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Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity
- Arodex 2mo agoFirst words from the article: >Yet as heat waves kill tens of thousands of Europeans each year ...Each year? Was it the case every year twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago? What has changed, miss Follett? Last words from the article: >But forgoing air conditioning is a refusal to move on from a lethally hot past. Gee, I wonder if this global warming thing wasn't a mistake to let happen... If that author is right, then we can and should punish the people responsible for global warming? Because that includes a lot of her colleagues at Cato and WaPo. The same who were against the same carbon taxes that would be useful to reduce and mitigate the global warming that kills...
- michelsedgh 2mo agoHow are u gonna punish china? do u have any logic? chatgpt 3.5 makes more sense than these types of comments...
- Arodex 2mo agoI didn't know it was China who lied and diverted global efforts to reduce greenhouse gases...
- 2III7 2mo ago> If that author is right, then we can and should punish the people responsible for global warming? So every adult human and corporation?
- Arodex 2mo agoWe can start with people who got paid to make sure no action was taken against global warming - such as everyone working at CATO, like the author of this article...
- pessimizer 2mo ago> ...Each year? Was it the case every year twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago? What has changed, miss Follett? Are you considering answering this question? Was it the case fifty years ago? Did anything change?
- Arodex 2mo agoIt is called a rhetorical question. You already know the answer. And if you don't already know it, just wonder why AC isn't widespread in Europe, why nuclear plants built decades ago have to stop due to the lack of water and why every single article talks about an "exceptional" heat wave. Do you really need me to hold you hand there?
- huntertwo 2mo agoOh no you’re gonna trigger the Germans.
- flyingjoe 2mo agoFor sure. I'm from Germany (but with an AC) as well and am always amazed when people tell me that AC makes you sick. Even young people sometimes replicate this "Oh you gotta be careful not to get sick" and would rather be in 30+°C indoors. How come Germans get sick while the rest of the world seems to be doing fine and is even productive during summer (it feels like Germany grinds to a halt during heatwaves).
- danek_szy 2mo agoAC dries the air out and your respiratory system basically depends on moisture to catch air particles and pathogens in your respiratory tract. Nothing unique about Germans in this case, sorry. ;)
- ranger_danger 2mo agoYou could run a humidifier as well to offset that if you're really affected by it, but most people seem to be fine.
- rvz 2mo agoExactly. It is like never turning the heater on once the temperature drops to -10°C (then catching a cold and getting sick). So once it is too hot, just turn the AC on and you won't get sick or risk a heat stroke either. We'll come back to this in several months for a winter freeze to see if Europe has basic heating to keep themselves warm (or will they not turn the heaters on for some reason) and in a year, to see if the rest of Europe have learned their lesson to just have basic AC installed for the next heatwave.
- ranger_danger 2mo agoIn Japan people often claim to be "allergic" to AC too for some reason, and there have been many stories I've heard from foreigners whose Japanese wives refuse to let them run the AC during the night either. Personally I think their "allergy" is just because most AC units in Japan are disgustingly moldy and never cleaned regularly.
- the_mitsuhiko 2mo ago> Several countries require AC installation to be approved by the equivalent of a homeowners association or impose noise ordinances that increase compliance costs and paperwork. This is not unique to ACs. Anything on the outside of a building requires your co-owners to agree.
- margor 2mo agoDon't get me started on how it works in my country. People who don't have a balcony are screwed and are entirely dependent on homeowners association which arbitrarily can agree or not, or they can stay indecisive about it and not let you do anything. Well, if you have a balcony? you just put it there and make the necessary holes for it, problem solved. The effect is exactly the same - you just have AC installed. In one case you have to go through totally unnecessary hoops, and in other case, you just do whatever you want. What's even the point of it?
- Ekaros 2mo agoIt is not entirely that simple. Condensate water is potential problem if wrongly discharged. But adding sufficient drainage is not that expensive per balcony basis. So it is something that should be fixed.
- post-it 2mo agoCondensate is discharged from the inside unit, it should never make it to the balcony.
- imp0cat 2mo agoIn a typical mini-split, the water flows to the outside unit and exits the system there, so you either have a pump or a sufficiently sloped pipe from the inside unit to the outside unit. edit: I guess you could route the drain pipe anywhere if you wanted, so I retract my previous statement.
- margor 2mo ago
- deanc 2mo agoWe have those stupid regulations in Finland about how the outside of our apartments buildings should look - meaning you cannot put the condenser visibly on the outside of the building. I've heard stories of residents being scalded for putting flowers on their balcony railings that face outwards as it ruins the "look". Given almost all apartment buildings are built consistently between every floor they could ensure consistent placement of condensers across all floors and it wouldn't even look that bad. What makes the situation much worse here is we have insanely good insulation on the buildings. They trap heat for the cold winters, but the walls just maintain all the heat during the summers. A new approach is needed to make it livable here. In my own apartment I am not able to create a cross-breeze through strategic window opening to try and bring in cooler air from outside, so I've resorted to opening a window on one side of the apartment and using a Vornado fan to push air out the window on another side of the apartment - creating a pressurized system.
