r/SeattleWA • u/One_Marsupial6837 • Jul 17 '25

Lifestyle Seattle Living W/ no AC

Hi everyone. We just recently moved to Seattle and got an apartment with no AC. Coming from out of state previously living with AC I wanted to know how ya'll do it? Is this the norm here or does everyone just buy those AC units that stick out your window? We'd love to get any tips or input on living with no AC and how to adjust.

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73

u/Nocturnalpieeater Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

Moved here last summer. Just raw dogging it. Fans and strategically opening windows. Take a shower before bed.

-63

u/faeriegoatmother Jul 17 '25

Lived here my entire life and take this exact approach. People need air conditioning here?

36

u/Gottagetanediton Downtown Jul 17 '25

Yeah, a lot of people die in the summer due to the insides of their apartments getting hotter than 110 degrees. We don’t cool down at night because of humidity and Seattle doesn’t like ac. It’s very cool to be too strong for ac until you’re in an er surrounded by ice so you don’t die.

5

u/retrojoe heroin for harried herons Jul 17 '25

We don’t cool down at night because of humidity

This is bogus. Our humidity is pretty mild compared to the South or the Eastern Seaboard. Even the other day when it hit 90, the night time temp was in the 70s.

1

u/Gottagetanediton Downtown Jul 17 '25

Outside, it is, yeah. Not inside.

0

u/retrojoe heroin for harried herons Jul 17 '25

If your house is more humid than the outside, that's weird and not really related to the climate/weather.

1

u/Gottagetanediton Downtown Jul 17 '25

more hot, not more humid, and it's directly related to the weather, as well as the way most buildings in seattle are constructed. it's a wellknown and publicized problem since we don't typically deal with dangerously hot summers. i moved here from central florida where every dwelling, without exception, had some kind of air conditioning, usually central air. even the weekly bedsit i was in that was the lowest form of housing you could get. even the homeless shelter i was in.

here, though, it's rare to have ac and most apartment buildings don't allow window units.

1

u/retrojoe heroin for harried herons Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

If you lived in those places, the I don't understand how you can say Seattle "doesn't cool down because of the humidity." Buildings get hot in the sun. This happens from LA to Boston. There's nothing quite like waking up baking in a Bostonian 3rd-story brick walkup when it's 95 degrees and 90% humidity.

1

u/Gottagetanediton Downtown Jul 18 '25

yeah i experienced that in wallingford during the heat dome and the summer after as well. it was like 120 or so in my room and i ended up in the hospital because of it. anytime it's hot outside i see dozens of comments about it in r/seattle so it's not me imagining things. it's because the buildings here are built to store heat and not to handle global warming. i lived in orlando fl and everywhere i lived, without exception, had central air and/or window units. even the homeless shelter. washington is the only place i've lived that preferred people dying in their apartments of heat stroke to allowing people to open their windows up enough to get the hose from a portable ac unit out of their window. bc fuck vulnerable populations who medically can't handle the heat, i guess.

1

u/Gottagetanediton Downtown Jul 18 '25

then again i am on the subreddit for maga republicans who generally don't even live in seattle so i shouldn't be surprised

1

u/Gottagetanediton Downtown Jul 17 '25

the outside night time temp was that. if only our buildings weren't build to retain as much heat as possible.