Welcome to the "It's So Hot, Waah!" Thread - Houston Edition
This is something I get a lot of shit for from friends, family, and co-workers so I figured this was a great topic of this forum of people who actually 'get it'. The topic of the weather is a natural thing for Any Human Ever to talk about. So beginning in May and ending in November here in Texas, it's typical to hear people subtly complaining about the weather quite frequently with, "it's so hot outside".
I wanted to bring up two important topics that I think embodies the Mustiachian Way quite well: First is Heat Adapting and the second, which is an effect of the first, is Low A/C Bills.
Heat AdaptionI can't find the article on it exactly in case someone wants to read further... but essentially your body, when exposed to the elements for a decent amount of time (a few days usually), begins to adapt to it's surroundings ever-so-slightly. This works for both hot and cold, but because "It's So Hot, Waah!" here in Houston (and most of the US) right now I thought we could talk about this.
Now, I work in an office environment 5 days a week, so I didn't think this experiment would work. But it did! And I think the key for me getting it to work was commuting by bicycle to work (35 minutes each way). As soon as I began biking, even 2-3 times a week only, I began to notice that I could stand much higher temperatures than many others around me.
Once I did that, I began by turning my A/C UP as high as I could tolerate it. We turned it completely off while we're gone at work and our house gets up to around 86F (30C). When I get home I usually turn it anywhere between 80 and 85, depending on what room of the house we're in, if we're cooking, and what we're doing. When we first began we were doing 79 to 80 and that was difficult and slightly uncomfortable.
Now we're sleeping with it at 83 pretty consistently! I consider this a huge win because this makes me less dependent upon A/C to be able to function in my every day life. Many people refrain from doing
absolutely anything when it's hotter than, say, 80F (26C) out. Now there's no excuses and I can carry on with my life, which is great!
The downside is that I'm now perpetually FREEZING at my office for most of the day. But I planned way ahead and I have a sweater I keep at work just for that reason. When visiting family or friends, we take note of how low their AC is just for for - the lowest we saw was an astounding 68F!! (20C).
Another thing to mention about the area I live in is the humidity. Really 80s and 90s aren't all that bad, but when the humidity is 80 to 100%, it makes the air thick. So after doing some reading, not only are we heat adapting but it appears we may be adapting a bit to the humidity, which is sweet, too!
I should emphasize here that I pay close attention to my hydration, I dress appropriately, and I stay in shaded areas when I can - I'm not reckless when it comes to getting sunburned.
A/C UsageAverage temperatures in Houston, TX, thanks to Wikipedia:
I never tend to think about the money first when making these decisions, but something I have noticed is that our electricity usage compared to last month is down quite a bit. I'm still not to $20 A/C bills like Triple M, but we're looking at a $60 bill here in July. It was $73 last month, which we considered our "transition" month. Previous years prices were $90-110. This is for a house built in 1935 that is terribly insulated, single pane windows, and is maybe 800 to 850 sq ft. Maybe a little more if you count the upstairs area. If we can drop that even lower, then I'll be happy. If not, I'm content with how things are going so far.
Saving potentially $30 to $40 a month is a sweet benefit to living a little more difficultly. I also subsequently am saving more by not utilizing my car nearly as much.
The Biggest Benefits of AllSo far, the biggest benefit of all is knowing that I can live without the AC. Something I do is to think about my ancestors that lived here in the South or the Caddos or Karankawa's (and other various Native American tribes of this area). None of them had AC, except the AC that's built into our bodies: sweat.
And that just makes us that much more appreciative of being in the AC when we are. Whether you call it Mustachian or Stoic, I think that by not focusing on the money and instead using this as a lesson in voluntary discomfort, makes decisions like these all the easier.
The last benefit is decreasing our consumption of electricity. I'm a closet environmentalist so this appeals greatly to me. To be fair, our electricity is already 100% solar, but I'd like to bet there's still some environmental impact of using less - and if there isn't then it's still a mental shift and win for us.
In conclusion (TLDR) We went from heavy AC reliant people to heat and humidity adapted folks. And while we are saving some money in the end, the physical and mental strength gained far outweighs all of that.
This experiment fit perfectly into my mantra of "Spend Less, Live More". Spending less on electricity. Spending less time indoors. And spending more time doing whatever it is I please, with no limiting factors because of the heat.
My next experiment is not using my dryer. The first test went quite well!