Having lived for 30 years in SE Asia, with temps in the mid-forties C during the hot season (which will start very soon) we seldom turn on the aircon for more than 1-2 hours at the most at night, and then only in the bedroom.
This works if you have good fans and a lot of icewater. Using aircons too much ends up making you sick, going in and out of the heat. In Thailand we had two golden retrievers who had their own fans in the coolest parts of the house, they would sleep through the heat and then be very active in the early morning and evening.
It should also be mentioned that we are far enough south that the length of day and night doesn't change that much over the year -- the night is always long enough for radiational cooling to do it's job. That is not the case in places like New York or Boston where the nights are so short in August that it never cools down. It's always comfortable in the morning here before the mid-morning heat hits.
Contrast this with visiting hot parts of the United States where you go from your airconditioned house to your airconditioned car to your airconditioned big box store to your air conditioned office. That's a terrible way to live.
Comments
Having lived for 30 years in SE Asia, with temps in the mid-forties C during the hot season (which will start very soon) we seldom turn on the aircon for more than 1-2 hours at the most at night, and then only in the bedroom.
This works if you have good fans and a lot of icewater. Using aircons too much ends up making you sick, going in and out of the heat. In Thailand we had two golden retrievers who had their own fans in the coolest parts of the house, they would sleep through the heat and then be very active in the early morning and evening.
It should also be mentioned that we are far enough south that the length of day and night doesn't change that much over the year -- the night is always long enough for radiational cooling to do it's job. That is not the case in places like New York or Boston where the nights are so short in August that it never cools down. It's always comfortable in the morning here before the mid-morning heat hits.
Contrast this with visiting hot parts of the United States where you go from your airconditioned house to your airconditioned car to your airconditioned big box store to your air conditioned office. That's a terrible way to live.