This is a bit of an old article, but it’s still being discussed every now and then:
Mamdani gets roasted after telling sweltering New Yorkers to set ACs to 78 degrees: ‘Commie’
New York City’s socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani sparked viral outrage on Thursday when he responded to a heat wave affecting the city by instructing residents how to set their air conditioners.
The blowback came as New York City expanded emergency heat measures during a historic holiday weekend heat wave, with officials warning temperatures could feel as hot as 112 degrees.
Seriously? Asking people to to help prudently manage a public good (the power grid) is a problem?!
Especially when the advice under discussion has been around for years? It does no good to try and pretend otherwise. Deleting the advice off of websites now isn’t going to change how long it was up there.
We don’t live on isolated islands; we live in a society. The power grid provides power to all subscribers. It is a shared resource. Asking people to share that resource is hardly communism — and even if it was, it’d still be a valid request. The only people who make their own electrical power are those who live off the grid.
“Welcome to socialism, where the government demands you turn your house into a sauna because they can’t plan for the super unpredictable fact that it tends to get hot in the summer,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, posted on X.
If Representative Gill hasn’t noticed that Texas is becoming hotter and drier, it’s because he’s intentionally not paying attention.
In addition, air conditioners are generally designed to cool the indoor areas by a max of about 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, while also removing humidity. If the outdoor temperature is 112 degrees, an air conditioner set to 78 is already being asked to do twice its designed load.
The reason most home HVAC systems aren’t stronger is because, when the technology first came out, such strength wasn’t necessary. Hundred-degree heat waves were the exception, not the rule. Or, in other words, except for a few unusual circumstances, there was no need for a system to handle extreme heat. That’s not the case anymore, and that fact is true no matter how people set their air conditioning.
That’s not politics, folks; that’s science and history.
“Show us your thermostat, commie,” reality TV star and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt posted on X.
My Thermostat: 77 Degrees
For the record: I don’t have it here out of concern for the environment or the power grid. I have it set here out of concern for my power bill. This just happens to be a situation where my personal interests, and those of my larger community, coincide.
Also for the record: I’m perfectly comfortable here. Of course, I live in an older, decently-insulated house; I keep ceiling fans on and blinds closed; and, well, I don’t feel the need to live in a refrigerator anyway. So my thermostat is on 77°, and that’s where I intend to keep it.
My HVAC system will be defeated if the external temperature goes above 95° for more than four hours. But so far this year, the highest temperature I’ve seen in the house is 80°. The official exterior temperature at the time was 106°. Given that my 1910s-era farmhouse has a 2010s-era metal roof, the hyper-local temperature was probably higher.
At 80°, I’m a little uncomfortable, but things are nowhere near intolerable. In addition, the house drops back down within 60-90 minutes of sunset. I can make it through that long. And remember, not all houses in Eastern NC have air conditioning. In fact, I didn’t live in a house with central A/C until I was sixteen. I survived summers just fine.
The question I have for Mamdani’s detractors is simple, then: why can’t you?