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Hot Locations w/o Arctic a/c

Echo

Veteran

DH and I just returned from a trip to NOLA for our anniversary. We honeymooned in NOLA, so felt it would be appropriate to return there for our 20th. My dream trip is to Istanbul, but given the current travel advisory, we felt that we should wait a bit on that trip.

Interestingly, NOLA is a city that does NOT have arctic air conditioning. I find it interesting in a city that is so incredibly hot and humid that the air conditioning tends to be weak and the temperatures set high. Perhaps for locals, 75 F degrees or warmer might be a relief, but not for northerners! At first I thought this might be an issue with older heating and cooling systems in the French Quarter, but it doesn't seem to be, as the air conditioning we encountered all over southern Louisiana was fairly warm.

We had a thermostat in our hotel room that we set to 64 F degrees, yet it likely never got below 70. In that case, it was probably due to an very old structure with poor insulation and poor air pressure, but again, it seemed to be the case everywhere, whether the buildings were old or new.

My experiences in Georgia and Florida have been with much colder a/c, so I had to wonder why the difference in LA? Anyway, what has been your experience in different countries or states with air conditioning? Who likes it hot and who likes it cold? It appears LA clearly likes it hot!

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18 replies

Latest reply was from elpgal

Echo

Veteran

Oh, and here are a couple of photos. The first is me with a couple of pirates on Bourbon street; the second is DH and me in our hotel room getting ready to go out; and the last is a view of part of the city. Although it rained a bit while we were there, we were there the week before last so we were lucky to have missed to tropical storm event that dumped many inches of rain in NOLA last week.

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minimalist

Veteran

You look fantastic, happy and at ease!

Thank you for the tip about the A/C; I haven't been to New Orleans.

Hotels and offices in the few cities in Texas where I've spent time all seem to have A/C that's cold enough, but very moldy. So you can cool off, if you don't mind increasing the already noteworthy smell and feeling of a thick new round of mold spores. That might just be my luck with buildings, though!

anne

Veteran

It's funny you should mention A/C because I've been thinking about it too.

It's winter here in Australia, and last night was very cold by our standards. At church last night (unheated room, open door) I doubt I it was much warmer than the 9 (48 F) degrees it was outdoors. I felt freezing even though I was wearing leggings under jeans, a sweater and a wool coat.

I mentioned how cold it was to the guy next to me, a young student from Malaysia. He said that in Malaysia the A/C is often this cold and he was quite comfortable! If that's true, what waste of energy.

cindysmith

Veteran

I always thought the a/c was just right in NOLA, but I'm weird. My COPD means heat/humidity are brutal, but my anemia means I run cold (so basically, I'm worse than Goldilocks LOL). I rarely felt too warm inside a building in NOLA in summer, perhaps because growing up in the American south warped my sense of hot and cold? Like, I don't generally wear shorts in summer until the temperature (or at least the heat index) hits 100F because otherwise they don't feel cool enough when it does.

JAileen

Veteran

I used to live in SE Texas, only about ten blocks from Louisiana. The climate there was very humid and very hot (95F and 95 percent humidity in the summer). I wanted the AC on full blast at all times. But I noticed a very strange phenom: many people there preferred to have the windows of their cars open rather than have the AC on.

We went to istanbul twice, since our son lived outside Tbilisi, in Georgia, and later lived in Istanbul itself. Our trips to Turkey were among our best trips ever. I am heartbroken that it's not safe anymore.

Echo

Veteran

cindysmith, I have actually always wondered whether where a person grows up affects their perception of hot and cold. For example, DH and I honeymooned in NOLA in February (our anniversary trip had to wait until summer break, as I teach), and we thought it was comfortably warm. We wore sleeveless tops and shorts, but native New Oleanians wore pants and even jackets. I realize the joke in the midwest that when temperatures reach 45, the kids wear shorts to school, but I don't mean that. I mean temperatures in the 70 F degree + range. Additionally, I rarely see people who are native to a warm climate perspire the way I do. I LOVE tropical places and I love the southern US, but I do not deal well with heat; I wish there was a way for me to change that.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I think the climate we become most used to (whether by growing up there or simply living there for a long time) does influence our perception of heat and cold. It also teaches us how to dress, which if we don't adjust, might also contribute to different levels of tolerance for new-to-us extremes.

Metabolism also plays a role. Thin or older people tend to run colder, larger or younger people tend to run warmer. I used to wilt horribly in heat and humidity, but with every passing year I find I enjoy or at least tolerate it more.

Someone on another thread recently mentioned that AC didn't tend to be as arctic any more -- I wonder if she was a LA person? Maybe!

Humidity is another important feature. When I go to the mountains, my skin feels absolutely parched. (Hair, too -- and the wave disappears). Meanwhile, my west coast friends feel equally parched when they come to my place, in eastern Ontario...at least in winter. In the summer, they can't breathe because it is too humid for them. But we do acclimatize after a while.

As for wearing shorts etc. in temps that others consider too cool for those light clothes, we're the pros at that in Canada. Apparently the Snow Birds and March break students make native Floridans shake their heads in wonder.

Those are terrific photos and it looks like a really fun trip!

