Live data from Hacker News

Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

lse.ac.uk

491–500 of 505 posts

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#491
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Air to water heat pumps are typically less efficient than air to air. Both will work in cold UK temperatures. However the water is often heated to a higher temperature which can reduce efficiency.

That seems to not hold up when checking. Fx according to https://daikinquebec.net/en/heat-pump/air-vs-water-vs-geothe... Air2air have a cop of 2.5 - 3.2 while air2water it’s 3.0 to 3.5

The top end of the range they've shown here for A2W will assume you only heat the water to a very low temperature, and have a huge underfloor radiator. If you do that, and you only heat the water to 35C, A2W can be more efficient.

Most UK houses have radiators and not underfloor heating and so cannot operate in that way without a hugely expensive retrofit of underfloor heating. It's typical to heat the water to over 50C if you want to reuse installed radiators. In this configuration the A2W pump is less efficient than A2A.

Worth noting these numbers are low. Latest A2A pumps can have COP of up to 4, but an A2W can achieve 4.5 if you keep water temps very low.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of. We dont have sliding windows. Windows tilt in Germany so it's a weird shape you need to close up. Portable ACs come with a mesh cover that works OK but its not as good as a properly sealed window. They're also significantly less efficient and much louder. Midea has released the Porta split a few hears ago which was a game changer for many people. I currently have one cooling the bedroom.

Why is everyone on social media talking about Midea? I never see any other brand mentioned. Is this a coordinated marketing campaign?

They are the first to make split mobile ACs widely available to the masses. They previously existed but were mainly advertised as camping or boat ACs.

Midea put quite a bit of money into ads, sponsorships, etc but they also simply make a really good product.

I've had a monoblock AC before. Same BTU as the Midea one I have now. It was significantly louder, took way longer to cool the same room, and used more energy.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#493
post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A US state is not a country. I get that there is a lot of federalism in the US and that states often have different laws and regulations, but the same is true for European countries. You can compare the US to Germany, or Sourh Carolina to Bavaria, by your own logic.

You can compare all of the US to just a suburb of Paris, if you insist on making stupid comparisons, but lumping all member states into one monolith is pointless both ways. Oregon is incredibly different from Florida, and so is France from Romania

Sure. But Occitaine is also incredibly different to Normandie, so it'd be a fairer comparison.

Romania and France are different in a way that Oregon and Florida aren't. They have the same federal government, the same official language and relatively similar culture. Yeah, there are differences, and they can feel huge if you're in the western bubble, but differences like those are also found in other countries.

I will concede that the US is more ethnically or racially diverse than most parts of Europe, but that's about it. Saying that Oregon and Florida are as different to each other as France and Romania is, in my book, incredibly incorrect and it feels a bit insulting, though I can't out my finger on why exactly.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#494
post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops, in Germany the kitchen is usually the tenants responsibility. Does that mean we should lose our heating privileges instead? (I'm sure some landlords would love that)

You know how laws are made? There's this big building where rational people discuss the options. If they don't get it right, the people can vote them out. Of course stupid laws are occasionally passed, but also it's possible (easy, in fact) to write a reasonable law to say you cannot rent property that is either too hot or too cold.

You realize this was intended as a joke, because a base assumption in that comment was, in a very specific and not that relevant way, incorrect, right? The "oops" and the parenthetical was intended to give it away.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#495
post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is exactly a group of diseases categorized in the ICD. Or you could just respect that people tend to know much more about their medical conditions than you will ever know. It's not my house, it's many different places and many different irritating causes. It's not an issue with dust or high CO2 in my case.

Ah yes the same tone as my parents. I described this delusion at length here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48658494 You’d probably want to look at greater picture - I’d much rather have runny nose than suffocate in co2, catch infections or die from heat. Billions of people live in air conditioned environments. They don’t seem to complain.

Did you ask them? Not even billions, did you ask at least a few thousand? Nobody complained? I know for a fact many people working in buildings with forced AC complain loudly.

But if you actually did read what I wrote, there was no complaint from me about the cooling part of the AC.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#496
post #470
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a perfectly good way to waste kW of energy every day and make the heat outside worse.

Sure beats heat stroke and death.

You are just moving heat strokes elsewhere.

Hell, people are dying now in Europe in part because US AC abuse burned so much energy it contributed in a large part to global warming.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#497
post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European windows open sideways not up and down. So we can't just stick an ac unit on the window.

Yes you can (I've got one), there are various window seals to adapt to that or you can dyi too. The noise etc make it a temporary solution at best but it's possible.

I've also used portable AC inside my home, it was horrible, a lot of heat creeps in due to bad insulation for the heat exhaust pipe, also creates vacuum since it exhaust air, which in turn sucks in more hot air

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#498
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of ignorant comment we thankfully see less and less. You can no longer shift your activities when the weather reaches 35C (95f) every day for weeks without noticeably cooling down in the night. And even if activity shifting was possible, which again, it is not anymore, the authoritative, fatalistic poverty mindset required to demand that one does not actively cool during hot hours is a European menta…

Where is the 'ignorance'? People have lived and trived in places with prolonged 35C stretches for millenia before airco. I do not 'demand' you do the same. I just point out that there were options besides cancelling the meeting, some involved airco, LSE has airconditioned meeting rooms, admittedly without the gorgeous historic atmosphere, some didn't.

The ignorant part is claiming we have workable alternatives to AC. Now you one-up your previous statement by claiming people thrive(d) in these temperatures. Even if you had mistaken thrive for survive, it would still be incorrect, indicated by excess mortality during high temperatures.

I'd grant you that you didn't explicitly advocated for restrictive AC regulation, but I claim your dismissive attitude is implicitly part of the reason AC regulation remains restrictive.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#499
post #316
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anywhere I’m aware of. Maybe the outer unit, then you need the inside, you need a licensed technician to install it, you need it to not look hideous and tank your house price. There is several thousand euros. You also need a larger unit because the rooms are too large to take one of the smaller units.

I think you are thinking of mini splits, and not what americans would call a window unit. I got my window unit for $100 off craigslist and put it in myself without needing any tools.

Right. I only know one version of air conditioning and have never really seen anything other than what you call a mini split.

Re: Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

#500
post #496
post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure beats heat stroke and death.

You are just moving heat strokes elsewhere. Hell, people are dying now in Europe in part because US AC abuse burned so much energy it contributed in a large part to global warming.

I doubt AC "abuse" is relevant compared to just about everything else contributing to global warming.
Post reply on HN