In my neck of the woods there were VERY few individual homes with AC when I was growing up. My Father and mother got it in a new house they built after I left home and that new home was NOT constructed the same way the old ones were (low ceilings, little to no thought given to air flow, etc.)
My Grandfather's house was a Texas style dog trot with 10' ceilings and a 10' wide hallway running right down the middle (The doors on both ends only opened to 6' but the passageway itself was 10' wide) On one side of the hallway were three bedrooms and a pantry (root cellar) no heat in any of those rooms. On the other side was the living room (Big potbellied stove there) dining room, and kitchen. In summer, those hallway doors were always wide open, 24/7 and I don't ever remember being hot in that house. Slept on top of the bed or out on the porch. The beds were all feather beds so staying warm in winter was easy. Close off the hallway and jump in bed with a quilt or two.
This old cabin is set up like in kind - Not the same style - but like in kind... For the land it exists in.
Dunno if I ever said it, but this place was originally just the living room - that was the whole cabin. Then they added on the kitchen and laundry/pantry, and finally, lastly, the two bedrooms and the bathroom out back. But that original cabin set the tone for the rest of the place - and firstly, before anything else, it is clocked perfectly to catch the breeze coming down the canyon. Every evening as the sun goes down, the cool mountain air comes flying down out of Foy's Canyon... All I have to do is open the bedroom windows in the west, and the living room and kitchen windows in the east, and 9 times out of 10, that breeze is there to push every bit of hot air out of the place in minutes - The effect is really an astonishment. And to this day, that old trapper that set this place has been a blessing for anyone who has ever lived here.
And the other thing worthy of comment - Like all cabins, this one has low ceilings. It makes it dark without any lights on, and feels a little close to those not used to it, but the purpose of it is profound - Heat stays down low where you need it. Which means heating this place has always been a cinch. The only way I can translate that is in the cost of the GFA furnace (which I really don't use much)... But at a time when most folks in comparable square footage were paying 125-175 bucks a month for heat, this place was heating for 75 bucks... The most I have ever paid for gas heat here was 175 in one month, and something around there is to be expected only when bitter cold, far below zero describes the whole month.
It is not magic, and really not science... But just these amazing ways folks just knew back then when every little bit needed to be eked out, and McMansions were not even a thought. Ain't it something, though?
