To clarify, I was thinking more about the overall effect of the weather on people. You are not indoors all the time, nor can you cover every square inch of your body with warm clothing. At least from my point of view, being outdoors in 20F wind in a winter coat is worse than 85F in shorts + t-shirt. I’m not disputing that air conditioning is more technologically complex than a fireplace, I just don’t think it’s a major factor.
I think it is a pretty major factor. 20 F is not that common, and much easier to work around than 100 F, which is approximately as common. Both are pretty terrible outdoors; 20 F often comes with some benefits that make it worth suffering through, most of which involve snow, and 100 F doesn’t AFAIK, but that’s a minor detail. And you’re correct that the difficulty of dressing for the weather is not obviously tied to the difficulty of controlling an indoor environment; I think there’s a weak correlation there, but it could just be noise.
It’s only inside that you can really work around either extreme enough to be comfortable. And how hard that is differs greatly due to the different underlying complexities of the problems.
To clarify, I was thinking more about the overall effect of the weather on people. You are not indoors all the time, nor can you cover every square inch of your body with warm clothing. At least from my point of view, being outdoors in 20F wind in a winter coat is worse than 85F in shorts + t-shirt. I’m not disputing that air conditioning is more technologically complex than a fireplace, I just don’t think it’s a major factor.
I think it is a pretty major factor. 20 F is not that common, and much easier to work around than 100 F, which is approximately as common. Both are pretty terrible outdoors; 20 F often comes with some benefits that make it worth suffering through, most of which involve snow, and 100 F doesn’t AFAIK, but that’s a minor detail. And you’re correct that the difficulty of dressing for the weather is not obviously tied to the difficulty of controlling an indoor environment; I think there’s a weak correlation there, but it could just be noise.
It’s only inside that you can really work around either extreme enough to be comfortable. And how hard that is differs greatly due to the different underlying complexities of the problems.