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‘It’s unbearable’: in ever-hotter US cities, air conditioning is no longer enough
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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No lie. For 6 days straight it was at or over 105 F outside. My air could barely keep the indoors at 80 F and my bill was 600 for the month of high heat. I have insulation and attic vents and all that.... It's just so hot outside you can't stand it.
Where are you?
At home, where are you?
I'm also at your home.
You're pretty hot.
If your electricity was $600 then you gotta live in Texas. Anyway you could add a window AC unit if your electricity bill was more normal. Increasing capacity can compensate for higher temperature, as can dehumidifying and improving air circulation.
But building better insulated structures and installing better windows are cheaper in the long run. Unfortunately there are a lot of older buildings, especially apartments, that'll never bother with it. Older homes need moderate renovation to do so also. And since the mean income for Americans is around 40k, that's a really tall order.
The fact is, the government would need to seriously subsidize a national overhaul, but seeing all the other things they should pay for but don't (or under pay for). As for new construction, laws requiring higher standards are fought tooth and claw by the construction industry, vary state by state, and raise the price even more than the unreasonably high cost homes already have. I think most of us will just have to accept that we're screwed unless something drastically changes.
In places with high electricity bills, go solar!
If people can’t afford the home modifications in the above comment, how are they supposed to pay for the solar installation?
What I'm getting at is this isn't a technological problem, it's an economic one. People can't afford to cope with the heat. The framing of the article is off.
There are tax credits now for weatherization, and I think more coming next year depending on your state.
https://homes.rewiringamerica.org/calculator
Aren’t tax credits only useful at tax filing time? You still have to be able to pay the up front costs, right?
That is correct. People will typically get loans for larger purchases like solar panels so that they don't need to pay everything upfront, but for smaller purchases like maybe $1,000 a loan isn't really worth it, and you'll need funds set aside to pay the contractor now and expect to see the money back when you file.
Also worth checking state/local incentives. In my state our gas company has weatherization rebates. They did air sealing and added insulation to our attic (up to a certain R value) all for free - they billed it directly to the gas company. When they were out here, I paid for a bit of extra insulation because I thought we needed it, but the base amount was completely free.