We have similar rules for condos in Canada, so we used a portable one back when we owned a condo. It’s also kinda expensive to install one, too.
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
#12I mean it's mostly about energy efficiency, a well insulated house is as easy to cool in summer as it is to heat in winter. Most heat pumps can also cool and new construction in most European countries like Germany is equipped with floor heating and central ventilation which in summer allows you to run around 18 degree Celsius hot water through the system to cool it, that yields around 20-40 Watt of cooling power per square meter, and that's often sufficient to keep things chilly. Mind you not American style 18 degree Celsius kind of chilly, but 20-25 degrees easily, which I think is quite nice. The bonus of this system is that it's mostly "radiative" cooling as the cold surface acts as an absorber of infrared radiation, I find it much more pleasant than having cold air blown into your face.
We equipped our founding era building with wall heating and will test out the heatpump based cooling next summer, if it's not enough I would consider installing a small AC unit, that's super easy as well.
Don't know what the article wants to say, there's no ban on AC anywhere in Europe and small units are quite affordable, you can get a single split unit from Mitsubishi for 500 € from Italy. The only nuisance is that installation is heavily regulated in Germany so they rip you off with insane cost. That's definitely a thing that needs to change in my opinion.
Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#13I don't necessarily disagree, but I am wondering what luxury will next become a necessity if we keep increasing our energy usage in order to get both more luxuries and necessities? On the bright side, I suppose one mitigating factor is that renewable energy makes it less harmful to use energy to power A/C usage.
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Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#14We 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…
Seems like Poland and Finland might have something in common then. It's exactly the same here and exactly senseless.
Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#15Thats what I tell to all the wildlife when they collapse, too.
Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#16Cooling 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.
I live in Sweden. You are incorrect. Having your home basically unlivable a few weeks every year is not ok, and ground heat exchange pumps that provide cooling are energetically basically free, so just do it.
Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#17> 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.
Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#18> 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.
Of course. But isn't this debate more about the case where you are the only owner?
Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#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 just my projection).
Thank you, case closed.
[1] https://humanprogress.org/about/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute
Re: Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
#20> 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.
Don't get me started on how it works in my country. People who don't have a balcony are screwed and are entirely dependent on homeowners association which arbitrarily can agree or not, or they can stay indecisive about it and not let you do anything. Well, if you have a balcony? you just put it there and make the necessary holes for it, problem solved. The effect is exactly the same - you just have AC installed. In o…
It is not entirely that simple. Condensate water is potential problem if wrongly discharged. But adding sufficient drainage is not that expensive per balcony basis. So it is something that should be fixed.