“Air conditioning. … It changed the nature of civilization by making development possible in the tropics.
Without air conditioning you can work only in the cool early-morning hours or at dusk. The first thing I did upon becoming prime minister was to install air conditioners in buildings where the civil service worked. This was key to public efficiency.”
I love this video, and similar by NightHawkInLight,[0] but (as they would agree) it's not a commercial product just yet.
For a while I've thought the first thing to coat with a fancy "Free AC" paint should be... the AC! For most sky-cooling rigs the main cost is pipes or panels on the roof to move heat from inside to outside, but AC is already moving heat. AC units operate at a higher temperature, so it should emit more IR radiation as T^4 (meaning a small increase makes a big difference). Most AC has a pretty good sky view, but maybe not as ideal as the roof.
It seems ironic to use "No AC" paint on your AC, but the physics and economics doesn't lie. Per square inch it's probably the most effective place!
As someone who grew up in a tropical country and has moved to a temperate one, this rings very true.
It is significantly easier to walk in 20C, 50% humidity than to walk the same distance in 28C, 100% humidity. You get lethargic really quickly in a hot humid area.
Every physical action just feels easier in a temperate climate than in a tropical one. Which is why air-conditioning is such a big deal - it lets you get temperate conditions in a tropical location.
(I'm not saying that those are a Mafia hallmark, but I do wonder whether the robes would make sense in Brazil. As far as I'm aware they are the gold standard of heat-adapted clothing. They probably don't do much about humidity.)
How do we square this with what happened when imperialist people went into areas with much hotter weather to establish colonies? Were the colonists less efficient back then when air conditioning didn't exist yet? Or could it be that these area weren't as hot in earlier centuries as they are today? Also, what are the implications for countries with imperialist pasts that are getting hotter due to climate change?
Thank you for sharing this article. I had never learned of this type of fan before, but I always wondered about how the people from Europe who weren't used to the heat would have coped with it, especially with how in recent times there has been news coverage about heat domes and infrastructure that might have been designed for a different climate.