- margor 2mo agoSeems like Poland and Finland might have something in common then. It's exactly the same here and exactly senseless.
- the_real_cher 2mo agoI could see this being a good policy for unsightly detrius or debris but they've taken it way too far.
- titzer 2mo agoIs it really so hard to put a small fence around it to hide the ugly?
- mr_mitm 2mo ago> Germany has reported more than 5,000 excess deaths this year. We're up to more than 15,000: https://www.rki.de/DE/Themen/Gesundheit-und-Gesellschaft/Gesundheitliche-Einflussfaktoren-A-Z/H/Hitze/Bericht_Hitzemortalitaet.html https://www.rki.de/DE/Themen/Gesundheit-und-Gesellschaft/Ges...
- FartyMcFarter 2mo agoI don't necessarily disagree, but I am wondering what luxury will next become a necessity if we keep increasing our energy usage in order to get both more luxuries and necessities? On the bright side, I suppose one mitigating factor is that renewable energy makes it less harmful to use energy to power A/C usage.
- oleganza 2mo agoAre we going to build a dyson sphere some day or are we not? That's some hell of a "increasing our energy usage".
- rotringlvr 2mo ago[dead]
- elil17 2mo agoCooling technologies are a necessity and air conditioning is one of many possible options. Europe north of France is substantially cooler than much of the US, even on the hottest days. Many homes could get by on ceiling fans, but they are very uncommon here.
- boxed 2mo agoI live in Sweden. You are incorrect. Having your home basically unlivable a few weeks every year is not ok, and ground heat exchange pumps that provide cooling are energetically basically free, so just do it.
- danek_szy 2mo agoWhat technology are these heat pumps using that make them "energetically basically free"?
- fhackenberger 2mo agoRun on solar (sun usually shines when it's hot) and use geothermic energy. The ground below your house is significantly cooler than the surrounding air. I'd still favour the fan, I've lived in India for longer periods with consistently around 32-36 C and a fan is perfectly enough after a little while of adapting.
- ane 2mo agoThey have very good thermal coeffiency: ground source heat pumps will typically generate 3-6kWh of thermal energy from 1kWh of electricity. By reversing the flow you can also use ground source heat pumps for cooling as well.
- danek_szy 2mo agoDoesn't sound like "basically free" to me... It still uses electricity, which doesn't help with climate change (even if it mostly comes from renewables).
- markus_zhang 2mo agoWe have similar rules for condos in Canada, so we used a portable one back when we owned a condo. It’s also kinda expensive to install one, too.
- ThePhysicist 2mo agoI mean it's mostly about energy efficiency, a well insulated house is as easy to cool in summer as it is to heat in winter. Most heat pumps can also cool and new construction in most European countries like Germany is equipped with floor heating and central ventilation which in summer allows you to run around 18 degree Celsius hot water through the system to cool it, that yields around 20-40 Watt of cooling power per square meter, and that's often sufficient to keep things chilly. Mind you not American style 18 degree Celsius kind of chilly, but 20-25 degrees easily, which I think is quite nice. The bonus of this system is that it's mostly "radiative" cooling as the cold surface acts as an absorber of infrared radiation, I find it much more pleasant than having cold air blown into your face. We equipped our founding era building with wall heating and will test out the heatpump based cooling next summer, if it's not enough I would consider installing a small AC unit, that's super easy as well. Don't know what the article wants to say, there's no ban on AC anywhere in Europe and small units are quite affordable, you can get a single split unit from Mitsubishi for 500 € from Italy. The only nuisance is that installation is heavily regulated in Germany so they rip you off with insane cost. That's definitely a thing that needs to change in my opinion.
- morsch 2mo agoSpot on. You're doing heatpump based cooling without floor heating? I didn't realise that was an option.
- ThePhysicist 2mo agoWall heating, it's like floor heating, just on the wall.
- mmsc 2mo agoThats what I tell to all the wildlife when they collapse, too.
- danek_szy 2mo ago> HumanProgress.org is a project of the Cato Institute with major support from the John Templeton Foundation and the Searle Freedom Trust [1] > The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. [2] It's nothing more than US libertarian think tank trying to influence EU policy... Perhaps in an effort to push more anti climate change agenda/discourse in US (but that might be just my projection). Thank you, case closed. [1] https://humanprogress.org/about/ https://humanprogress.org/about/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute
- vlyan 2mo agoI think even when it's 45C and your boomers cook alive in their concrete ovens, I will still see these sneering opinions from the enlightened master race, civilized to the point of welcoming their own extinction to preserve the klimat for someone else's children.
- danek_szy 2mo ago[citation needed] :) edit: (well the author decided to remove part of his comment mentioning "face-condoms", too bad)
- vlyan 2mo agookay, sure. I only removed it because I know that questioning the mass hysteria of that brief era gets you flagged. >the RKI estimated roughly 2,600–4,900 heat-related deaths annually in 2022–2025 >Germany reported about 2,800 COVID-19-associated deaths in the 2024/25 season, which covers most of the 2025 winter and spring. so yes, taking Germany as the example, the world-ending plague now kills fewer boomers per year than summer does, despite it being over 4 years since anyone wore face condoms or gave a shit about bi-weekly boosters.
