air conditioning

[bluesqueak]

Lynda wrote: 
>   Silly question, this, but it bothers me.  If the houses on 
>  Privet Drive are  so "nice" and the owners so "particular," why 
>  do they have their windows open  on a hot day?  Don't houses like 
> that have air conditioning? My curiosity is running amuck here --  
> any Brits care to answer my queries?  
>   Thanks!  ;->
> 
Michelle:
>   Since our summer lasts almost exactly two weeks, followed by 
constant rain, our houses are never vuilt with air con. And if there 
is a heatwave, all the fans sell like hotcakes. 
> 
>   So we just tend to be English and open windows and suffer in 
silence.....

Yup. Offices have air-conditioning, because of the risk of the 
entire computing system melting in summer. Private houses usually 
don't - as Michelle says, it's not cost effective for the two weeks 
of sweltering heat that we get. 


Of course, the two weeks are not the *same* two weeks every year. 
Summer can consist of two weeks worth of good days, spread out 
between June and September. In between the good days it rains. Or 
worse. In living memory, it has snowed in June.

So we don't believe in air conditioning. The modern Brit does tend 
to believe in Central Heating, though. Very firmly. ;-)

Pip