Fans

A warm season story

       My first time in Okinawa, Japan, one (circa 1973)  could not buy an air conditioner even if I or the locals could afford it. They simply were not sold there at the time. This sales idea applied to all of us, rich or poor;  Americans or Japanese.

            Now that land is semi-tropical, like it gets hot and humid during the warm season. I know because I lived there.

            So we used fans, like a lot of them in various schemes that pleased us. We could even sleep well by most of our "schemes". And fans take a whole lot less electricity to work than any air conditioner, by the present day American standard. I suspect the standards where worse in 1972.

            In addition, we had day on day off water, but that is another story.

            Now fast forward to 2013.

            Our USA ancestors were also smart about being hot. Right now I inherited two cottages that date back over a century.  One has 10 foot ceilings, and the other one has 12 foot ceilings. The idea was to use the natural breezes and the high ceilings to tamp down the bad effects of high heat in our houses. And that idea still works pretty good,  for me. Now I do like the benefits of fans, too. The combination is pleasing to me these days.

            So if you live in today's traditional eight foot ceiling urban dwelling in some kind of apartment,  consider opening the windows and scrounging some fans, and going from there. Times won't be easy, but one might even survive OK.  The reward will come for sure during the cold season, but that is another story, too.