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Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

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Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#91

Post by molf »

nextaccountic wrote: post #17
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #3

> Several countries require AC installation to be approved by the equivalent of a homeowners association or impose noise ordinances that increase compliance costs and paperwork. This is not unique to ACs. Anything on the outside of a building requires your co-owners to agree.

> co-owners HOAs don't make neighbors co-owners of your own property, do they? Anyway HOA is something that shouldn't even exist. Or at least not with power to prevent people from having air conditioning in their home.

> HOAs don't make neighbors co-owners of your own property, do they?

Home-owner associations in Europe are frequently set up for apartment buildings, in which case, yes, the roof, foundation, hallways, stairwells, main piping, electricity, etc are all legally co-owned. Primary purpose of HOAs is to save for & plan long-term maintenance on the entire building.

HOAs for neighbourhoods, or blocks with single-family homes or terraced houses are pretty rare in Europe.

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#92

Post by vbarrielle »

Arodex wrote: post #48
TrackerFF wrote: post #36

Here in Norway AC is not the standard in hotel rooms. For 80% of the year, that's OK - but it can become pretty uncomfortable if you're booking anytime between mid-June and mid-August. The standard here are heat pumps, at least for residential housing. It is really only a problem if you live in blocks or apartment buildings that are housing associations, with strict rules regarding how such heat pumps should be insta…

>Here in Norway AC is not the standard in hotel rooms. Since when should there be AC in friggin' Norway ?

Since global warming I guess. When there's a heat wave, Norway is probably one of the worst places on hearth to be. You've got near constant sunlight, there's not much time at night to cool your house.

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#93

Post by elil17 »

pdhborges wrote: post #86
elil17 wrote: post #9

Cooling technologies are a necessity and air conditioning is one of many possible options. Europe north of France is substantially cooler than much of the US, even on the hottest days. Many homes could get by on ceiling fans, but they are very uncommon here.

You can use your AC as a fan when it is not too bad.

If you think that then you've never used a ceiling fan before - they are substantially more powerful than the air blowing out of your AC.

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#94

Post by fnordsensei »

deanc wrote: post #4

We have those stupid regulations in Finland about how the outside of our apartments buildings should look - meaning you cannot put the condenser visibly on the outside of the building. I've heard stories of residents being scalded for putting flowers on their balcony railings that face outwards as it ruins the "look". Given almost all apartment buildings are built consistently between every floor they could ensure co…

While I hear you, I think AC is better centralized for the building, along with heat and water.

Yes, there are numerous reasons why this is harder to do than just doing it ad-hoc per apartment, but if we’re to see it as infrastructure, it should receive the same level of consideration as other utilities.

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#95

Post by ranger_danger »

flyingjoe wrote: post #25
huntertwo wrote: post #2

Oh no you’re gonna trigger the Germans.

For sure. I'm from Germany (but with an AC) as well and am always amazed when people tell me that AC makes you sick. Even young people sometimes replicate this "Oh you gotta be careful not to get sick" and would rather be in 30+°C indoors. How come Germans get sick while the rest of the world seems to be doing fine and is even productive during summer (it feels like Germany grinds to a halt during heatwaves).

In Japan people often claim to be "allergic" to AC too for some reason, and there have been many stories I've heard from foreigners whose Japanese wives refuse to let them run the AC during the night either.

Personally I think their "allergy" is just because most AC units in Japan are disgustingly moldy and never cleaned regularly.

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#96

Post by margor »

Ekaros wrote: post #69
imp0cat wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have drain pipes installed, but you can also just collect the water in a bucket and empty it periodically. That requires no extra investment of money, just a tiny bit of your willpower and manpower, depending on the size of the bucket. There are also systems that spray the water back at the AC unit to cool it down, this is supposed to both improve efficiency and evaporate the water so you don't have to deal w…

Both are options. Still both also carry risks or don't solve entire issue. With buckets you don't want to them overflow on floors for example. And with spraying it on ac you want complete evaporation or you are back to same problem. As said it is not too hard problem but still something that most likely requires consideration.

I am all for solving these problems and making sure they don't cause problems for others. My problem is with the ability for arbitrary people to say "no" to your case, without even considering the options or facts.

Sure thing, you could go to court if they have any problem, but who is going to fight for AC worth $500 for a few years just to get it installed?

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#97

Post by danek_szy »

vlyan wrote: post #75
danek_szy wrote: post #19

> HumanProgress.org is a project of the Cato Institute with major support from the John Templeton Foundation and the Searle Freedom Trust [1] > The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. [2] It's nothing more than US libertarian think tank trying to influence EU policy... Perhaps in an effort to push more anti climate change agenda/discourse in US (but that might be jus…

I think even when it's 45C and your boomers cook alive in their concrete ovens, I will still see these sneering opinions from the enlightened master race, civilized to the point of welcoming their own extinction to preserve the klimat for someone else's children.

[citation needed] :)

edit: (well the author decided to remove part of his comment mentioning "face-condoms", too bad)

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#98

Post by bob1029 »

> This ailment is mysteriously absent from the United States, where indoor temperatures are often kept at around 75 degrees even when it’s 100 degrees outside

If having a high temperature delta was a concern everyone in Texas would be dead by now.

I set my thermostat to 65F in August. My house is at 67F right now and it's 81F outside (at 7AM). We're still catching up from yesterday. I don't see the point in allowing the condensing unit to shut off when it's this hot and humid out. You are just giving the angry super Mario sun a head start when you let it turn off in the morning. The temperature in my house will still rise to 74-75F with this unit running non stop. The forecast for today is approximately 100F.

At some point, the cost of electricity becomes constant (100% duty cycle). You can't run the air conditioner more than all the time. It makes the equipment last a lot longer when it's not being cycled every 10-15 minutes. It can be cheaper to just keep things brutally cold given the relatively affordable electric rates. $300 capacitor replacement can buy a lot of kilowatt hours in the ercot and entergy markets. Short cycling a compressor with high pressure and you could be replacing one every other year.

If any of this sounds offensive, I would invite the offended party to join me for lunch in downtown Houston or Galveston sometime this week.

Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

#99

Post by eloisant »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #3

> Several countries require AC installation to be approved by the equivalent of a homeowners association or impose noise ordinances that increase compliance costs and paperwork. This is not unique to ACs. Anything on the outside of a building requires your co-owners to agree.

That's where the image of AC in general matters. It needs to be seen as a life saving tech just like heating, not a luxury item for rich people.

If it was just a matter of red tape it would be fine, but in France people would fight you on AC because it's ugly/noisy/warms up the street.

So you can get it rejected by people who live in a flat where heat is not as much of a problem as your (ground floor vs higher floor, window orientation) or by landlords who don't even live in the building.

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