Things we take for granted

Now this is a pretty broad topic but the main thing i was thinking of when i wrote this title was air conditioning. I grew up in a country where air conditioning was a necessity. There was not a single building that was not air conditioned whether it was central, ducted or units. In a desert climate where temperatures rise to 48 degrees celcius in the summer, A/C was a must. Especially when winter took up a third of the year with the rest of the year being a warm - hot summer. A/C was switched on 2/3 of the year where i grew up. It was only when i moved to a different climate where winters were cold, autumns were cool and summers were hot (but not as hot as the UAE) and where A/C was a luxury and thus not available everywhere, that i realised how much i had taken air conditioners for granted. With the climate changing drastically around the world, i've found that temperatures are rising higher and higher in summer over here. A city where A/C was a luxury, i believe, is slowly turning into a city that will need A/C as a necessity in a few years time.

We just moved into our newly purchased home and i am trying hard to be environmentally friendly. Its very hard! I try to save water as much as possible and i try to recycle and we deliberately put insulation in our roof cavity to regulate the temperature inside the house. Recently we had temperatures of 35 degrees celcius which by desert standards is not bad. Thanks to the insulation, the house remained cool-ish inside, but still hot and stuffy, even with all the windows open! Now we are looking at ducted air conditioning. I know i know, the energy we waste etc etc. the electricity bills... but i see no other way out. Fans are useless in the heat considering it circulates hot air around the house. There was recently an incident with portable a/c units where it blew a circuit and burnt the house down. So that was not an option (and in any case, we have old wndows that wouldn't work with the portables) We had a split unit but that also fizzled out (on the hottest day ever - see next paragraph)

Before we got the insulation, we had the hottest day ever at 41 degrees celcius (That was teh day our existing split unit fizzled out). What a nightmare. I was so desperate for some coolness, that apart from having cold showers to cool me down at regular intervals (at night by the way not even during the day) i resorted to melting ice on my bed so i could lie down on cool sheets. Now if thats not desperate i don't know what is. At least during the day i could have gone to an air conditioned mall and spent the day at a cafe drinking iced chocolates and fruit juices. With all the windows wide open and the air so still, you would not believe my joy when i was woken up in the middle of the night with gale force winds banging our blinds on the window sill. It was heavenly. I stood in front of the window and let the air wash over me. What a relief.

So i survived a 41 degree day without A/C or insulation but to be honest, i do not EVER want to do that again. EVER. EVER. EVER!

So all you people out there with A/C. Appreciate it. Bigtime!