You may think it’s crazy, but growing up, air conditioner was a luxury to me and my family.
We had window air conditioner units in a couple of rooms, but we rarely used them to conserve electricity and money.
We often had to rely on simply opening windows and doors. We also had a few fans around the house, including ceiling fans. However, on some days this simply wasn’t enough to keep cool and you could only shed so much clothing before you start walking around naked! So, sometimes to beat the heat, we would go to places around town that we knew had air conditioners. There was a coffee shop and a couple restaurants that we liked. However, our favorite place to go to cool down was a local shopping mall that was very big and very well air conditioned. Although we did a lot of shopping in the various stores in the mall, to be honest, we would often go there and window shop and just spend as much time as possible in the air conditioning. Believe it or not, spending a day at the mall and spending the money on gas or a taxi fare to go to the mall ultimately ended up costing less money than running the air conditioner for that entire afternoon! Now that I live in a house that has central heating and air conditioning and I can afford the electricity bill every month, I am very grateful for it and never take it for granted.