- tempfile 2mo agoLazy climate change denialism, nobody is convinced.
- hagfjall 2mo agoSweden has a 'district cooling' as well as district heating. 2 completely different systems ofcourse. The district cooling is a centralized way of providing cold air/liquid to building and facilities across the city. The centralized producer of the cold stuff, they can also create the chilly stuff by utilizing waste heat from factories, large buildings etc. Pretty neat idea IMO, and something that ideally would be in priority instead of letting each building have their own AC and create a lot of noise. Source: https://www.goteborgenergi.se/foretag/fjarrkyla https://www.goteborgenergi.se/foretag/fjarrkyla
- throwaway473825 2mo agoThe problem with monopolies is that they can hike prices at will. This has certainly happened with district heating in Sweden. You can't do that with AC and solar.
- fulafel 1mo agoAlso several other places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_cooling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_cooling
- probably_wrong 2mo agoI'm not convinced by the author's point that ACs do not impose a burden on the electrical grid. They write that ACs have gotten more efficient, which may be true, but that's the same Windows developers have been saying over years and yet boot times and hardware requirements have gone way up. One million efficient units still require more energy than no units. And while I definitely believe that European hospitals and retirement homes sadly need ACs now (thanks global warming), I'm not sure everyone and their dog needs one. I also have reservations about why an American libertarian think tank writes about what Europeans should do, but that's probably on me.
- danek_szy 2mo ago> I also have reservations about why an American libertarian think tank writes about what Europeans should do, but that's probably on me. My thoughts exactly, except in my mind it's pretty clear that it's about influencing the climate change discourse... The less people are bothered by the rising temperatures, the more they will acquiesce to environmentally unfriendly policy.
- twoodfin 2mo agoEuropean citizens should have obstacles put into their path to access one of the great life-enhancing technologies of the last century … so they will vote for the “right” policies as implemented by the politicians setting up those obstacles? Good luck with that.
- Moldoteck 2mo agoI'm still brothered by climate change every time i get out of my apartment. I still don't want to feel miserable during heatwave. This argument is utter nonsense considering most of Europe has summer clean electric overcapacity. It's even more nonsensical in case of hvacs because it leads to pollution reduction by replacing gas heating
- lompad 2mo agoThe reason why they aren't much of a problem for the grid is solar. Right now we already have the issue, that in some areas we're throwing away the majority of the produced electricity. Very common in e.g. southern germany. Conveniently, cooling is especially needed when the energy production from solar is at its maximum. I've been part of projects building 20-40 MW solar installations in southern germany and on average we throw away >50% of what we generate. There is SO MUCH SOLAR now, we don't know what to do with all the energy.
- collinmcnulty 2mo agoA total ban is nonsensical. If you’re concerned about noise regulate the sound level. If you’re concerned about energy use, tax it and put the money raised into a solar subsidy. But the idea you can have a heat pump and can’t have an AC is absurd because a heat pump literally is an AC flipped around.
- michelsedgh 2mo agoAll these countries are pushing EV's so I don't understand how it could be about energy use lol?
- kalleboo 2mo agoEVs use less energy than ICE cars, they are more efficient.
- ImJamal 2mo agoWell filling up your ICE car doesn't impact the energy grid (the electric use of the pumps is minimal). Charging your EV does.
- iso1631 2mo agoBut they put more demand on the electrical grid. Domestic connections in the UK are built with an average peak consumption of about 1.5 to 2kW, you can draw ten times that, but its unlikely every house will do that at the same time, so it's just like a contention ratio on a network. Now imagine everyone charges their car, even if it's only for an hour, but when they get home at 7pm, same time as putting on the kettle and the oven, that's way higher than the substation can provide. One study put a fully electric car/heatpump/cooking about 4 times the peak demand of an ice/gas heating house, even if total usage is only twice as much, and total energy use is far less than with ICE/gas. Throw in solar and it reduces the total power drawn from the grid, but not the peak amount. Drawing 20kW for one hour is far more expensive to service than drawing 1kW for 24 hours, but uses less energy.
- 2mo ago
- 38384848b 2mo agoidk fam I live in mauritania and we just tough it out
- t0mislav 2mo agoLuckily, we in Croatia have ACs, a lot.
- andunie 2mo agoWhat temperatures are we talking about here? Aren't people living in much higher temperatures in tropical zones just fine?
- dizhn 2mo agoI've been to a little town in Pakistan where they sell meat out in the open and you can get a hair cut on the street. Houses are run down as you would expect but you better believe they all seemed to have AC units.
- defrost 2mo agoJust fine in completely different types of buildings. There's a lot of buildings to tear down and convert if you want to legitimately make comparisons.
- lukasbm 2mo agoYeah, with AC
- ricardobayes 2mo agoI tend to stay away from topics like this which generalize and basically tell a whole continent they are living their lives "wrongly". But I have to say, AC is not "banned" anywhere in Europe, apart from certain cantons of Switzerland. In Germany you have a right to AC actually, if your community votes to "veto" the installation a court can overturn that.
