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EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

politico.eu

111–120 of 168 posts

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#111
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thousands of people died in the EU over this heat, and you think it's American that isn't doing well? "more than 1300 excess deaths have been recorded since 21 June linked to the extreme heat in Europe" "There were approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019, according to modeled estimates." https://wmo.int/media/news/record-breaking-heat-spreads-thro...

What? Did the EU cause the heat wave? This thread is clearly about politics, and the parent claims that Americans complain about the EU and its politics because their own have gone completely off the rails. Disparaging the EU over a crazy heat wave is like criticizing a country because it has had a major natural disaster recently.

The EU caused the deaths, not the heat. People have been dying from heat in the EU for decades now, and the EU has done ........ nothing (well other than declare superiority to the US).

More people die from heat each year in the EU than from guns in the US. Which topic gets more attention?

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#112
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Global warming keeps making the temperature unnaturaly high, don't tell me you didn't hear about it.

If it's every summer, how is it unnatural? If it's poor planning how is it every summer? There's poor planning and then there's ... what, forgetting that summer happens? It sounds to me like somebody sat down and penciled in some numbers and decided that "it makes less money to let it break?" which seems pretty weird when you consider second-order stuff (but it's not like people tend to do that anyway)

Come on, you expect me to believe you honestly have no contextual knowledge about the changing climate?

No, I think you are opting for disguising your full on climate change denial under a tattered veil of feigned ignorance.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#113
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People on here will literally write walls of text over the most mundane nonsense. Get a free standing unit like this: https://i.imgur.com/giewYeK.png Shove the plastic tube outlet out of a window. End of installation. You're welcome. Seriously why is this so difficult and what is this learned helplessness? You would rather be miserable than do literally anything?

I have one like that and so do my parents. But they're much less effective than classic split AC with an outside unit. A regular split can cool a bigger room to 24 even when it's 38 outside and is basically completely quiet. A portable AC cools down smaller rooms to ~27 when it's 38 outside and is noisy (50-60 dB).

That's cause you got the cheapest one and think all of them are like that. They come in different power levels and you can in fact find ones that are quiet.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#114
post #48
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most ordinary working people can't afford the cost of installing a system. Even a portable one. I just watched a video where a person bought a £200 portable unit. He was using it in the UK and said he spent about £0.89 / day. And I'm assuming they won't use it for that many days a year. Seems affordable enough for "most ordinary working people" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOmzVWTH3xo

As a side note, it's nearly impossible to buy a dual-hose portable AC in the UK and Europe. For whatever reason, the market has converged on inefficient single-hose portable ACs.

As an oblivious Europian I was breaking my head on how the design with a single hose could be considered good enough.

Other funny stuff:

- I haven't seen a single portable AC with a hose long enough to reach the window. Some come with tents and plastic things to seal the open window. The machine blows hot air out of the tube and air from outside is inevitable sucked in. If you could only hang the tube a few feet out of the window it wouldn't be sucking in the exhaust hot air back in.

- I've seen dozens with barely readable labels on the buttons in poorly contrasting colors. Some also have bright glowing leds next to the illegible text. Even if I switch on the lights (in the middle of the night) I cant read it because the leds are to bright. The buttons are spread out in some artistic arc with a nearly invisible fine line and lack a bump in the sticker they are made from.

- People here seem to love swamp chillers, some wet sponge or fabric with a fan pointed at it. Not sure what the ratio is, I think they roughly increase humidity by 10% for each 1C in temperature reduction with some favorable sweet spot above 90% humidity.

Then I see a video from an Amish dude hanging soaked bed sheets in front of the window explaining they don't have AC, they don't even have electricity, the wet sheets cut the temperature by 10 degrees apparently.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#115
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that expensive. There are other reasons why people can't install one in Europe than money. Mostly for people living in apartments. In an apartment building you need the approval of other apartment owners to "modify the building facade". And some people have terrible neighbors. Another thing that happens in Europe is that if the building is 100+ years old, it's facade may be protected as a "historic building"…

People on here will literally write walls of text over the most mundane nonsense. Get a free standing unit like this: https://i.imgur.com/giewYeK.png Shove the plastic tube outlet out of a window. End of installation. You're welcome. Seriously why is this so difficult and what is this learned helplessness? You would rather be miserable than do literally anything?

