Why I Hate Air Conditioning

As the temperature outside climbs, one writer's rant heats up.

I hate to sweat, really. But I'd rather sit on the couch with a cold compress draped around the back of my neck than turn on one of the four perfectly fine air conditioners in my house. My friends think I'm a martyr. My kids can't understand why everyone except us has the air conditioners running when it's 75 degrees outside.

That's a cold spell to me.

The truth is that I hate the artificial feeling and stale smell of air-conditioned air. I'm always chilled to the bone, even when air conditioning is on its lowest setting. It also makes me feel closed off from the world -- I like hearing the birds chirping and a breeze rustling through the trees. And let's not forget how much money air conditioning costs to run. You might have guessed -- I'm a frugal Yankee. (If you'd like to see how much wattage per hour a typical central air unit uses, log onto "Ask Mr. Electricity" for a shocker.)

Geography has no doubt affected my anti-air conditioning stance. I grew up in the Northeast and lived in mostly older, drafty New England houses without central air or window units. Instead, my mother, like most of my friends' mothers, insisted on opening the windows for cross ventilation in the summer. To this day, I still think that there is nothing more refreshing than a cool breeze coming through an open window as I sleep under a slightly sticky top sheet on a humid night. Had I grown up in, say, Arizona, things might be different.

There was a time, however, that I relied on air conditioning. When I lived in New York City, where summer air is stale and still, I turned on an outdated unit to stay cool. When I finally moved out of the city to my first house, I slept with the air conditioning on in the bedroom to drown out the ongoing traffic noise from the nearby highway. But I froze every night and had a perpetual headache from the din of the air conditioner. To this day, I associate the sound of a running air conditioner with the Long Island Expressway, which isn't a pleasant memory. All I wanted was peace and quiet and cross ventilation.

Now that I have my own slightly drafty New England home, I'm still not interested in air conditioning. We never installed central air -- and I keep those windows open all summer long. I only put on the window units when I absolutely have to, those few nights in the summer when the air is so thick that it's hard to breathe. Or maybe I'll turn it on if I need to drown out the noise of a neighbor's outdoor party. If I need to get dressed up on a hot and humid day, I simply dress in front of a fan. Luckily, my husband feels the same. And we're not alone in our sentiments. There's even a fledgling Facebook group called "I HATE Air Conditioning." There, you will meet over a hundred other anti-air conditioning activists who gripe about air-conditioning induced chills.

To those who cannot live without air conditioning, my husband and I are extremists. One friend, who cranks her air on 80-degree days, scolded me for not putting on mine -- but it was May! While visiting family in Texas, my husband and I insisted on reading the paper outside in 100-degree heat on the otherwise unused patio, much to the horror of everyone watching us from inside the house. They were trying to escape the heat, but for us it felt good to escape the cold of the indoors.

My kids have tried to turn on the air conditioning without me knowing. I make it difficult for them, however, by keeping wall units in their rooms that might be considered antiques. The control knobs on the units are so dated that they're confusing and my kids will ultimately give up and turn to their easy-to-use trusty fan boxes. If they complain, I tell them to lay still to reduce the heat created by friction on the sheets. (Try it! Even my kids admit that it really does work.)

This is how we survive summer: We eat cold fruits and salads on our screened-in porch. I throw my humidity-touched hair into a bun. And when I need to cool off, I do it the old-fashioned way: a dip in a pool, a cool shower, a walk on the beach, relaxing in a shady spot. I'll drink an ice cold glass of lemonade, avoid baking in August and, yes, apply an ice pack to my neck.

I look forward to summer all year long -- Why would I hide from it once it arrives?