- dguest 2mo agoBrought to you by an American libertarian think tank [1], no less. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute
- chrystalkey 2mo agoIn what way?
- cholantesh 2mo ago"HumanProgress.org is a project of the Cato Institute with major support from the John Templeton Foundation and the Searle Freedom Trust, as well as additional funding from the B & E Collins Foundation, and William H. Donner Foundation." ~ https://humanprogress.org/about/ https://humanprogress.org/about/
- jjgreen 2mo agoToday seems to be international AC shilling day https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49463831 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49463831
- danielvaughn 2mo agoTo be fair, the article doesn't say that AC is banned - it mostly focuses on the HOA-style local ordinances and permits that discourage people from using AC.
- kleiba2 2mo ago> But I have to say, AC is not "banned" anywhere in Europe Exactly, the whole premise of the article is a bit of a strawman. In fact, where I live, the demand for AC installation is so high that you have to wait months for a company to install a unit for you. These extreme heat waves are a fairly new phenomenon, summers in central Europe just didn't use to get so hot for such a long stretch of time even a few decades ago. Now that they've become the way they are, people are doing what? Correct, installing AC units. Imagine that. But let's not forget that energy is also on average a lot more expensive in Europe than in the US. The cost plus environmental concerns, which seem to fair less high in the public conscience on the other side of the Atlantic, have also been reasons why people were not keen on AC units in the past.
- TrackerFF 2mo agoHere in Norway AC is not the standard in hotel rooms. For 80% of the year, that's OK - but it can become pretty uncomfortable if you're booking anytime between mid-June and mid-August. The standard here are heat pumps, at least for residential housing. It is really only a problem if you live in blocks or apartment buildings that are housing associations, with strict rules regarding how such heat pumps should be installed. With that said, for my travel to Europe - especially down south, AC in the hotel room is an absolute necessity. A couple of years ago we ended up in a completely booked hotel in Italy (mid July), where the AC in our room was busted - it was beyond miserable. Ended up changing hotels after one night.
- Arodex 2mo ago>Here in Norway AC is not the standard in hotel rooms. Since when should there be AC in friggin' Norway?
- lstodd 2mo agoWell, summers are summers. Besides typical eu ac is a thermal pump, you can heat up with it, although even in mediterannean winter it's not quite adequate.
- vbarrielle 2mo agoSince global warming I guess. When there's a heat wave, Norway is probably one of the worst places on hearth to be. You've got near constant sunlight, there's not much time at night to cool your house.
- kijashdkujdfhas 2mo agoWell... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Temperature_Bar_Chart_Europe-Norway--1901-2020--2021-07-13.png?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Temperat...
- TrackerFF 2mo agoAs I wrote, most of the time it isn't a problem. There's some central heating which gives you a range of temperature, but getting your room cold is much harder than heating it up. But during summer months, where some cities can hit 30+ degrees (C), that could become uncomfortable. Even worse if you're somewhere humid...20 degrees in high humidity can make you toss and turn all night.
- beardyw 2mo ago"This article was originally published in The Washington Post" Pretty much all you need to know in 2026.
- thisisauserid 2mo agoFor some reason, room-level air conditioning is basic public health, but weather engineering is a sci-fi villain origin story.
- Arodex 2mo agoThe author works for CATO and writes in WaPo. They think global warming is a minor threat that requires minimal to no changes in regulations, but heat waves (that, according to her, have always been the same every year) are a massive threat to the public and requires immediate changes in regulation.
- jeltz 2mo agoThe reason is that one allows you to destroy harvests and ecosystems while the other does not.
- sfn42 2mo agoBecause weather engineering is experimentation with potentially huge unintended consequences both for the people in the relevant region as well as people in neighbouring regions and potentially even further. How would you feel if your neighbour started doing something that was good for them but disastrous for you? Or something with good intentions that turned out to just be a huge mistake causing billions in damages, maybe even lives lost? Weather engineering is extremely risky, we can barely predict the weather a few hours in advance. We have no idea what kind of havoc we might cause trying to do it on a large scale.
- conradludgate 2mo agoIn our London apartment leasehold, we have a water-sourced air conditioning unit. No external condenser required, it instead dumps the heat into the waste water. It has been incredibly helpful during this heat wave as someone who really struggles in the heat and works from home. It's not ideal during a drought though to be using water like that, it would be nice if we had a grey water tank system so we didn't have to waste drinking water. It doesn't seem possible to install a grey water tank like that in our apartment though. Given our apartment already has district heating, there's not a super strong reason why it couldn't have district cooling as well, but the regulations are not in our favour here. We installed it all without planning permission, although it still might require permission from the freeholder depending on the rules regarding Service Media alterations (as it requires new plumbing for our mains water).
- Arodex 2mo agoOr use the calories extracted from the air to heat your water heater. Technology Connections has a new video exactly about it.
- mopsi 2mo agoThe AC propaganda coming from the US this year is really strange and out of proportion. About ten times as many people die from the cold in Europe as die from the heat.
