I live in the USA. Houses around here don't have A/C. That's because until recently it wasn't needed.
Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
31–40 of 138 posts
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#32Why 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.…
Air-conditioners are heat pumps and everyone should be using heat pumps
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#33Its incredible how much better Italian houses/cities feel at 30C(86F) compared to e.g. German houses/cities at 30C.
While the adaption of solar + air-conditioners (better: reversible heat-pumps) will be a good thing, I hope the local/conventional methods to deal with heat are not forgotten.
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#34Can'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 cooler, but hotter outside; and for that, green or not, it needs to put in energy to do the work, which results in _even more heat_.
At scale a.k.a cities this creates measurable bubbles of heat (+1-2degC) around AC'd places.
As Desty Nova puts it in Gunnm (a.k.a Battle Angel Alita):
Now becomes the past in an instant — and everyone will eventually die! Destiny triumphs over human knowledge and goes mad! That is the way of things! I spit upon this frail, crazed, world! I spit upon the Second Law of Thermodynamics!Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#35If you are in the market for a portable AC I highly recommend you watch this video first:
People seem to be catching on this and some brands now offer portable mini-splits ACs, I just bought this one (waiting for it to arrive though):
https://youtu.be/D5ApvRis9X8?t=45
However they are still quite expensive.
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#36Why 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.…
If you count that one weird day in March, there have been 9 days so far this year where the temperature has been above 28C I live in central Europe as well. It's only June... You'll have 39C on Sunday.
Using 28C as a threshold since temperatures at or above start to affect sleep.
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#37I 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…
The Economist is British
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#38Why 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.…
The climate situation will only get worse. That “2-4 weeks” number will continue to grow. At some point you will need AC to survive but if that transition doesn’t start happening now the electrical system won’t be able to tolerate the load.
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#39If you live by the sea or on a boat, you don't need AC
Re: Europeans should learn to love the air-conditioner
#40Its incredible how much better Italian houses/cities feel at 30C(86F) compared to e.g. German houses/cities at 30C. While the adaption of solar + air-conditioners (better: reversible heat-pumps) will be a good thing, I hope the local/conventional methods to deal with heat are not forgotten.
It is because of insulation and lack of sun-mitigating apparatus (like awnings). Buildings with lots of insulation absorb heat all through the day and release it slowly at night.