NAVY BANS SAILORS' A/C UNITS
PHOTO CAPTION: Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, California. Sailors living in one of the base's unaccompanied-housing buildings are being told to remove personal portable air conditioners because Navy officials say the aging electrical system cannot safely support them. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Austin Haist)
Sailors living in a San Diego Navy barracks without air conditioning found their own solution to the heat.
They bought portable air conditioners.
Now the Navy says they have to go.
Naval Base Point Loma officials are enforcing a prohibition on personal portable A/C units inside Building 635, an unaccompanied-housing facility occupied by sailors assigned to San Diego-based submarines.
The Navy's reason is not that sailors don't need cooling.
Officials acknowledge the building itself has no air conditioning.
The problem, they say, is that the aging electrical system cannot safely handle the portable units sailors have been plugging into their rooms.
“Personal portable AC units are prohibited” in the barracks because they frequently trip circuit breakers and create a safety hazard, Navy Region Southwest spokesman Brian O'Rourke told KPBS.
The affected rooms instead have ceiling fans and at least one stand-up fan provided by the Navy.
At least one sailor living there says that isn't enough.
The sailor, whom KPBS did not identify because of concerns about retaliation, said the fans essentially move hot air around the room.
The sailor described the barracks as unbearable during the day and said sleeping can be difficult enough that residents sweat through their sheets when they do manage to fall asleep.
The timing has made the dispute even more uncomfortable.
San Diego temperatures climbed into the 90s this week. KPBS reported a forecast high of 93 degrees Tuesday as officials prepared to enforce the prohibition.
Residents of Building 635 were given a memorandum Aug. 31 instructing them to remove their personal air conditioners.
The memo gave sailors roughly a week to comply and warned that rooms would be inspected for prohibited units.
That means sailors are now facing an unusual choice created by the condition of the building itself:
Live without air conditioning, or use cooling equipment that Navy officials say the electrical infrastructure cannot safely support.
The Navy's safety concern is not difficult to understand.
Portable air conditioners can draw substantial electrical current. If dozens of rooms in an older building begin running them simultaneously, an electrical system that was never designed for that load can repeatedly trip breakers or create more serious hazards.
Navy officials say that is exactly what has been occurring in Building 635.
But for sailors who paid for their own cooling equipment, the explanation leads to another question:
If the building cannot safely operate personal air conditioners, why are sailors still being housed there without a permanent cooling system?
The Navy says renovations are planned.
An environmental assessment completed in May includes renovations to the Point Loma barracks, according to KPBS. Congress also provided the Pentagon $1 billion in 2025 for improvements to unaccompanied military housing.
But Navy officials did not provide a date for when construction at Building 635 will begin.
Until those improvements arrive, the Navy says the rooms will continue to rely on fans rather than portable air conditioners.
The situation leaves sailors in a familiar military dilemma.
The government-provided solution isn't solving the problem to their satisfaction.
Their personal solution creates a safety problem for the government-provided building.
And the permanent solution is planned — but sailors living there today don't know when it is coming.
(Source: OAF Nation)