If the bottom of the window is 80cm or less from the floor you need safety glass. Therefore most windows are much further from the floor than that tube can reach. We also have very few sliding windows that allow such neat finish. A lot open at the top. Many turn left or right and are half the size of a door (because there is no AC) Running a crappy tiny portable single hose AC with the window open doesn't do much. Extra fun if you have roller shutters (for shade) with windows that open outwards.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#116
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People on here will literally write walls of text over the most mundane nonsense. Get a free standing unit like this: https://i.imgur.com/giewYeK.png Shove the plastic tube outlet out of a window. End of installation. You're welcome. Seriously why is this so difficult and what is this learned helplessness? You would rather be miserable than do literally anything?

If the bottom of the window is 80cm or less from the floor you need safety glass. Therefore most windows are much further from the floor than that tube can reach. We also have very few sliding windows that allow such neat finish. A lot open at the top. Many turn left or right and are half the size of a door (because there is no AC) Running a crappy tiny portable single hose AC with the window open doesn't do much. Ex…

Duct tape and card board is your friend. Get creative.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#117
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Did the EU cause the heat wave? This thread is clearly about politics, and the parent claims that Americans complain about the EU and its politics because their own have gone completely off the rails. Disparaging the EU over a crazy heat wave is like criticizing a country because it has had a major natural disaster recently.

The EU caused the deaths, not the heat. People have been dying from heat in the EU for decades now, and the EU has done ........ nothing (well other than declare superiority to the US). More people die from heat each year in the EU than from guns in the US. Which topic gets more attention?

I still don't see how you get from 'many countries mismanaged their response to heat in the wake of the climate becoming more extreme' to 'the building of the European Commission is the bastion of evil' that the parent was pointing out. This ignores the context and just tries to find any reason to claim that the EU as a whole is bad.

Comparing heat deaths to gun deaths is beyond absurd, but people keep repeating it because it's a good soundbite that makes the US seem good and the EU seem bad. It's like ranking places by comparing flu deaths to war deaths. Gun-related deaths are direct and attributable. The heat deaths reported are counted as 'excess deaths'. The number of people who actually die from the heat is small if compared to the overall number. Excess deaths counts all cases where people's existing issues were exacerbated by the high temperatures which eventually pushes them over the edge - old age, heart disease and the like. Heat mostly doesn't make healthy people drop dead in the streets, unlike a direct cause like guns. It diminishes everyone's health which makes already vulnerable people die earlier of their pre-existing conditions than they otherwise could have. These are different metrics.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#118
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the Greens in Europe handed Russia leverage thanks to relying on natural gas instead of nuclear, which it opposed (thanks German Greens). In France these ideologues oppose A/C becauase it's evil: it makes us comfortable when we should be uncomfortable - if we are comfortable in an era of climate change, we'll only make it worse. And it's all America's fault anyway because of their emissions. When do we vote out…

This nuclear argument is getting quite stale. Germany seems to be investing quite a bit in other energies just fine. https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/DE/live/fifteen_min... 120GW of nameplate solar capacity is nothing to sneeze at even with the latitude challenge. That's more solar than almost all of California's energy generation combined, or most of the eastern United States.

Did I misread? I hover over the Nuclear and it literally says 0% of electricity is nuclear" for Germany.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#119
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have one like that and so do my parents. But they're much less effective than classic split AC with an outside unit. A regular split can cool a bigger room to 24 even when it's 38 outside and is basically completely quiet. A portable AC cools down smaller rooms to ~27 when it's 38 outside and is noisy (50-60 dB).

That's cause you got the cheapest one and think all of them are like that. They come in different power levels and you can in fact find ones that are quiet.

People don't know which to buy. I got a really big one that doesn't make a lot of noise. I think on dehumidify it can suck 1.5 liters per hour out of the room. I think this because with 98% humidity the 0.5 liter tank is full in <20 minutes. The tank isn't removable, it has a lid 3 cm above the floor. Just low enough that one cant leave a large enough container under it.

Re: EU commissioners shut down air conditioning for employees, leave theirs on

#120
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the bottom of the window is 80cm or less from the floor you need safety glass. Therefore most windows are much further from the floor than that tube can reach. We also have very few sliding windows that allow such neat finish. A lot open at the top. Many turn left or right and are half the size of a door (because there is no AC) Running a crappy tiny portable single hose AC with the window open doesn't do much. Ex…

Duct tape and card board is your friend. Get creative.

right, but first have to wait for the wife to overheat enough to allow it.
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