I don't know if this is even worth blogging but I thought I should at least find out if it is really common to Americans or that it is just unique to my kwai poh guest. My guest is an American from Dallas, Texas. Today, she told me that it is a pretty common practice to have the a/c (air conditioner) switched on 24 hours a day. When nobody's home, for example, during the day time, the temperature of the a/c is set to a higher level so that it does not need to cool the place too much - yet the fact is that the a/c is still switched on and therefore is a waste of precious electricity. And oh, they have centralized a/c-cum-heater in the house, so you can imagine how much of electricity is being wasted even as I am typing now.
You see, in Malaysia, a tropical country where it is generally hot and humid, people don't switch on a/c for 24-hours! We usually switch it on at night when we wanted a more comfortable sleep. In fact, most of us were brought up with the habit of switching off room lights if there's no one in the room. And here, we have Miss American telling me that even when there's no one at home, her centralized a/c is still running, cooling the whole house, not just rooms, albeit at a higher temperature.
Sacriligeous!
You see, in Malaysia, a tropical country where it is generally hot and humid, people don't switch on a/c for 24-hours! We usually switch it on at night when we wanted a more comfortable sleep. In fact, most of us were brought up with the habit of switching off room lights if there's no one in the room. And here, we have Miss American telling me that even when there's no one at home, her centralized a/c is still running, cooling the whole house, not just rooms, albeit at a higher temperature.
Sacriligeous!
I totally agree with you that that is a waste of resource and I strongly against it. The American keep saying that we Asia people did not protect the forest, we pollute the environment etc etc. What about them? How much resource they wasted by turning on the AC 24 hours.
ReplyDeleteDo we have to guess who is the biggest contributor to the green-house effect?! We all know, but not THEM!
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against Americans but sometimes their ignorance is really beyond my belief. They are smart people yet they can be so freaking ignorant at times. And rotitelur is right - they like to point their fingers at other people when they are the greatest contributor to green house effect and ozone depletion. Grr...
ReplyDeleteDude, I practised our way here - I tak switched on A/C when go to work. At night also - cool here,so I open window ingat fresh air - sometimes betul2 cold enuf. OK, now cuaca getting HOT HOT HOT. This week, whenever I balik apt - I walked into an oven - HOT. Then when I switched on A/C - geee - initially tot their system weird - it just took long long time to cool down the apt (sometimes I nak tidur still HOT). So I went asked around as well, and all my friends said it is cheaper to have the A/C running most of the time - they tested - they said ON and OFF - their compressor no good wor ....hmmm, back home, whenever we want - our split unit A/C works great - sekejap aje sudah SEJUK, kan ....conclusion, I think places in USA which is super duper HOT - it is the practise to have A/C ON - things work differently - I doubt they are wasting energy lah - ...they have their own way of doing it differently :)
ReplyDelete