Frugal and Energy Efficient Living

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]My apartment has a built-in a/c unit. With daytime temps hovering around 100 degrees outside these days, I keep it on fan only--but that fan has been on 24/7 since I moved in less than 3 months ago.

Fortunately, I'm on the shady side of the building, with most direct sun blocked by the building next door. With the fan on, it rarely goes over 85 degrees inside and the humidity is generally less than 30%. As long as the air is moving, I'm fine. The apartments on the other side of the building get as high as 110 degrees during the day, I'm told, so I guess the people there have to use their a/c at least sometimes.

Building techniques to keep buildings cool naturally are not widely used anymore, which is a major part of the problem. Air conditioning is overall a bad thing for the planet, though actually essential to life for some people with health problems. I did see an article not long ago about a guy who rigged up a solar panel to power his a/c, which I thought was pretty brilliant; unfortunately, that's not how most a/c is powered.