

I've lived in the South and Midwest US my whole life. Reading the title and the article I had the reaction "Is this study a joke, air conditioning keeps people cooler?" Reading the comments here I see that many folks are, in fact, surprised that the heat and humidity can be (literally) unbearable.

Florida for example, was largely considered largely uninhabitable until the invention of refrigeration and pesticides to control the Malaria-spreading mosquitos.

Study: Home air conditioning cut premature deaths on hot days 80% since 1960

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