- Moldoteck 2mo agoThis is not propaganda what a nonsense. The fact that more ppl die from cold is not an argument against using ACs. It's an argument to have hvacs to get proper electrified cooling and heating
- mopsi 2mo agoBut it is such a strange, superficial flood of propaganda; preaching is perhaps a better word. The main concern remains heat retention and that's what buildings will remain optimized for. My house has 65 cm / 2 ft stone walls, which makes the normal temperature changes throughout the year very gradual because of the enormous thermal mass of the walls. But once the walls heat up during a prolonged heatwave (which are becoming more frequent because of climate change), AC becomes remarkably ineffective at cooling because the walls will continue radiating heat into the rooms. The walls used to cool down during the night and provide a very nice thermal buffer during the day, but with elevated temperatures even at night, that doesn't work anymore. "Just install AC, brooo" seems like something coming from the crowd that doesn't want to address the root problem.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2mo agoI agree with this, there does seem to be a volume and tone about AC that seems inauthentic (in general, not specifically on this site) Yes, AC is harder in old building with solid walls as is common in UK & Europe. We have a portable AC unit since March this year, and are very glad of it. It doesn't solve everything but it helped us through the worst of the heat. All of that is nuance, and nuance is notoriously ineffective when replying to propaganda that relies on black and white thinking, volume and on changing the subject to something related, emotive but not as consequential.
- dimitar 2mo agoThe truth is that until recently AC was not needed in the mild climates of much of the continent and it is already present everywhere in the South and East. Regulation and affordability is part of the story, but its far from the primary factor for most people. Its funny how its mostly US-based libertarian types concerned about AC in Europe. There are plenty of things Europe over-regulates, but this is not it.
- eloisant 2mo agoIt wasn't needed but now it is, so things need to change because people are already dying. But hey, at least we preserved the nice 19th century Parisian landscape.
- dimitar 1mo agoand that is why the share of households with AC is increasing rapidly in places that didn't use to have them, as one would expect.
- EcommerceFlow 2mo agoThis is all a trickle down effect of energy policies fyi.
- slfnflctd 2mo agoI've been thinking for a while about whether it would be feasible to produce an affordable 'personal cooling chamber' for lower income people in places getting scorched in the summer that don't have A/C. Basically an automotive air conditioning unit hooked up to a battery and solar panel, with a tanning bed type form factor (up to maybe capsule hotel size), painted or coated to reflect light & heat. Highly portable. I'm not sure if it's remotely practical, but it would be interesting to run the numbers, and I'm certain there is at least someone out there who would buy it even if the cost turned out to be higher than I envision.
- lbriner 2mo agoYou can already get small portable air conditioners but until recently, most people with low incomes wouldn't spend £300 on something they might only need for 4 weeks per year and needs storing the rest of the time. That might change of course as time goes by. What some people in the UK do is go to local air conditioned public buildings like libraries (which they are welcome to do) and occasionally a large air conditioned store or shopping centre.
- Moldoteck 2mo agoAcs are not that expensive. The problem is getting approval
- owisd 2mo agoJapan already did it - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cjej4y3gvzlo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cjej4y3gvzlo
- slfnflctd 2mo agoWow, that is really close to what I had in mind, and helpful info. Cool! Literally! Appreciate you sharing it. As I feared, though, with a price tag of $10k USD, you're halfway to buying a solid used car (preferably hybrid) with air conditioning... which could sleep at least two people fully reclined, plus kids or pets. So you might as well do that. I'd love to see a viable path to bringing this price down. Regardless, there do seem to at least be niche applications even at this price point.
- ShinyLeftPad 2mo agoYou might be surprised how far you can get with a simple fan. What your body needs is to evaporate heat. You sweat, it evaporates, skin cools down. Airflow helps that process a whole bunch. It's physics. It may not make hot weather feel perfect but it will cover the necessity pretty much anywhere. Same goes for tree shade and sensible city planning, also architecture (see all those textured dark grey or black condos currently in fashion and shudder). The other day I was biking along a road after dark and residual heat around it is so noticeable, biking 5 meters closer to the trees it felt so much colder. I've spent some time in SE Asia. Many homes out there don't have an A/C. Apparently the real number is like 85%. Should air conditioning maybe be less regulated in Europe? Sure. Do I enjoy A/C on occasion? Sure, guilty. Is climate change real? Sure. But A/C is a necessity like water/sewage/electricity? In Europe?? Idk. Edit: I agree in advance with everyone saying it sucks without AC but just saying, a strategic fan (and opening windows if possible, closing curtains, etc) can be OP. It might sound stupid but for years I literally forgot fans existed because I was where everywhere is AC and often no fan. Just try it... Edit 2: I think if you're in a hot AND especially humid place (probably not EU) I'm not sure if I'd take AC or dehumidifier
- tonyhart7 2mo agopeople in middle east literally use keffiyeh which is just a scarf in a head lmao
- piskov 2mo agoPeople in Asia are in those conditions from the birth. Like they literally put on the sweatshot/hoodie in the early mornings with effing 27 degrees Celsius That’s not a normal temperature for Europeans. Also I could not imagine doing some serious thought work in temps like this. There are a lot of studies of how mental performance is correlated with temperatures with men needing couple degrees even lower than women (eg 22 vs 24) — Airflow helps a lot, of course. But it must be in swinging motions / constantly changing direction — nervous system doesn’t like same constant stimulus to the point of neuralgia if prolonged.
