I am very sorry to hear of your wife's troubles, difficulty breathing is a very distressing situation.
While I am not a medical professional, I suspect the reason your wife has difficulty in places such as a hospital or China-Mart may be due to the preponderance of allergens present in these locations that are being circulated throughout the structure by the HVAC systems.
That is one of the main reasons why I always recommend to customers and others that they use the highest efficiency filters they can obtain. The customers of my employer all receive what are known as medium efficiency filters; pleated, cloth barrier that will trap quite a bit of particulates and contaminants.
Hospitals, being gathering places for sick people, should be using what are known as HEPA air filters but, those are usually only used in sensitive locations such as the surgical suites and the like. Medium and high efficiency filters are used in the rest of the systems. HEPA filters are rather expensive and out of reach of most homeowners.
Obviously, both of you are managing to deal with her difficulties and that is excellent.

I wish I could pinpoint it more but when the window is open she breathes normally -- if we enter into an air-conditioned place such as China-Mart, she starts hacking. Yesterday we went to the hospital for a visit -- as soon as she entered she started hacking. I don't know if this is something that other asthmatics experience but it is a personal preference for us not to use AC. By the way, when Fall and winter comes to Wyoming, the same thing occurs.

[quote="Watchman"]A very interesting subject and it is doubly so, citing the challenge to cool as cheaply as possible. Being an urban dweller without air conditioning, sometimes it is a challenge but never one that can't be alleviated somewhat. My wife is asthmatic and air conditioning is a no-no for her. We rely on the shade of trees and most of all, our basement. We spend a lot of time during the summer months working downstairs. This is slightly veering off but here Rocky Mountain Power just implemented a new program that households who reduce their monthly consumption to below 500 kwh receive a rate that is about half what others pay. They're putting the onus on conservation. Right now we're hovering around 650 to 700 kwh a month.[/quote]

If I may inquire, what about air conditioning makes it a no-no for your wife?
I am an HVAC/R service tech and I've not yet heard of such a thing. Having a mild form of asthma myself, I breathe easier in the conditioned environment of my home where the air is filtered, dried and cooled a bit rather than the excessively warm, humid and dirty, polluted air that I must exercise my employment in during the cooling season.

Since I am in the trade, the best manner of keeping your AC system operating at best efficiency is to keep it in best operational shape. Keep the air filter changed regularly, use a good filter not one of those 50 cent blue fiberglass ones that don't really catch much of anything out of the air. Have the outside and inside units cleaned at least once a year, if they're dirty they can't breathe and if they can't breathe they can't work. Keep all motors properly lubricated if they can be lubricated. Have a service contractor check the operation of each function before the beginning of heating and cooling seasons and to make any needed repairs before they get really busy and can't take care of you for a couple of miserable days.
Often the best method of properly maintaining your system is to obtain a service contract from a trusted service contractor. Your maintenance checkups will be scheduled and performed at that time without you having to call someone and, sometimes contractors will offer discounts on repairs to their contract customers. Best to inquire about all aspects of any service contract before signing up for it.
Keep your system in its best operational shape and it will operate as efficiently as it can. Don't take care of it and it can get rather expensive.

A very interesting subject and it is doubly so, citing the challenge to cool as cheaply as possible. Being an urban dweller without air conditioning, sometimes it is a challenge but never one that can't be alleviated somewhat. My wife is asthmatic and air conditioning is a no-no for her. We rely on the shade of trees and most of all, our basement. We spend a lot of time during the summer months working downstairs. This is slightly veering off but here Rocky Mountain Power just implemented a new program that households who reduce their monthly consumption to below 500 kwh receive a rate that is about half what others pay. They're putting the onus on conservation. Right now we're hovering around 650 to 700 kwh a month.

This topic came up on another forum and I wanted to share it here.

Air conditioning is a necessity here. We have a house that was built to keep the weather off of us and gave very little consideration to anything else. It's the way things are built nowadays - reinforce shortcomings with appliances. If the house does not stay warm in winter, heat it; if it does not stay cool in the summer, air condition it. Older houses were designed and made to stay warm in winter and as cool as possible in summer.

Replacing energy from the grid is a fine idea, but a deal breaker is usually air conditioning. You can heat with wood, but I have yet to see a wood burning air conditioner. The whole concept of air conditioning is to muscle the air to a comfortable temperature by compressor and air movement. The compressor, running at least 25-50% duty cycle in the heat of summer is a hungry critter. I have noticed some of the old farm houses in the county, with a convenient cave on the property, set up with a summer kitchen and eating area in the mouth of the cave where they can bask in a cool breeze running constantly out of the mouth of the cave. Having a cave on the property is a dubious luxury - in recent memory more than one house has been swallowed by sink holes. Where there are caves, there are sink holes.

The link below outlines how, by excavation, you can have the benefits of a cave without the inherent risk. The cost of the project could be realized in one summer - maybe two, to be pessimistic, and results in a heating and air conditioning system that can be driven by a modest alternative energy system. Of course, it can be driven by grid energy, at a fraction of the cost of conventional HVAC systems. The information is practical and readily useable.

[url=http://mb-soft.com/solar/saving.html]Free Home Air Conditioning![/url]

Hope you find this as interesting as I do.

Regards,
Pat