Another general cause is that most of the current houses are built stupid. In the 1940's and 1950's houses were built that were quite habitable without constant airconditioning. They had basement
My condo is quite habitable without air conditioning. It's got an air conditioner on the lower floor we've never turned on (stupid location - if it were in the upstairs bedroom we'd use it a couple nights a year.) High ceilings. Electric heat. I'm spending far more to heat the place in a Silicon Valley winter, with temperatures seldom below 10C and almost never below 5C, than I ever spent in New Jersey, where they have real winters (not real snowy winters, but below freezing for a few months.) It was built back in the 70s, when we should have stopped pretending that electricity was too cheap to meter. Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639