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points by 80fj0348i 1 day ago | 0 comments

In large areas of the US if your AC goes out during the summer you can be dead within a day or two. There's many deaths of elderly people annually when their AC failed and they didn't have the mobility to leave for a cooling center before they passed out.

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/heat-waves-and-annual-death-ra...

[–] alt227 1 day ago

Thats crazy to me. I would never live in an area where electric power is required just to exist and not die.

[–] ifwinterco 1 day ago

It's not so much the temperature per se, it's the fact modern houses are designed around AC and American houses in particular are basically giant wooden garden sheds.

In a traditional house with thick brick/stone walls and large roof overhangs you'd be uncomfortable but a lot less likely to die

[–] 27183 1 day ago

It would be smart (assuming a properly insulated and air sealed house--which to your point is uncommon in the US) to build an insulated room with a dedicated hvac zone in the center of the basement or somewhere similar that is basically your "safe room" for such a situation. Would not take much to cool it and has the advantage of being maximally distant from the exterior walls to in case you are worried about radioactive fallout ;)

[–] 80fj0348i 1 day ago

For most people their car would work fine, of course not everyone does drive. Sometimes cities will open "cooling centers" (school gyms, event venues, etc.) for those cases.

[–] 27183 1 day ago

It takes a large amount of fuel to keep a car cool (or warm) compared to a properly insulated interior room in a properly insulated house. Cars have almost no thermal insulation to speak of, just sound deadening material, and they're made of thermally conductive materials.

[–] 80fj0348i 1 day ago

Yeah but people already own them and you can drive to somewhere else that has AC where you can hang out.