Despite how hot it is, landlords in Tennessee are not required to keep the air conditioning running.
In our changing climate, that probably comes as a surprise.
However, unless it’s in the lease, nothing in Tennessee’s Landlord-Tenant Act gives renters the right to air conditioning.
“I think it’s unfair. It’s inhumane to me because without air we can’t live and breathe,” said Anita Brown.
I think we got lazy with our designs once centralized air was mainstreamed. The house my father grew up in the 1950s was designed like you mentioned. It would only allow light through during certain times of year/day with its overhanges and louvers and it jad more windows which allow more air flow…now according to him it was still a miserable place to live during the 1950s Texas summers…
Modern houses with their insulated walls and double windows are better at withstanding summer than the ones I’ve lived in while my only solace for 85+ degree nights was a fan.
I’m all for demanding proper maintenance from landlords, even if it’s not on the lease. You visit a unit that has a thermostat on it, that’s advertising it has a working AC. It’s disingenuous from the landlord to claim the AC is decorative.
But claiming air conditioning is essential is utter horseshit.
Most of our houses have to stand up to the cold too (at least presently). Idk how much this affects what kind of designs are possible, but some brain roughage for ya.
Surprising keeping the cold out vs in doesn’t change much. You insulate the shit out of the building to minimize unwanted transfer from outside to inside.
The comments two and three levels up were about third-world tropical houses and old houses respectively, both designed to be habitable in hot climates without air conditioning. As such, they are/were designed exactly the opposite way: to maximize cross-ventilation instead.
What you really want these days would be a house that’s tightly insulated but also has lots of operable windows, a whole-house fan, and/or a design that facilitates stack effect ventilation so that it can use either cooling strategy when conditions are appropriate.