Narrative:

Arriving at the aircraft we learned that the APU had been deferred in ZZZ1 the night before. There was no ground power or conditioned air connected. The temp in the cabin and cockpit was already 82 deg. The outside temp at XA15am was already 72 deg with high humidity; we were going to ZZZ1 where it was also 75 deg. I decided I was not going to put the passengers and crew in an aircraft were the temp was sure to reach a least 90 deg before we could get off the ground with the shortest possible taxi; and go to ZZZ1 where the taxi could be 5 min to 3 hours. When I called dispatch to talk to the chief pilot in in systems operations I was told no one was in yet; so I told the dispatcher that I was not taking the plane to ZZZ1 for the reasons above. He took my phone number and said he would have a chief pilot call me. When the chief pilot called back about XA45AM I told him that I was not taking the plane for the above reasons he said that since it was so early and the temp was only 72 deg he would not support my decision and 'expected' me to complete the flight. I asked if he was going to accept responsibility for any deaths or heat related problems experienced by those onboard this flight and the next flight to ZZZ2 and the next back to ZZZ1 all in the same plane. He said no! He was responsible for a legal deferral. I pointed out that just because it is legal does not necessarily make it right! And that when the first person dies of a heat stroke on one of our planes our airline will make the news headlines again for doing something stupid! He restated the he 'expected' me to complete the flight and hung up. I then went inside and told the passengers that the aircraft had been flown in from ZZZ1 last night with a deferred APU and that as a result there would be no air conditioning on the plane once we stated our pushback from the gate until we got airborne; that it was going to get very hot; at least 90; that I had been ordered to fly the plane anyway. I also told them that if anyone had a health problem that would be affected by the heat that they should consider alternate transportation. We flew the flight to ZZZ1. Enroute I entered the following write up in the maintenance log. 'Aircraft is a health and safety hazard for passengers and crew during ground ops and taxiing; due to excessive heat in cabin and cockpit because of no APU to run packs for cooling air. After ground air was disconnected cabin and cockpit hit 90 deg before takeoff; outside temp at ZZZ 77 degrees. Upon arrival at ZZZ1 the temp again climbed to 88 deg before reaching the gate. We also were told by ramp tower that the plane was being ferried back to ZZZ3 and that our replacement was coming from ZZZ4. After getting on our plane for the flt to ZZZ2

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ Captain completes a flight with an inoperative APU that he felt resulted in unsafe cabin temperatures on a hot muggy day.

Narrative: Arriving at the aircraft we learned that the APU had been deferred in ZZZ1 the night before. There was no ground power or conditioned air connected. The temp in the cabin and cockpit was already 82 deg. The outside temp at XA15am was already 72 deg with high humidity; we were going to ZZZ1 where it was also 75 deg. I decided I was not going to put the passengers and crew in an aircraft were the temp was sure to reach a least 90 deg before we could get off the ground with the shortest possible taxi; and go to ZZZ1 where the taxi could be 5 min to 3 hours. When I called dispatch to talk to the chief pilot in in systems operations I was told no one was in yet; so I told the Dispatcher that I was not taking the plane to ZZZ1 for the reasons above. He took my phone number and said he would have a chief pilot call me. When the Chief Pilot called back about XA45AM I told him that I was not taking the plane for the above reasons he said that since it was so early and the temp was only 72 deg he would not support my decision and 'expected' me to complete the flight. I asked if he was going to accept responsibility for any deaths or heat related problems experienced by those onboard this flight and the next flight to ZZZ2 and the next back to ZZZ1 all in the same plane. He said no! He was responsible for a legal deferral. I pointed out that just because it is legal does not necessarily make it right! And that when the first person dies of a heat stroke on one of our planes our airline will make the news headlines again for doing something stupid! He restated the he 'expected' me to complete the flight and hung up. I then went inside and told the passengers that the aircraft had been flown in from ZZZ1 last night with a deferred APU and that as a result there would be no air conditioning on the plane once we stated our pushback from the gate until we got airborne; that it was going to get very hot; at least 90; that I had been ordered to fly the plane anyway. I also told them that if anyone had a health problem that would be affected by the heat that they should consider alternate transportation. We flew the flight to ZZZ1. Enroute I entered the following write up in the maintenance log. 'Aircraft is a health and safety hazard for passengers and crew during ground ops and taxiing; due to excessive heat in cabin and cockpit because of NO APU to run packs for cooling air. After ground air was disconnected cabin and cockpit hit 90 deg before takeoff; outside temp at ZZZ 77 degrees. Upon arrival at ZZZ1 the temp again climbed to 88 deg before reaching the gate. We also were told by ramp tower that the plane was being ferried back to ZZZ3 and that our replacement was coming from ZZZ4. After getting on our plane for the flt to ZZZ2

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.