- rdedev 2mo agoThe problem is when humidity rises it makes it harder forbthe body to expel hear via evaporation. This is what is happening in places like UK this time around. An AC helps get rid of the humidity as it cools the air. I don't know about necessity now but 20 years down the line, who knows
- freetime2 2mo agoWhile at an outdoor event this year on a very hot day early in the season - before my body had time to adapt to the summer heat - I got a warning from my Apple Watch that my heart was elevated even though I didn’t appear to be moving. My heart was up over 120 BPM just standing around. I went to my car, turned on the AC, and drank some water. My heart rate went back to normal, but it was pretty unnerving. The scarier thing was this was a youth sports tournament. These kids are playing all-day tournaments in 33C+ heat (and sometimes 36C+) for a solid two months of the year. While they may cope with the heat better than I do, I worry it’s only a matter of time before tragedy strikes. That being said, this year I am making an effort to rely less on AC and do some moderate exercise in the heat to increase my tolerance.
- t_mahmood 2mo agoMultiple kids died in my country forced by the teacher to play soccer during a heatwave. This really should not be allowed.
- blondie9x 2mo agoImagine a world where a larger share of companies focus on actual, verifiable improvement of outcomes for people. Not a world dominated by selling more consumption. A world where we go to work to make things better. Outcomes driven by improvements in human health, longevity, and happiness, not by bottom lines and profit margins. To get to that world we will have to be more open about being imposters.
- bob1029 2mo ago> This ailment is mysteriously absent from the United States, where indoor temperatures are often kept at around 75 degrees even when it’s 100 degrees outside If having a high temperature delta was a concern everyone in Texas would be dead by now. I set my thermostat to 65F in August. My house is at 67F right now and it's 81F outside (at 7AM). We're still catching up from yesterday. I don't see the point in allowing the condensing unit to shut off when it's this hot and humid out. You are just giving the angry super Mario sun a head start when you let it turn off in the morning. The temperature in my house will still rise to 74-75F with this unit running non stop. The forecast for today is approximately 100F. At some point, the cost of electricity becomes constant (100% duty cycle). You can't run the air conditioner more than all the time. It makes the equipment last a lot longer when it's not being cycled every 10-15 minutes. It can be cheaper to just keep things brutally cold given the relatively affordable electric rates. $300 capacitor replacement can buy a lot of kilowatt hours in the ercot and entergy markets. Short cycling a compressor with high pressure and you could be replacing one every other year. If any of this sounds offensive, I would invite the offended party to join me for lunch in downtown Houston or Galveston sometime this week.
- iso1631 2mo ago> I set my thermostat to 65F in August. Ouch, that's far too cold for me in the UK. I have the house at 20C during the day (68F), and only drop to 18C (64F) at night. When I had poor insulation that meant heating was regularly on 8 months a year, although it's on less now I live in a well insulated house.
- Steve16384 2mo agoI'm not sure what the point of this article is, apart from fearmongering about a new boogie man.
- utopiah 2mo agoVery strange take, you can buy an airco unit in the EU today get it delivered tomorrow morning and, assuming it's the portable kind that just need to be plugged and exhaust outside, have it running right away. For more permanent ones you might need a professional to install it if you don't know yourself. There is absolutely 0 barrier if you need or even just want one. Proof in Belgium : https://www.coolblue.be/en/air-conditioners/filter https://www.coolblue.be/en/air-conditioners/filter which ironically enough aren't even available anymore because they are out of stock, so clearly purchased showing people had no problem getting them. Alternative example 12000BTU A+++ energy rating delivery next week https://www.bol.com/be/fr/p/climatiseur-mobile-puissant-climatiseur-4-en-1-12000btu-climatisation-ventilateurs-blanc/9300000375003459/ https://www.bol.com/be/fr/p/climatiseur-mobile-puissant-clim... To be clear I'm not advocating to buy these, or not, only that they are freely and conveniently available.
- yoz-y 2mo agoI live in France. That kind of aircon is garbage both in how much it can cool a room and how efficient it is due to under pressure. You can get a portable split-system if you have a balcony. But installing a real full-size AC with a large external unit is prohibited in most cases. If you’re renting you’re of course out of luck. An apartment, even one you own-forget it.
- utopiah 2mo agoWell that is a different setup that what I mention but thanks for indeed highlighting how they are not the same. FWIW houses in Tuscany with very strict rules, e.g. you don't even get to pick the color of your own house, manage to get the entire place setup with full-size AC it's feasible. What's not feasible is trying to ignore laws on what a building must look like but that has nothing to do with air conditioning. For example if Belgium if you has is classified as notable (most old houses are) then you need a permit even for the window frame.
