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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

#251

Post by raincom »

titzer wrote: post #205
raincom wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fencing AC units is a very bad idea, as they just cause air flow problems. After all, air and refrigerant circuit exchange heat.

Obviously, people thought about this, and there are lots of fence designs that admit plenty of airflow and lots of products ready-made for this already.

Service technicians hate fences unless they are easy to remove during a service call. Honestly, esthetics is not as much concerning as the noise from compressor and condenser fan. I stayed in an AirBnb, where the outdoor unit next to the bed room, and I couldn't sleep.

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

#252

Post by ozlikethewizard »

walthamstow wrote: post #59
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.

Not in the land of the free, Great Britain. You can put anything on your house, even a 25ft fibreglass shark diving into your loft.

There are noise conditions and a few scenarios that will need planning permission (facing a public highway is one) but generally pretty liberal.

The shark scenario is more interesting, and was I'd say was largely allowed to stay because it was an art installation. They couldn't have built an extension of the same proportions without planning permission.

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

#253

Post by OptionOfT »

fnordsensei wrote: post #94
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.

The problem with shared is the issue of shared cost. How do you determine how much a user consumes?

There is also the issue of upgrading the shared infrastructure. Because of the size it's a lot more expensive to replace, so that is postponed for much longer because now everybody needs to pitch in.

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

#254

Post by esseph »

vlyan wrote: post #216
tempfile wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Hans can do whatever he likes because you want to blame Abdul for the cumulative sum of all his descendants?

yes. does that not make sense to you? unless Hans is a young global leader who flies his private jet to Davos every year to urge proles to eat ze bugs, his carbon footprint will be less than that of someone with children. (I would use something other than "Abdul from Mogadishu" as the counterpart, but the only remotely European people not going extinct are some subgroups of Israeli Jews.)

> but the only remotely European people not going extinct are some subgroups of Israeli Jews

What?

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

#255

Post by post-it »

margor wrote: post #87
post-it wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Condensate is discharged from the inside unit, it should never make it to the balcony.

Where do you think it is getting discharged?

Into drains in the parking garage in the case of my building. Though thinking more about it now, it's totally reasonable that other buildings might find it easiest to drain to the outside unit.

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

#256

Post by hucklebuckle »

antonkochubey wrote: post #235
mstaoru wrote: post #229

For me the hardest part is sleeping. I can cope with heat during the day, but even with good bedding, mattress, windows open, fans, etc. the body traps heat underneath and if it's hot outside it's just impossible to sleep. I was like a zombie for 2 months this year. And sleep deprivation in general has a ton of adverse health effects. Unfortunately, I do live in a "heritage" building so split unit is a no-no. Midea p…

>Midea pre-filled mini-splits went from €700 to 2000-3000+ and months of lead time. It's crazy. They're back to normal prices now. At least in Germany. Make sure to grab one before the next Summer hits :)

Do you have a link by any chance

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

#257

Post by titzer »

raincom wrote: post #251
titzer wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously, people thought about this, and there are lots of fence designs that admit plenty of airflow and lots of products ready-made for this already.

Service technicians hate fences unless they are easy to remove during a service call. Honestly, esthetics is not as much concerning as the noise from compressor and condenser fan. I stayed in an AirBnb, where the outdoor unit next to the bed room, and I couldn't sleep.

Ok, you're clearly trolling it this point. Fences can open.

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

#258

Post by ProfessorLayton »

maybewhenthesun wrote: post #219
Yizahi wrote: post #202

I also find deeply and even extremely ironic, that the same greenwashing radicals who bash ACs in Europe are then supporting "heat pumps" as a modern and efficient heating device. There are even programs labelled as Eco or green or whatever the jargon of the day is, to subsidize or finance heat pumps. People are seemingly unaware that heat pumps are just an AC with a tiny additional valve in the pipes :) .

Nothing ironic about that. Using an airco to cool a house is often (not always) a luxury that humans did without for centuries. So people are used to seeing cooling as luxury. Without heating you die. A heatpump is more energy efficient than most other forms of heating. A heatpump is not always the most efficient way to cool a house.

Notice how you switch from "more energy efficient than most..." when talking about heating, but then switch to "is not always the most efficient..." when talking about cooling.

Both are active temperature control, and both are much more efficient than previous forms of heating and cooling.

There's also the fact that cooling uses much less energy than heating because the temperature differential is usually much less extreme. It takes less energy to go from 100F/37C > 75F/23C than it does to go from 32F/0C > 65F/18C.

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

#259

Post by vlyan »

esseph wrote: post #254
vlyan wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes. does that not make sense to you? unless Hans is a young global leader who flies his private jet to Davos every year to urge proles to eat ze bugs, his carbon footprint will be less than that of someone with children. (I would use something other than "Abdul from Mogadishu" as the counterpart, but the only remotely European people not going extinct are some subgroups of Israeli Jews.)

> but the only remotely European people not going extinct are some subgroups of Israeli Jews What?

not a single European country has the TFR anywhere near 2. with the median age now reaching >=40, the TFR of 1.0-1.5 means rapid and irreversible decline. is this news to you?

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

#260

Post by seanmcdirmid »

raincom wrote: post #245
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heat pumps are just ACs with a lot more energy efficiency. How does that make people hypocrites?

They just buy slogans from those who espouse efficiency. In a traditional AC unit, heat is produced by either electric strips or by a gas burner, no refrigeration circuit is involved in the heating cycle. So, just a blower motor runs, compressor (and condenser fan) never runs in the heating cycle. In heat pumps, refrigeration circuit does both heating and cooling. So, compressor works in both cycles.

How is that not just better since the power requirements are less? The whole point against conventional ACs and for what we call heat pumps is purely that they use less electricities (well, they can also heat and cool, so you don’t need two systems). People like heat pumps simply because they are more energy efficient. It isn’t guerrilla marketing making people like a new thing that is the same as the old thing.
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