Do most people in your neighbourhood have air conditioning at home?

31 comments

1. Yeah, 90% seems right. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have AC. Not everyone can afford to use it all the time, but everyone I know HAS it.

2. It’s pretty much universal here in Houston

3. The Midwest is commonly over 40C in the summer. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone without air conditioning in their home. It would be unbearable.

4. I’ve never been in an American house that lacked air conditioning.

5. In MA most older homes have window units for a few rooms (maybe the bedrooms and a living room with a door that can close). I have central AC and that’s more typical for newer homes here.

   When I was growing up we had ONE AC window unit and it was in my mom’s bedroom. I slept on the floor in there when it was super hot.

6. Suburb, close to the center of the country– pop ~25K:

   Except for tiny duplexes and apartments, almost everyone has AC.

7. When I was a kid in the 80s in Iowa we didn’t have air conditioning, but we were in the minority then and it would be even more unusual now. I’m sure all the homes in my current area have air conditioning.

8. no. I don’t have it and I’d guess neither do most people around here. (I do know people who have it but it’s definitely not everyone, maybe like 50%?) I’m in northern California. We have a real big natural air conditioner here called the Pacific Ocean. The closer you are to the water, the milder the weather is.

   edit: when I lived in Chicago I didn’t have it and honestly it didn’t occur to me to get a window unit, just because I’d never had AC before, lol. But it was pretty miserable on occasion, especially at night. In California it cools down at night so you can sleep comfortably but in the Midwest summer nights are a real trial.

9. In NJ everyone I know has AC. Lots of people in older buildings have window units that are put in for the summer.

   When I lived in Western North Carolina, there were some who went without AC and used fans in the summer. It didn’t really get hotter than 80°F though.

10. 90% sounds high if you’re counting central AC but seems reasonable if you’re counting any types of AC. Portable and window AC units aren’t very expensive and can be bought a lot of different places. Even when I was in Uni renting cheap old apartments with no built in AC we would all chip in $50 and get a window unit for the apartment.

    Here’s a portable unit for $250 that can easily handle a 20 square meter space for reference. This is something almost every Amercian can buy to avoid the heat even for just a few weeks in the summer.

    https://www.homedepot.com/b/Heating-Venting-Cooling-Air-Conditioners-Portable-Air-Conditioners/N-5yc1vZc4m4?mtc=SHOPPING-RM-RMP-GGL-D26P-026_052_HVAC-MB-PIONEER-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-MK687962200-NA-NBR-3386-NA-NA-NA&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-RM-RMP-GGL-D26P-026_052_HVAC-MB-PIONEER-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-MK687962200-NA-NBR-3386-NA-NA-NA-71700000113962101–&gclid=CjwKCAjw38SoBhB6EiwA8EQVLnBr_Dlzsd8UPr8Eiho7uuVKzg8uQFVkYoeBCTHP_nOgkY3Wu896cxoCIyAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

11. Yep. If not nice big ones on cement pads, multiple window ones.

12. It’s harder to find homes in New England with central air, but those without usually put in window units or even splurge for ductless.

13. I did live in a house that didn’t have air conditioning (at least not initially; we did get window AC units installed later).

    You’d be surprised at how hot it gets in the Northeast and Midwest. The average high summer temperature where I live is around 30C, but I remember a week several years ago where the high temperature was at least 40C every day.

    ETA: every place I’ve lived in other than the one mentioned above has had air conditioning already installed.

14. I live in the South, so the answer is a resounding yes.

15. Not in my neighborhood in Minneapolis. We installed a mini split not long after we moved in and I’m thankful for it! It isn’t uncommon in Minnesota, but older houses tend to not have it.

16. Most people do have air conditioning in the middle US states as it gets very hot in summer. Some of us don’t have central air units that cool the whole house but just window air conditioners that cool that room.

17. I don’t have AC and know very few people that have it. I’m in Puget Sound region of Washington.

18. Massachusetts: I live in a financially comfortable area now, and I bet most people have central air conditioning. I do.

    But where I grew up and my last home did not have central air, but we did have a window ac so we could cool off one room in case of some very hot humid weather. Some people make it the bedroom just to sleep easier but stick with the hot weather all day.

    It gets pretty hot here and we often don’t use our central AC, exact maybe once or twice each day.

    It will frequently be about 85-88 in the house — but it it’s very humid along with the heat, I will put it on for a bit to get some work done and because I don’t want my husband falling asleep at his desk.

    Only about half the schools have it and it can get to 90 degrees in the schools.

    But FYI – I am sure that 90% stat is a combo window unit and central air.

    I know many people with only a window air conditioning unit.

19. A lot of people have evaporative or “swamp coolers” in my area as well others with arid climates. You’ll find them all over the Desert Southwest. They are cheaper to run than traditional A/C.

20. Yes, even in southern Michigan summer temps are normally above 27°C, and temps as high as 35°C are not unusual. The humidity is also high thanks to the Great Lakes. The AC in my house is set at 24-25°C mainly to reduce humidity and keep the house from becoming a mildewy hotbox.

21. It’s hot and humid here in summer. It’s miserable without one so most have something. If not central then a window unit or two at least.

22. The only areas of the country you would regularly find people who don’t have AC are the north west coast and maybe some of the extreme north east coast.

    It’s not really optional in the Midwest. 90F(32C) is a normal summer day and temps up to 105f(41C) happen every summer.

    Even houses built without an AC tend to have window units. I’m 39 years old and the only house I’ve ever been in that didn’t have AC was my great grandparents. But it also didn’t have running water or electricity so that’s a whole other thing.

23. Yes. I don’t think I have EVER, in my entire life, been inside a US home without air conditioning. And I don’t live in the south either.

    It baffles me that AC is somehow a US thing and not as common as smartphones, at least in places that get hotter than 80F.

24. I’m in the Deep South. EVERYONE has air conditioning

25. Air conditioning is critical during Midwestern summers. Shit, most of my dad’s family have radiant cooling in the basement and live subterranean during the summer just to get a bit of relief. It would be unbearable without A/C, and many elderly and vulnerable people who die.

26. I live in Washington DC. It gets dangerously hot in the summer so yes, pretty much everyone I know have AC.

27. If you don’t have Air conditioning where I live, it’s an emergency.

    It’s almost October, and today it was a humid 90F/33C

28. In my area of Oregon it is uncommon for it to get that hot for that long, so central air is very uncommon. However, the heatwaves have been getting hotter and lasting longer; and the dramatic increase of wildfire smoke makes it harder to just open your window and air the place out. Therefore, this is really changing.

    Twenty years ago you would almost never encounter central air in a house; now it’s more or less expected in new construction.

    I live in a neighborhood of mainly 100 year old houses, and relatively few of them have been fixed up substantially, so I bet hardly anyone in my neighborhood has central air. We all just stick in a window unit or two.

29. It’s common enough that if I went to a persons house anywhere in the country and they didn’t have AC that would then become a talking point

    “What do you mean you don’t have AC???”

30. You would die without AC in Vegas.

31. I live in the Deep South. Air conditioning is a necessity. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have AC.