Also most of Europe is significantly north of the USA so…yeah. Non-story.
So is Canada, but it has 64% of homes with air conditioning.
Also, maybe it’s just me, but like didn’t England, France, Spain, Italy and southern Germany all hit like 100f (38c) or higher this summer (and other summers before that)?
It’s less of a story and more a telling sign that climate change is having a direct impact on humans that it’s becoming more and more necessary for people in even European, Canadian and even PNW climates to adapt and outfit houses and businesses with them.
Ottawa is on the same latitude as Venice so it’s not like canada is very northly (though i know canada has a much more varied temperature range). That aside i think there are many reasons, like the southern countries are not as wealthy as US and theres a culture of using other methods to survive the heat such as building colors, not paving every cm^2 of land etc. And if we look at more northen Eu countries like where I live (sweden) the highest ever measured temp is 38c (100.4f). So anyone here who needs an AC for the few days when the temp is above 25c is a card carrying bitch.
Climate change is a thing and it won’t matter how far north you are, the heat’s going to kill you.
Get some damn air conditioning.
Everyone having AC is a good way of accelerating climate change
It’s preferrable to heat stroke
The US is also warmer on average compared to Europe. Because parts of the US are at the same latitude as Cario, Egypt.
The climate is definitely different. You are right overall. But some places like New York or Chicago are both hotter and colder depending on the time of year.
Essentially, when summer hits, US is hotter than Europe. Canada has the same temperature in summer.
It’s not a conspiracy or some grand revelation.
They didn’t need it before. Much of America didn’t either. A lot of old wood houses had designs built for airflow and trees surrounding the houses. Those that didn’t got old attic fans that would pull air from the bottom of the house to the top and out of vents.
These days, insulation and HVAC exists and Americans jumped at the chance to have year round temperature control. Heat pumps now have the best efficiency for cooling and heating year round and can replace most options. