Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 138 posts

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#51

Post by cucumber3732842 »

jmclnx wrote: post #27

The rate the world is going, even people on the Arctic Circle will need A/C. Where I grew up and live in the US, I had no real need for A/C until 4 or 5 years ago, a bedroom window fan was fine for the few real hot days. Now, I need A/C, but I have aged too :) Over the years, hot days are getting far more common and hotter on ave. In the "old days" (tm) we could go all summer without reaching above 90F (32C). Once in…

>The rate the world is going, even people on the Arctic Circle will need A/C.

You're way too optimistic. At the rate the world is going they'll get it 30yr before they need it as the side effect of some highly engineered compliance solution to half baked environmental policy that pretends to be about heat pumps but was ghost written by a think tank owned by an HVAC billionare.

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#52

Post by ExoticPearTree »

carlosrg wrote: post #29

I don’t understand the obsession the Americans have with claiming that we hate AC. Europe is not a country. There are countries where AC is more used. Here in Spain it’s common. It’s probably less common in other, less hot countries. Besides heat, countries with a lower GDP probably have less ACs installed than richer countries. So probably France have more AC-per-capita than Moldova, my guess is that something simil…

> Besides heat, countries with a lower GDP probably have less ACs installed than richer countries.

You couldn't be more wrong about it. A 12k BTU unit is about ~ 250-300EUR + maybe 100EUR setting it up. Building that are almost collapsing have AC. Its a thing to have AC.

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#53

Post by jmclnx »

spockz wrote: post #24
daveguy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think it has to do with all the dying from a heatwave going on there?

Most airconditioning is supplied by Asian manufacturers anyway. Not sure what is in it for big USA. Other than a general increase in consumption.

I am from northern part of the US. 30+ years ago there was a 2-week convention in Tulsa OK in June. I volunteered to work there.

I thought I was going to melt, and everyone from the North suffered. Few passed out due to the heat. I asked people from Tulsa "is this heat normal for June". They said "No, it does not get hot until August". I had no idea what to say.

I will never when go south again and will only go in Jan of Feb if I have to go.

So in the South, I would have to live in a freezer in the summer. A/C is required down there.

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#55

Post by gmuslera »

invalidusernam3 wrote: post #19

Why has this become a meme? Sure aircon is nice but there are also reasons why it's not common in some parts of Europe. Here in central Prague a lot of the buildings are historic and protected, so you can't just gouge out a section of the building to install an aircon. Also it's generally only hot enough for aircon maybe 2-4 weeks a year. I'm seeing more and more American's yapping about not having aircon in Europe.…

Never cross a river 4-feet deep on average. A heatstroke may not let you see how cooler the rest of the year may be.

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#57

Post by whilenot-dev »

labadi wrote: post #18

As an American living in Austria, I find this conversation really tiring. Common arguments against AC are urban heat and CO2 emissions. Living in a city where 80% of residential electricity comes from hydropower, the emissions argument seems a bit moot. For urban heat zones, AC seems to be criticized in isolation. There's never a mention of a lack of tree canopy in vast parts of the city, or that reflective pavements…

> There's never a mention of a lack of tree canopy in vast parts of the city, or that reflective pavements and green roofs are nonexistent.

Can you expand on this? Because it feels like greening is always a pressing topic for any architect working here[0][1].

[0]: https://gruenstattgrau.at/news/

[1]: https://www.wien.gv.at/spezial/klimafahrplan/klimaanpassung-...

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#58

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

varjag wrote: post #7

[flagged]

It's synthetic even when it doesn't feel so. If an article features a product of any kind, no matter if it's brand-specific or not, and the article isn't a blog post, then it's a pretty safe bet it's a paid advertisement. It's hard not to notice once you start seeing it.

This one is particularly on the nose about Europeans not buying enough air conditioners, though. What with the normative headline phrasing that calls out Europeans specifically (who are infamous for their stubbornness against American consumerism!). I can usually appreciate the subtlety in these articles[0], but this one's about as subtle as a brick to the face.

0: https://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#59

Post by Kaibeezy »

stavros wrote: post #45

Install more renewables and more heatpumps, then we can climate-control our spaces with no guilt!

It seems like such an obvious conclusion. The article says the power demand for air conditioning, even at high levels of adoption, would be a “rounding error” within overall consumption. Why suffer?

Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner

#60

Post by spacechild1 »

lloeki wrote: post #34

Can't read the article (paywalled) so I'm basing myself on what I see > Green electricity means never having to say sorry for lowering the thermostat I literally just read some reports yesterday day about how AC can be a pathological solution. It's not about the energy being green or not, it's that independently of the energy source AC is a heat pump, so it pumps heat out into the air, which makes the air inside cool…

> I literally just read some reports yesterday day about how AC can be a pathological solution.

That's what I have been wondering as well. When I was in Japan (which is notorious for using obscene amounts of AC), I once walked past the rear side of some buildings where all the AC vents were and you could clearly feel the heat these things are pumping into the city. How is this not creating a feedback loop?

Post reply on HN