- wim 2mo agoAnd AC can heat too! For example, in some EU countries gas boilers are still a huge thing, even though increasingly archaic. At the same time many of its users denounce AC because of reasons, apparently missing the fact that an AC is an (air-to-air) heat pump. Incredible how Big Boiler somehow convinced people to keep heating their houses by burning gas in these contraptions while ACs could do the job with much higher energy efficiency while also cooling the house in summer (and yes many places with these gas boilers have _hot_ summers these days)!
- margor 2mo agoIt's not that simple. If you have a gas boiler, you're most likely exchanging heat using radiators which are _designed_ for certain amount of heat exchange. With high water temperature, you can get away with smaller radiator and deliver the same amount of heat. The story gets worse when you put heat pump to the same system - now you have to run it to its limits to have just enough heat in the water to make the radiators release enough heat to barely heat up the room. Of course, it's only that simple to replace one heat source with another, why wouldn't anyone do it already?
- throwaway473825 2mo ago>Of course, it's only that simple to replace one heat source with another, why wouldn't anyone do it already? In most European countries, electricity is taxed much higher than gas. Those taxes eat a large chuck of the efficiency gains from a heat pump, and then it's not worth the effort.
- orwin 2mo agoAt least in France, almost all excess deaths were in hospitals and retirement homes. The rest were workers. And we had more heat than Germany. Yes, it is a necessity in some places (schools, nursing homes, hospitals). an AC at home is a luxury. Which, great if you can afford it.
- Moldoteck 2mo agoHearing that ac at home is a luxury in France when piss poor romania/moldova do install them left and right sounds borderline satirical. Ffs an ac is not that expensive. And running it is not that expensive, especially with french nuclear
- tempfile 2mo ago> HumanProgress.org is a project of the Cato Institute You are reading propaganda.
- dguest 2mo agoKind of interesting to think about why an American libertarian think tank would be writing articles about Europe. Is it just to give Americans talking points against whatever europhile they might encounter, or does Cato actually care about European policy now?
- bambax 2mo agoThis is all, sadly, very true. Anti-AC sentiment is prevalent throughout Europe, and like all superstions, it's based on false assumptions, and extremely resistant to actual evidence.
- throwaway473825 2mo agoIf that's the case, then why do all European cars have AC? There's an anti-electricity sentiment, but that's a very different thing. It's why most of those anti-AC places use gas heating.
- t_mahmood 2mo agoRight now in my city it's 30c, with 79% humidity, and real feel is 41c, and it's late evening. And, next year it's probably going to be worse. I can see things going really bad for health compromised people pretty soon. And, we have a flaky electricity, without enough focus or renewables, so, because of war(money)games in the middle east we have a huge gas crisis, and having one/two hours of load-shading every day. So, tell me, what are we going to do when we can't run the freaking AC, because our power grid failed? This is encouraging curing the symptoms, not the true problem. And, the more AC we use, it will increase the ambient temp. And more people uses AC, the more the temp grows. How long we are going to keep doing this? it sounds like another corporate drama to put it on us, the general people instead of solving the issue they create. Heat increased, use AC, it's not a luxury, but we are not going to stop destroying environment.
- roter 2mo agoMost building professionals, urban/city/master planners/engineers are explicitly incorporating resilience into their designs at all levels. This includes both new designs and retrofitting old buildings. Places of emergency cooling refuge, parks, backup power to ensure energy/water continue, passive features like solar heating, natural ventilation, bioswales, air quality filtering, cool roofs/roads, water features, overhangs/louvers/awnings, insulation, thermal mass, etc, etc. These are things grass roots can do now to mitigate impacts while governments dither and punt hard decisions into the future.
- rdtsc 2mo ago> During a heat wave in 2022, one Frenchwoman said AC “makes you sick, and it gives you a headache.” Left-wing French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon has claimed air conditioning “destroys your sinuses.” AC giving people headaches and destroying their sinuses sounds a bit bonkers. Ok let people install it then, slap a “government believes this may give you headaches and destroy your sinuses” sticker on it and let people decide. I guess before the heat wave this could have a been a litmus test for stupidity but now it should be a litmus test for maliciousness.
- okaleniuk 2mo agoHas anyone ever argued that AC is luxury? This century? Really? I believe, the division goes between harm/comfort and not luxury/necessity. I don't have AC at home. Some think I don't install it because I somehow don't get hot in summer or cold at winter. It's the other way around. We, people, have one of the best thermoregulation systems among animals, our whole skin is essentially a huge cooling system. The only way to render it incapable is... stop using it for a prolonged amount of time. It's use it or lose it all over again. If you don't believe me, read what ultra-marathon runners have to say. If a trained athlete can survive Badwater, almost everyone can train themselves to survive a European heatwave. Sure, some people can't. Some need AC because of cardiovascular conditions. It's fine, let them have it. But some people can't walk because of musculoskeletal conditions, but no one would argue that a wheelchair is a necessity.
