this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
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wasn't an issue at the time older housing was built. US population was 1/3 what it is today. There was plenty of oil and electricity to go around for everybody.
It was still an issue, the problem was either you just didn't have the knowledge and/or money to deal with it, were working with bad scientific beliefs based on real problems that were solved differently, or just lived in what used to be a much more mild climate.
In especially the 1930s-1950s the poisonous construction materials did in fact have slowed effects when you had a drafty house, so it became practice and advice to not fully insulate the home, to not create a sealed environment since the homes that did have good insulation and a good seal generally had more 'mysterious' deaths that were attributed to 'stale air' and even brought back the term 'miasma' for a while. It was gas/lead/asbestos/arsenic/CO/CO2/Radon poisoning. But back then they had correlation and used it as causation because why would air ever hurt you.
That and for the most part you had trouble keeping the house warm, not the opposite problem, so the cheapest and time tested solution was more blankets and a stone fireplace for part of the year and just deal with the outside temp the rest of the year, even on really hot days like the record breaking Chicago high of 102 in 1918 where the average was, you know, 80 for the several decades before and after that.
I lived in a triple decker back when I was in college and those featured sleeping porches for the summer time. We would drag a futon out there and sleep in the open air with the cool night breezes. Worked well most of the summer (except for rainy/stormy nights and the dog days of August). We did not have AC, just fans. (there were some people who had window AC units in their bedrooms in some of the units). But we lived in a city so our jobs mostly had AC and we would go to the pub, mall/stores, movies, library after work and just hang outside at weekend festivals etc.. all AC or uneeded AC places. Frankly, it was just not hot enough here in the summer long enough to warrant a unit and the increased power bill. Once Labor Day came around it was Fall. In the winter we used electric blankets, long underwear, sweaters etc.