Hanoi, due to the cold weather in winter, some ACs had both a cooling and heating function, and electric water heaters were used to heat water for bathing. Several high-income households also had a halogen heater in their bathrooms and a stand-up, hanging-type electric clothes dryer. In rural areas of Hanoi, ACs were not widely used and only high-income households owned one, but most rural households said they would like to have one in the future. We also refrigerators, washing machines and water heaters were owned mainly by middle- and high-income households. Several households used both wood and gas for cooking. In Long An, high-income and several middle-income households the urban areas owned ACs. One high-income household in a rural area had a plan to install an AC, but most households said that they preferred fans and the natural breeze over ACs, which is in contrast to the rural households in Hanoi. Several households in urban areas of Long An were planning to install ACs in their bedrooms. The main reason for purchasing an AC was to provide greater comfort and a healthy environment for their children while they are studying or sleeping. Most people, excluding old people and infants, used cold water to shower throughout the year. In general, the older generations are comfortable with bathing with cold water from a nearby river, as they have done from an early age. However, wealthy, white-collar workers who are accustomed in an air-conditioned office said that they preferred taking a warm shower and that this had become a habit for most of them. In Hanoi, the main period in which ACs are used for cooling lasts three months (June–August) in light-use households and seven months in heavy-use households. Heating was mainly used by high-income households from December to February. In the urban areas of Hanoi, the traditional residences are row houses (aka shop houses or pencil houses) (Shinozaki et al., 2005), which have a narrow facade, long depth, and multiple stories (Fig. 2). The walls are made of brick, and the floor is either tiled or made of concrete without any insulation. Except for at the ends of the row house complex, sunlight cannot penetrate deep inside the houses, which means the room temperature rarely goes above 30°C (Thao & Nam, 2018). In the urban areas of Hanoi, the total floor area of a three-story house was 81.74 m2 (Household 3) and that of a four-story house was 191.18 m2 (Household 9). In contrast, a typical household in a rural area (Household 15) was situated on a large plot of land (150 m2) and the total floor area of the main building and annex was 48.46 m2. The rural houses also usually had ponds/wells, gardens and livestock huts. In Long An, most of the residences were single-story buildings, and the houses were relatively new compared with the houses in Hanoi. Several households were rebuilding their house with brick and concrete instead of the traditional palm-leaf thatching. On average, the houses were 14–17 years old in Hanoi and 8–9 years old in Long An. All the residential buildings that we visited, except for one apartment in Hanoi, were detached houses or row houses. The average housing unit had a floor area of about 60–80 m2 and 2–3 bedrooms. Televisions (TVs), rice cookers and electric fans were items owned by most households regardless of whether they were located in an urban or rural area. In urban areas of Hanoi, ACs were very popular and many households owned two or more units; even some low-income households owned an AC unit. Refrigerators, washing machines and electric water heaters were also owned by low-income households. Many households in urban areas used gas for cooking, but several had switched from gas to electricity for safety concerns. In (a) (b) Fig. 2 Front view of representative housing units in urban (left) and rural (right) areas of Hanoi (a) (b) and Long An (c) (d). A. YOSHIDA et al. found that in their whole day to spending (c) (d) (April–October) 80 3.2 Housing Characteristics 3.3 Ownership of Electronic Appliances 3.4 AC Usage
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