Heat Waves and Air Conditioners at UBC
Facing off against climate change in buildings built for a temperate rain forest
Very few of the residential buildings at UBC are ready for the heat waves global warming is bringing to Vancouver. For much of this city’s history the climate has been a mild one. One might expect a bit of heat in mid-to-late August. Global modelling tells us to expect more heat waves like we’ve already experienced at least twice this summer or even worse events like last summer’s heat dome. Summer’s not over, but most weather forecasters suggest the worst of the heat will taper out by mid-August.
Last summer students in campus residences sweated it out in buildings built with no thought about summer cooling. UBC’s advice to students this summer was to buy fans. As witnessed on UBC’s reddit, fans alone don’t really do the trick.
There is lots of reddit advice , from using swamp fans (wet sheets and towels or blocks of ice placed in front of fans), to taping windows over with tin foil.
One might suggest air conditioners, but in many UBC student residence they are not permitted according to the residence contract. Contracts found online for these residences, Acadia, Green College, St. John’s College, and Thunderbird, explicitly ban AC units. The clause implies that the landlord could grant permission, but having an AC unit is lumped in with having things like deep freezers and washing machines.
I asked Andrew Parr of UBC Housing for clarification. He was enjoying a well deserved break but asked Janice Robinson, Director Residence Life & Administration to reply on his behalf. Janice provided some helpful information. Janice shared a recent email that was sent to students and added this additional explanation:
We speak to having and using a portable air conditioner in our message. I’ve highlighted the relevant line below. The message also identifies cooled spaces Student Housing has open that residents are welcome to use, as well as other cooled places on campus. Lastly, we include some tips for cooling down and staying safe during excessively hot times.
Our contract’s reference to air conditioners as a ‘major appliance that would require written consent of the Manager’ has been in place for a number of years and, frankly, envisions mechanical cooling equipment that requires mounting in/outside a residence window or attached to a wall – in short equipment that would be a significant installation and require alterations to the residence facility. I’ll put my mind to being more clear about that in future contract language. The current contract references permission from a Manager. Residents do ask about ACs from time to time, and after some clarifying questions to ensure it’s portable and doesn’t require significant installation, we’re supportive.
Thinking longer term, Student Housing is including mechanical cooling systems in future builds – Brock Commons (phase 2) being the next one. And as we plan for renewal and renovation of our current residences over the next number of years – similar to other home owners and/or stratas - we’ll be looking at an investment in mechanical cooling systems as well.
So students who know to ask, or have heard that the banned air conditioners excludes portable air conditioners, might be able (if they can afford the several hundred dollar cost of an AC unit) to set up a portable AC unit. As I will describe below, window mounted AC units (which don’t really require alterations to the facilities are far more effective, efficient, and livable than the often more expense less effective portable units.
The situation for faculty and staff rental buildings or stratas in the UNA zone is quite similar to the situation students face.
Village Gate Homes does allow portable AC units in their rentals (but more effective and energy efficient window units are banned). Stratas have variable rules, but most that were developed by UBC Properties Trust ban window units. Some ban any air conditioner without prior approval from the strata council and/or property manager.
Most information is clear that window air conditioners are more effective, more energy efficient, less expensive, and significantly quieter than an equivalent portable air conditioner. All of this would suggest that window air conditions would be preferable choice and more reasonable than portable air conditioners, also more environmentally friendly. However, that’s not the way things work. Most rules in rental and strata buildings (and UBC student residences) prioritize aesthetics over function.
Multi-household buildings in the early twenty-first century have all kinds of behavioural rules: no clothes drying on balconies, no flags hung from windows, no multicoloured patio umbrellas, the list goes on. If you don’t believe me take a look at your strata bylaws or your rental agreement. You might be very surprised at what you find.
Apartment style multi-household housing had its origins in the 19th century. This was a period of intensification of factory production and urbanization in North America and Europe. There were lots of worries about the dangerous implications of mixing social classes in expanding urban centers (We hear many similar worries today in Vancouver around debates about densification).
Landlords (and later condominium managers) used rules focused on creating residential communities based in ‘middle class values’ to allay some of those fears. The rules preserved the exterior presentation, at least, of the building as decorative, not functional. Rules were created to keep vegetable gardens off of front lawns, restrict and exclude activities like repairing machinery, ban the drying of clothing from windows or balconies, restrict the display of cultural symbols from windows or doors, and all manner of other restrictions in order to preserve a uniform decorative front. Today such rules are glossed as preserving property values, but they all have some aspect of rootedness in late 19th century class antagonisms (which in North America includes strong elements of anti-immigrant and anti-black racism).
A century later many of us recognize we are in a climate emergency. Yet, we still maintain rules and approaches that are unhelpful. In the short term we need to modify such rules and restrictions. However, we have a far bigger problem that simple rule changes can’t fix.
Our buildings are not designed to withstand the heat waves of our immediate and long term future. We need major structural retrofitting in our residential buildings. New buildings require more environmentally sound and resilient designs. There are existing ancient techniques of building cooling already in place in hot arid regions of our world. Concepts that modern architects (as in the video below) are adapting to contemporary life. We need more of this kind of creative thinking in our planning and development offices.