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I grew up in South Spain, in a European city that goes beyond 40° celsius for 1-2 months in a row during summer and we never had an aircon. How we did it? Just

I grew up in South Spain, in a European city that goes beyond 40° celsius for 1-2 months in a row during summer and we never had an aircon. How we did it? Just white painted house, with thick walls. Open the windows during the night and keep them closed during the day. It works perfectly. One of the big problems is paper thin walls of modern buildings and using materials and colors that absorb and retain heat. We have the technical solutions since centuries but there is no willing to do things properly in this crazy captalistic society that we live now.

GhostVII 7y ago
If you want to build a house properly, you can buy some land and get someone to build it for you, I'm sure there are lots of people willing to build a well constructed house. In general, people just seem to prefer cheaply constructed larger homes over well constructed smaller ones, don't really see what capitalism has to do with it other than giving them the freedom to make that choice.
- cultus 7y ago
  I think the parent's point is that this has produced many spectacularly bad outcomes.
nwah1 7y ago
Even with curtain walls, as long as the windows are made with low-E glass and are well insulated, then they will provide a lot of protection from heat and allow AC to work efficiently.
deleted 7y ago
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ChuckNorris89 7y ago
Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you lived in the south of Spain it means you had cool air currents from the sea always blowing and generating ventilation when you opened the windows. In central Europe, we have no sea, no coast and no winds to bring cool air in summer. I'm in Austria, and due to the lack of wind, at night the temperature doesn't drop much and even with all the doors and windows of my apartment wide open the air is literally sitting still and we're boiling.
- mbroncano 7y ago
  In my experience, in towns like Merida or Córdoba, some 400km away for the nearest coastal site, there’s not much of a sea breeze whatsoever. Also, most of that part of Spain is in a Mesa well over 2k ft. ASL. Finally, 1st. hand experience as of last summer, temperatures don’t drop at all at night, staying in the low thirties (Celsius) for the night. This year seems nicer surprisingly.
- victornomad 7y ago
  The south of Spain is quite big. I grew up in the interior, so no sea winds
jdminhbg 7y ago
This strategy works well in arid climates where the dew point (and low temperatures) are in the 10s C. In humid climates where it doesn't drop below 25C at night, it simply never gets cold enough.
- bonzini 7y ago
  Northern Italy is like that, and we survive using exactly the same strategy. Every year there are one or two weeks between the second half of June and the end of July where lows are 24-28C and highs are 32-36C. It's now midnight and temperature is 30C with 65% humidity. It sucks, but here it isn't a particularly hot summer and still there's no AC in most houses.
  - Tade0 7y ago
    There's one additional factor: high ceilings. I used to spend a good chunk of the year in Bologna, where me and my SO rented an apartment with a 3.5m ceiling, thick walls and no AC. Summer was pretty brutal, but manageable - I was able to maintain a temperature 10C lower than outside during the day. Our bed was on a mezzanine, which I didn't use during the summer because there was simply a noticeable temperature difference.
marcinzm 7y ago
>One of the big problems is paper thin walls of modern buildings and using materials and colors that absorb and retain heat. We have the technical solutions since centuries but there is no willing to do things properly in this crazy captalistic society that we live now. The r-value of 16 inches of concrete is around 1.75. The r-value of 1 inch of top end insulating foam is 7.20. R-value is how resistive something is to transmitting heat. Or in other words, the reason we don't have thick walls is because modern insulating material is well over an order of magnitude better at insulating than concrete/brick/etc. edit: And they used dark materials because in most of Europe you used to be much more concerned about heating in winter versus cooling in summer. That's, obviously, changing now but acting as if it made no sense is just silly.
- adrianN 7y ago
  You're right of course, but thermal mass is important too.
  - marcinzm 7y ago
    But only if, as I understand it, the temperature varies significantly throughout the day and night. Which is not really the case in much of central Europe as others have pointed out.
lazyant 7y ago
The classic Andalusian hacienda has two levels, top for winter living and lower for summer, it has an inside patio (some with a fountain) covered with a canopy or canvas. But yes white and thick walls, thick roofs with ceramic tiles help a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Towns_of_Andalusia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Towns_of_Andalusia
smithmayowa 7y ago
This would never work where I stay, because of mosquitoes. You do not open your windows unless you have nets, and of recent the air blown are also hot, and so air-conditioning is the only saving grace you have provided there is stable power supply except you are ready to utilize generators which contributes to making the whole climate situation unbearable.

