Looking up how low air conditioners will lower the humidity it’s unlikely they’ll take it below 40% unless set to extremes. I also don’t know where you got your 50-80%. The article you linked to says right in the summary
The majority of adverse health effects caused by relative humidity would be minimized by maintaining indoor levels between 40 and 60%. This would require humidification during winter in areas with cold winter climates.
It only mentions winter, not summer but many places in the world are much higher than 60% and therefore would require AC to bring it into those recommended ranges. Tokyo today is 66%. Singapore is 84%.
As far as I can tell you helped prove my point. AC doesn’t make you sick. In fact it’s more likely to make you healthy.
When I visit my parents down in New Orleans I ask them how people survived the summer before they had A/C. Their response was that they didn’t. Something like 1/3 of the population of the city would die off every summer. Mostly it was the elderly and young children that died, but it’s still something to consider when scoffing at air conditioning.
I will never understand the people who go straight from heat to AC in Minneapolis.
No kidding. (I wonder if they’re the same folks who make a point of donning shorts whenever it breaks 30 degrees Fahrenheit?) After growing up in Southern Indiana, the summers in Minnesota are like heaven, and well worth the six months of winter.
That said, I live on the top floor of an ancient brick apartment building (south facing), so I had to break down and put in the AC during the first week of July. The stored heat really starts moving up through this place around midnight, and a fella needs to sleep.
In places that are truly hot/humid in the summer, a dehumidifier is essential. They do provide some psychological relief, via reduced humidity, although not any noticeable cooling effect (the old-school models, anyway, actually produce significant heat during operation). But the real benefit is that they help keep your living space – and everything in it – from being ruined by mold.
I’m years away from that environment, but the mere whiff of mildew still sends me into a mental funk.
