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Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

lse.ac.uk

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Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#291

Post by sideway »

lwansbrough wrote: post #9

Europeans don’t get scolded enough for their resistance to air conditioning. In terms of accounting for preventable deaths, Greece has 2x more heat-related deaths per capita annually than Mississippi has gun deaths. By comparison, the worst US state for heat related deaths, Nevada - a literal desert - has >10x fewer deaths per capita than Greece.

Nowadays, it's usually not the lack of aircons that is a problem in greek households. Compared to local wages, energy prices have risen so much that lots of people cannot afford to keep their aircons on.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#292

Post by omnimus »

jdkoeck wrote: post #153
basisword wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you have any conception of how little money most people have. Why would I spend £15-20k I don't have on a heat pump so I can get 'free' air con when my house is already heated via another method? Most people don't have £500 spare for a portable air con unit. On top of that, until a few months ago, government subsidies for heat pumps didn't apply to the versions that include air con so anyone who did get…

Something needs to be done with the heat. The common euro talking point: aircon doesn’t solve the problem, let’s insulate instead (an order of magnitude more expensive). Apparently you entertain an even more absurd idea: let’s just do nothing, because everyone is too poor. That’s just wrong, plenty of home owners or real estate owners have the means to foot the bills, especially if regulation mandates or subsidises h…

Let me introduce you to… cold related deaths. They are 8x more common in europe than heat deaths.

Since both of the cases happen mostly indoors we can assume it's both thanks to state of the buildings.

Not everyone can afford AC or insulation and cold used to be and still a bigger problem. Heating is absurdly expensive with leaky building so people prioritize insulating.

“Ideological comfort” lol stop it what the hell. Do you think people in europe wouldn't like to have AC if they could reasonably have it?

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#294

Post by [deleted] »

vixen99 wrote: post #208
lwansbrough wrote: post #9

Europeans don’t get scolded enough for their resistance to air conditioning. In terms of accounting for preventable deaths, Greece has 2x more heat-related deaths per capita annually than Mississippi has gun deaths. By comparison, the worst US state for heat related deaths, Nevada - a literal desert - has >10x fewer deaths per capita than Greece.

In the UK and other European locations maybe this is related to some of the highest electricity costs in the world.

[deleted]

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#295

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

sph wrote: post #169
lwansbrough wrote: post #9

Europeans don’t get scolded enough for their resistance to air conditioning. In terms of accounting for preventable deaths, Greece has 2x more heat-related deaths per capita annually than Mississippi has gun deaths. By comparison, the worst US state for heat related deaths, Nevada - a literal desert - has >10x fewer deaths per capita than Greece.

[flagged]

"Simply cannot have AC" is a problem we did to ourselves, or rather, the "its not so bad just suffer a bit" people are doing to the rest of the population.

What are the reasons "most of us simply cannot have AC"? Either laws/regulations banning it or making it prohibitive, or living in rentals without proper protection.

There is no reason why heat protection couldn't be mandated for rental units just like heating is required in winter. Or why tenants couldn't have a right to install AC at their own expense.

Meanwhile, because permanent AC units are de facto impossible, the portable Mideas sell out as soon as the heat wave hits, and we're forced to run air conditioners with literally open windows just so we can run the hose through.

(You should get one for next year, by the way. You probably missed the opportunity for this year unless you want to pay a scalper 2-3x the normal price, but they can be installed in essentially any window or balcony, are reasonably quiet, much better than the 'air hose out the window' monoblock units, and they fucking work)

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#296

Post by TylerE »

doikor wrote: post #225
hannasm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same question. Electricity and logistics are really the only physical barriers. With solar and a single mini split couldn't you essentially prevent heat death with some very high probability? Freezing to death in winter should be a harder problem at this point right?

Electricity and logistics solve the heating just as well. You can use the same device if you want to. Heat pump is just an AC run in reverse, literally all you need is a little valve to reverse the flow.

As long as it's only a little below freezing. Try that in Norway, or even somewhere like Austria, and see how it goes.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#297

Post by PeterStuer »

The dowside of hosting your conference in exquisitly beautifull old locations is that they have no airco.

While well managed traditional cooling management can keep them pleasant enough, this would require light programme adaptations, basically shifting to starting early morning - noon, covering the glass dome, and night ventilation, but that seems to be more insurmountable than cancelling.

Apparently the LSE does have airco spaces, but these aren't as inspirationally nice it seems.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#298

Post by asdff »

physicsguy wrote: post #278
ajmurmann wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you don't have sliding windows but also not tilting windows? They can only swing open?

Traditionally everyone had sash windows ("sliding windows") or casement windows ("swing open") made from wood. Nowadays sash windows are very expensive so almost everyone has casement windows, or even casement windows that look like sash windows, both constructed from UPVC. It's only in historic buildings people typically still install sash windows. I had to do that in my house because of it being a "conservation are…

I actually have a casement AC window unit. Not sure if this is the same dimensions as a UK casement window. It is as if you took a window AC unit and made it vertical orientation. My window still slides up and blocks the remaining void, but I imagine it would work just fine if it swung out and you built a plexiglass or plywood cover. Maybe you can also unscrew the swinging window and put it away in a closet.

The AC unit is a little different than "traditional" window units. There is no slot or anything really to grab on to the window or the sill. It is mainly secured by a brace that is also not screwed into anything really, just directing the weight of the external portion of the unit into the side of the exterior wall.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#299

Post by rwmj »

dranudin wrote: post #283
rwmj wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing the goalposts. We've gone from saying that Europe has (never defined) laws that prevent anyone from installing AC, to saying that tenants cannot make major changes to their properties. Landlords can install AC fine. Home owners can install AC. There are no laws that prevent installation of AC in Europe.

I don't think it is changing the goalpost. The law prevents more than half of Germany's inhabitants from installing ACs, because they are renters. Also landlords cannot just install AC just fine. If you just own an appartement, you need the consenst of all other owners in the building. This is also a law. Therefore, practically no landlord will agree to the request to install outside AC, unfortunately.

It sounds like a case for having more laws / regulation. Rental properties should have a maximum temperature, else they're not liveable (same as if they were damp or infested).

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#300

Post by CalRobert »

asdff wrote: post #290
CalRobert wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even now planners are forcing people to build horrible ovens that make no accounting for heat. The planners in Ireland laughed when I talked about over heating in our self built house due to lack of eaves.

People don't value design that cools. Most all the spanish style houses you see in California, if you go back to photos from when they were built in the 1920s they all had awnings over all the windows. Those awnings are basically extinct now. Some people are even painting their buildings dark colors. They will chop down shade trees too in a quest for "natural light" aka heat they are now mitigating with a noisy centr…

True, though the places I lived in California (Sacramento, San Luis Obispo in particular) all had eaves. Covered patios were common too.
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