GhostVII 7y ago

If you want to build a house properly, you can buy some land and get someone to build it for you, I'm sure there are lots of people willing to build a well constructed house. In general, people just seem to prefer cheaply constructed larger homes over well constructed smaller ones, don't really see what capitalism has to do with it other than giving them the freedom to make that choice.

cultus 7y ago
I think the parent's point is that this has produced many spectacularly bad outcomes.

nwah1 7y ago

Even with curtain walls, as long as the windows are made with low-E glass and are well insulated, then they will provide a lot of protection from heat and allow AC to work efficiently.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ChuckNorris89 7y ago

Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you lived in the south of Spain it means you had cool air currents from the sea always blowing and generating ventilation when you opened the windows. In central Europe, we have no sea, no coast and no winds to bring cool air in summer. I'm in Austria, and due to the lack of wind, at night the temperature doesn't drop much and even with all the doors and windows of my apartment wide open the air is literally sitting still and we're boiling.

mbroncano 7y ago
In my experience, in towns like Merida or Córdoba, some 400km away for the nearest coastal site, there’s not much of a sea breeze whatsoever. Also, most of that part of Spain is in a Mesa well over 2k ft. ASL. Finally, 1st. hand experience as of last summer, temperatures don’t drop at all at night, staying in the low thirties (Celsius) for the night. This year seems nicer surprisingly.
victornomad 7y ago
The south of Spain is quite big. I grew up in the interior, so no sea winds

jdminhbg 7y ago

This strategy works well in arid climates where the dew point (and low temperatures) are in the 10s C. In humid climates where it doesn't drop below 25C at night, it simply never gets cold enough.

bonzini 7y ago
Northern Italy is like that, and we survive using exactly the same strategy. Every year there are one or two weeks between the second half of June and the end of July where lows are 24-28C and highs are 32-36C. It's now midnight and temperature is 30C with 65% humidity. It sucks, but here it isn't a particularly hot summer and still there's no AC in most houses.
- Tade0 7y ago
  There's one additional factor: high ceilings. I used to spend a good chunk of the year in Bologna, where me and my SO rented an apartment with a 3.5m ceiling, thick walls and no AC. Summer was pretty brutal, but manageable - I was able to maintain a temperature 10C lower than outside during the day. Our bed was on a mezzanine, which I didn't use during the summer because there was simply a noticeable temperature difference.

marcinzm 7y ago

>One of the big problems is paper thin walls of modern buildings and using materials and colors that absorb and retain heat. We have the technical solutions since centuries but there is no willing to do things properly in this crazy captalistic society that we live now. The r-value of 16 inches of concrete is around 1.75. The r-value of 1 inch of top end insulating foam is 7.20. R-value is how resistive something is to transmitting heat. Or in other words, the reason we don't have thick walls is because modern insulating material is well over an order of magnitude better at insulating than concrete/brick/etc. edit: And they used dark materials because in most of Europe you used to be much more concerned about heating in winter versus cooling in summer. That's, obviously, changing now but acting as if it made no sense is just silly.

adrianN 7y ago
You're right of course, but thermal mass is important too.
- marcinzm 7y ago
  But only if, as I understand it, the temperature varies significantly throughout the day and night. Which is not really the case in much of central Europe as others have pointed out.

lazyant 7y ago

The classic Andalusian hacienda has two levels, top for winter living and lower for summer, it has an inside patio (some with a fountain) covered with a canopy or canvas. But yes white and thick walls, thick roofs with ceramic tiles help a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Towns_of_Andalusia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Towns_of_Andalusia

smithmayowa 7y ago

This would never work where I stay, because of mosquitoes. You do not open your windows unless you have nets, and of recent the air blown are also hot, and so air-conditioning is the only saving grace you have provided there is stable power supply except you are ready to utilize generators which contributes to making the whole climate situation unbearable.