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Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
361–370 of 505 posts
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this actually illegal in many places? I proposed this to my parents in Germany and they seemed to be under the impression that they could install one but their village is getting a village-wide heat pump system this fall that can also cool in summer, so they are just sitting this summer out as is.
I highly doubt there are many (if any) places with "installing any kind of AC is illegal" laws. On the other hand, there are plenty of noise-related laws preventing you from installing an AC loud enough to be a nuisance for your neighbors. But that's solved by getting one with proper sound isolation, or placing it in such a way that the noise doesn't travel to the neighboring properties. Similarly, you aren't allowed…
The rules in NL at least are 45dB during hte day, 40dB at night, at property line.
Our machine in "silent" mode is around 42dB ~60cm from the unit, and we can get it to 40dB with a little distnace from property line and a sound barrier between it and the neighbour. It really is _shockingly_ quiet compared to the dull roar of AC that was ubiquitous to me growing up in central California. (40 dB is "faint" or "computer/babbling brook according to https://soundproofingguide.com/decibels-level-comparison-cha... ) Neighbours still whine about it though. I think they dislike A/C on principle, though.
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
Living in London and Dublin, what I've observed is that we get the following contradictory statements: - "We don't need AC, It's only hot a few times during the year." - "Oh what a terrible heat, global warming is getting worse every year." Pair to that the fact that in many places windows don't open all the way due to bureocratic regulations and many interior designs are very questionable in terms of air flow and yo…
Northern Europe will actually get colder with global warming... Well, only on average, the heat waves in the summer will stay. But it's always funny how many people don't really realize how soon the AMOC will likely collapse (probably within the next 30 years - definitely within the next 70 years) and just unlivable most houses will consequently become, as what we currently consider an extreme winter would consequent…
One part of this is how hard it is to translate the impact to now-scientists.
E.g. 2 degrees temperature raise did not sound bad to me, untill someone explained to me this is from ground to space, and the actual raise is double or triple that. Then we looked on a map and found current day Morocco seems close to what my Belgium is expected to become in that scenario. I still am not capable of deciding how realistic this is.
So you made me surf to amocscenarios.org, and even if this thing is reliable, it still is hard to interprete. My winter goes from -5 every decade to -18. I've never had either in my life. What does this even mean? Can my ww2 rebuilt house deal with -5, as it supposedly already did? What to do forcdealing with -18?
And that's the opinion of someone knowing a little bit. Now go to someone who has to managed 10 of life's disasters over his lifetime and explain how bad this really is.
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
People tend to rely on air temperatures when in reality the lethality of heat is probably more linked to the wet-bulb temperature. The human body has a natural resting temperature of about 37°C, and metabolism of course generates more heat constantly, so we constantly have to shed that heat. When the temperature is low, we can rely purely on conducting the heat into the atmosphere to shed the heat (which is probably…
This for sure. I notice quite a difference with 30 degrees in rural Portugal vs the Netherlands. You sweat a lot more due to the higher humidity.
37 in Turkey felt like 26 in Ireland.
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#365Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you have any conception of how little money most people have. Why would I spend £15-20k I don't have on a heat pump so I can get 'free' air con when my house is already heated via another method? Most people don't have £500 spare for a portable air con unit. On top of that, until a few months ago, government subsidies for heat pumps didn't apply to the versions that include air con so anyone who did get…
Hold on - 15k GBP? An ordinary heatpump for an ordinary house should cost something like 3000 NZD including labor for installation. What are we doing differently?
Usually it's installers taking the piss on quotes because it's not a standard thing and they don't want to deal with it or think they can get away with it. The US has a similar issue in some places for heat pumps (but not AC, despite being the same damn thing).
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
By all means install an AC unit to deal with the worst of it. Just install shades as well when you've got the scaffolding out so you can install a smaller, cheaper, and less energy-hungry one. Unfortunately I personally live in a highrise, and in a rental unit, so that "small hole and a bracket" definitely isn't an option for everyone.
If you can open a window at all you can run a portable AC unit. Even just 3-4 inches is enough.
That's a perfectly good way to waste kW of energy every day and make the heat outside worse.
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well yeah, it takes time to adjust to new circumstances. Especially since weather events don't come with any documentation saying things like "this will happen every two years now".
I'd argue that these temperatures are not a new thing. It's just a contradiction that is almost a tradition at this point, imho.
You could argue that. But you'd be wrong. :-)
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#368Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you just need to let people use AC properly (..) every person in southern Europe should have an AC unit in their bedroom and deaths will go down substantially. Yes, exactly: install AC where it truly helps and where it is truly needed. That's the point I was trying to make. Most of the rest is solved far more efficient by things like installing shades. In other words: don't go all-out on giant whole-home AC without…
> no need to tear them down after a couple of decades Where are people constructing buildings that need to be torn down after a couple decades? This is a refrain I've heard about construction (in the US?) several times in discussions like these, and I find it very puzzling.
I've seen some 2020+ construction in the Texas market that might not make it much beyond 2040. If you want to see stuff that lasts, constrain year of construction to the 20th century on Zillow.
I know of entire subdivisions where the new homes are being actively consumed by black mold due to insufficient HVAC capacity for latent heat removal. Every single central dehumidifier installed in those builds has lost its refrigerant charge due to some common manufacturer (Honeywell) defect. So, in some cases we didn't HVAC hard enough despite being America.
I don't understand how you can maintain a civilization in a place like Miami or Galveston without modern hvac.
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are renters in the US specifically permitted by law to install airco units that require permanent modification to the property? Or are landlords mandated to install airco units on a renters request? Or..?
The US is a big place, and states are free to set their own rules, and those rules do vary. I live in Ohio (USA), where a landlord isn't required to provide air conditioning. Some other parts of the US do require it. It's hard to pin down most things in the US using just one generalized statement. Most of the rentals I've had did provide aircon, in some form, anyway. For those that did not provide AC, I've just used…
Right. So regulation isn't actually all that different than it is in Europe, except that some especially hot parts of the US mandate airco for rental housing, which is something I don't think is being done in Europe yet.
Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dew point is a much better measure of the oppressive, muggy, sweltering feeling than humidity. The dew point in Australia ranges in the 5ºc - 15ºc range at which 30ºc after sunset feels vastly different, way cooler than South East Asia where the dew point is constantly above 24ºc.
Right so in Brussels today the dew point is forecast to be 23c. Big difference.
I used to live in Berlin and the summers there were unbearably muggy. Everyone seemed okay with it and it made me feel crazy!