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

(website)

Veteran

Okay, I have to laugh - I know your lady-pirate! She is Renea' Le Roux, and I took burlesque classes from her back in 2008 or 2009, when she still lived in Atlanta. Wonderful woman!

Regarding the A/C... I grew up in Florida, and there really wasn't frigid air-conditioning, until the late 1980s, when I was in high school. It was insane, having to wear sweaters to class in May. By that point, there seemed to be an increasing influx of people who had moved down from up north, and there was this demand for ice-cold A/C.

I don't care for it, myself. If you are in and out of frigid AC, you never acclimatize to the heat.

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

It's been many years since I've been to NOLA, but funny I actually remember the same thing with the AC never really being very cool. But I felt the same way in Portland, OR when we went in summer.

Anonymous

That is lovely that you returned to your honeymoon destination. What a great way to celebrate. Your pictures are terrific. And what are the odds that LBD would know your pirate?!?
I love N'awlins, but never visited between April-October, so can't comment on evolution of AC usage there.
I live in a different - and much less fun! - warm place, and really don't encounter refrigerated air here anymore. I used to always take a sweater to restaurants and theaters, but don't bother with that these days. My AC maintenance guy says it's due to the switch to more environmentally safe refrigerant, design of new energy efficient systems, and variable electricity pricing (the more you use, the higher the rate you pay.). My husband points out that men in offices are more open to slightly warmer temps now that they go business casual, or at least tie-less and jacketless even in business formal environments these days.

Echo

Veteran

LBD, that's amazing! I looked her up, and she has a substantial online presence, too. I only met her for a moment (and tipped them handsomely, as is expected when one takes photos with someone), but she seemed like a wonderful person. The man she was with (evidently her husband, Mannifred) was hilarious, although a bit more risque in his language (there was commentary on my necklace, for example). Thank you for letting me know!

rachylou

Veteran

My dad was from the West Indies. I guess it's hot and humid, but nothing like Miami hot and humid, where you have to swim down the street when walking, hehe.

Anyways, I remember when they first put in a/c in the house. I didn't like it at all. Too cold and noisy and you had to close the windows, of course - made me feel claustrophobic. But for some reason, I like it now. In Arizona, which got up to 125F, I think that's when I started my puffy rep... you could develop frostbite at the mall. Hated it. I think I used the a/c in the apartment, but not all the time. Turned it off at night to sleep.

Runcarla

Veteran

Bring on the heat! My kids laugh that I am the only person outside in 30 deg temps wearing a hoodie! The cold and A/C kills me.

I experienced the opposite of your NOLA experience in the UK, where it was cold indoors but no heat! I would take a warm bath at night and wear socks to bed. In Scotland I broke down and asked our hosts if I could have some heat in our room!

For some reason our home thermostat is set in Fahrenheit (Canada has gone Metric) - at 78 deg.

AviaMariah

Veteran

Well that sounds heavenly to me. Here in the PNW people don't think it's cool enough inside unless the A/C is set to 65. I despise it! I like to keep my house at about 80 if it's 90+ outside. Just a little cooler but still warm!! (DH does not agree with me on this by the way!)

Barbara Diane

Veteran

Thankfully A/C here is nowhere near as cold as it used to be. On the other hand most homes here don't have A/C and there are definitely more hot days than there used to be. Our house reached 89 degrees inside two weeks ago. But it is dry heat, which makes it much more tolerable, especially compared to the weather in Japan where I spent a school year.
I do handle heat better now than when I was younger.

Echo

Veteran

We installed a new furnace several years ago, and I remember DH saying that we would wait to put in central air and do it in another two years. I am normally all for waiting and saving up for things, but I had to put my foot down there. He does not run warm and I do; I always have, despite me not having been a "larger" person for most of my life (I am carrying more weight right now than what I am comfortable with). I told him that we had to have central air installed at the same time, because if we waited he would balk at how much the cost had gone up in the time we had waited and we wouldn't have it installed later.

I am SO GLAD I insisted. It is the best thing we've ever done for our home, IMO. We live in the midwest, but we have been having more record high temperature days every year than we used to. Our heat is normally humid and sticky, too. I keep things "arctic cold" in the house most of the time (temperature is usually set to 68, regardless of season, except it goes lower at night during the winter). DH and I have thermostat wars where we sneak behind each other's backs and adjust the temperature up or down. I tease him that it costs less to cool the house 20 degrees than to heat it 60 degrees!

Regardless, I am sure that us having central air is doing nothing to help me adjust to warmer temperatures!

anne

Veteran

Echo that is funny! We have little battles over temperature too (although it was me who asked if we could get the heater out to the family room for winter). DH likes to set it to 24 and I'm always lowering it to 20 or turning it off. I subscribe to "are you wearing a jumper?" theory of warmth - no heater unless you are wearing a jumper (sweater) and have your feet covered and are still cold. Of course we'd need it if we lived in the midwest - but many people we are in contact in here don't have the heater on in their houses at all - probably because they are students and being economical.

elpgal

Veteran

When my husband's relatives from India visit us, they want the AC to be kept at 80!! I dread their visits, to be honest. We had a summer storm a few years with power outages that lasted days and the only person who was happy as a clam was my husband who claims the hot weather energizes him and helps him sleep better.