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Comment by ajross | Hacker News Reader

> Moving from the Midwest, I can't believe how poorly insulated things are in CA. Our first apartment in Santa Monica had windows that didn't even seal properly when closed.

... yeah. Because it's in Santa Monica. Without even bothering to ask details about your personal temperature preference or the size or construction date of the homes, I can 100% guarantee you you're using less energy on climate control in SoCal than in "the midwest".

Trying to fix energy consumption by improving construction and code regulation in the major city least in need of climate control, like, worldwide is just a silly waste of resources.

LA is wasteful in many ways. But a city that sits at a 60-70F average basically year-round is just not in need of attention here.

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As someone who has lived in both So Cal and the Midwest, I can confirm this.

In So Cal, I didn't have A/C for 10+ years and rarely used the heater (a desktop computer can double as a heater haha).

In the midwest, the A/C or heater is on pretty much 24/7 because even when the temperatures look favorable, there is humidity.

> a desktop computer can double as a heater

Servers are so much better...

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/847/SC847BE1C4...

Indeed, a CPU is a space heater that can perform math, while incidentally also transmitting that math through space as a software-defined radio.

An Athlon XP was my space heater during my gap decade.

have you seen mining heaters ?

In my Pasadena place, we tried to turn on the heat once. Turned out the furnace had been busted for years.

They installed a furnace?

My apartment in Westwood last year had a heater but no AC, used the heater a grand total of zero times. Makes you wonder why they ever installed it in the first place...

To be fair, if it hits 50 around here people start installing snow chains and dying of hypothermia.

a heater, but not a/c, is part of the building code in LA.

my apartment has a heater and no a/c, but has a flow-through design that naturally keeps it cool in the summer. my heater and my portable a/c unit each get used about 2 weeks a year. the weather is really that great here.

Requiring a furnace is weird.

That's another reason why California's housing policy is so egregious. Ceteris paribus living in California is more environment-friendly than living in the Midwest, so it's a shame that local governments' policy severely limits new construction.

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