Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths
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Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths
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Re: Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths
#2Original source: (6 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48667014
> This post is adapted from an opinion piece in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, as well as an English translation in Quillette.
Re: Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths
#3Original source: (6 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48667014 > This post is adapted from an opinion piece in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, as well as an English translation in Quillette.
It's also the heat-problem equivalent of the Microsoft "you're in a helicopter" joke except in this case the punchline is "use A/C". You can't just magic that into existence across an entire continent of ~700M people that have never needed anything like it until now and that includes huge numbers of houses hundreds of years old with thick stone walls that you can't just punch a cable or duct through even if you had the hundreds of millions of units available to install. Sure, we can kludge around the heat problem a bit if it starts raining (or snowing) A/C units and they magically get installed in every house, shop, factory, and transport system. And while we're at it, let's magic an EV into every garage and a pony into every kids backyard. Anything else?
Re: Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths
#4Original source: (6 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48667014 > This post is adapted from an opinion piece in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, as well as an English translation in Quillette.
It's also the heat-problem equivalent of the Microsoft "you're in a helicopter" joke except in this case the punchline is "use A/C". You can't just magic that into existence across an entire continent of ~700M people that have never needed anything like it until now and that includes huge numbers of houses hundreds of years old with thick stone walls that you can't just punch a cable or duct through even if you had t…
That’s very fair and your are absolutely right that it will be very difficult to retrofit old homes. Do you think newer office buildings and schools would be a good place to start?
Re: Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also the heat-problem equivalent of the Microsoft "you're in a helicopter" joke except in this case the punchline is "use A/C". You can't just magic that into existence across an entire continent of ~700M people that have never needed anything like it until now and that includes huge numbers of houses hundreds of years old with thick stone walls that you can't just punch a cable or duct through even if you had t…
That’s very fair and your are absolutely right that it will be very difficult to retrofit old homes. Do you think newer office buildings and schools would be a good place to start?
New builds should be a no-brainer because you can integrate them into the build process, but for existing buildings you'd really have to ask a civil engineer. For example if you're building with gasbeton/AAC it's still going to be a helluva job retrofitting the required ducting through it. But yeah, schools and office buildings would be a good start if you can manage it.