- lesostep 2mo agoThe other side is: my grandmother could survive heatwave just because her house wasn't heating up that much. It's old, it's stone, stone is just good at keeping temperature even. And the air coming through the windows passes through trees that are good at lowering temperature. Even if it got a bit hot – like it does in mine, that has less volumetric heat capacity — simple floor scrub lowers temperature. Evaporating water is just a very good at that, and floor is a big area. If we take a house made of paper and place it in a place with no trees and a lot of asphalt, I believe that AC could become a necessity. No amount of evaporating water could help you to fight heat rising from the road. But I much prefer better houses and city planning
- dguest 2mo ago> the French government [1] have said that cooling a room .. more than 15 degrees ... can trigger “thermal shock.” ... This ailment is mysteriously absent from the United States... Leaving aside that this kind of insinuation makes the article look like cheap rage-bate, cold shock is a cardiovascular risk to the same populations that are most vulnerable to heat waves, and the French government article was recommendations to implement AC in a reasonable way to keep them safe. The underlying weirdness here is that neither of them is a problem for most of the population: the vast majority of heat-wave deaths aren't otherwise healthy people. If you're going to write an article advocating AC, predicated on the deaths heat causes, you should at least mention that you're worried about a very specific population. For sure heat is uncomfortable for everyone. But so is cold shock: don't drop the temperature by 15°C so that I have to wear a coat to work in the middle of summer. That's just silly. [1]: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/LEGITEXT000006051990/2026-01-28 https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/LEGITEXT000006051990/...
- Yizahi 2mo agoI also find deeply and even extremely ironic, that the same greenwashing radicals who bash ACs in Europe are then supporting "heat pumps" as a modern and efficient heating device. There are even programs labelled as Eco or green or whatever the jargon of the day is, to subsidize or finance heat pumps. People are seemingly unaware that heat pumps are just an AC with a tiny additional valve in the pipes :) .
- seanmcdirmid 2mo agoHeat pumps are just ACs with a lot more energy efficiency. How does that make people hypocrites?
- numpad0 2mo agoNo, heat pumps and ACs are exactly the same device. They add a button to the remote and series of valves in the machine to switch flow of refrigerant forward and reverse, and call it "heat pumps" for upsell. All air conditioners are technically heat pumps.
- raincom 2mo agoThey just buy slogans from those who espouse efficiency. In a traditional AC unit, heat is produced by either electric strips or by a gas burner, no refrigeration circuit is involved in the heating cycle. So, just a blower motor runs, compressor (and condenser fan) never runs in the heating cycle. In heat pumps, refrigeration circuit does both heating and cooling. So, compressor works in both cycles.
- seanmcdirmid 2mo agoHow is that not just better since the power requirements are less? The whole point against conventional ACs and for what we call heat pumps is purely that they use less electricities (well, they can also heat and cool, so you don’t need two systems). People like heat pumps simply because they are more energy efficient. It isn’t guerrilla marketing making people like a new thing that is the same as the old thing.
- Jamesbeam 2mo ago[flagged]
- MichaelRigney 2mo ago[flagged]
- surgical_fire 2mo ago> Who We Are > HumanProgress.org is a project of the Cato Institute Oh ffs.
- alsanan 2mo agoThe real huge problem has been abandoning all ancient techniques used to passively cool buildings (provenzal well, wind towers, crossed ventilation, pressure differential,...) when AC was invented. The industry loves maintenance. The price will be paid now: low and expensive energy and unnecessary deaths.
- mstaoru 2mo agoFor me the hardest part is sleeping. I can cope with heat during the day, but even with good bedding, mattress, windows open, fans, etc. the body traps heat underneath and if it's hot outside it's just impossible to sleep. I was like a zombie for 2 months this year. And sleep deprivation in general has a ton of adverse health effects. Unfortunately, I do live in a "heritage" building so split unit is a no-no. Midea pre-filled mini-splits went from €700 to 2000-3000+ and months of lead time. It's crazy.
- antonkochubey 2mo ago>Midea pre-filled mini-splits went from €700 to 2000-3000+ and months of lead time. It's crazy. They're back to normal prices now. At least in Germany. Make sure to grab one before the next Summer hits :)
- hucklebuckle 2mo agoDo you have a link by any chance
- krunck 2mo agoAny discussion about AC and heatwaves needs to involve the use of web-bulb temperature(which is what the "heat index" comes from), not regular temperature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature
- stackbutterflow 2mo ago> The Book of Judith (probably written between 150 and 100 B.C.) contains an early description of someone dying of heatstroke. I can't take the article seriously after that.
- mancerayder 2mo agoIn France it's a cross between a sin, American influence, and something that will destroy your health. Hospitals and retirement homes lack AC and excess deaths occur among the elderly population. I guess there's the unintended consequence of making the healthcare costs cheaper, if you let the older people cook under unusual weather patterns (even if they are unusual every summer now). What's particularly weird, but also very French, is it's now a Right v Left issue, with the Left saying we should explore building design ideas for passive cooling instead of hurting the environment further (after all suffering is our own fault for hurting the environment and we should be exposed to that consequence), while the Right is pushing for AC. Whatever it is, if you go to Paris make sure you stay in a hotel or an Airbnb with A/C.
- m463 2mo agoIn america, the luxuries become necessities. In soviet russia, the necessities become luxuries!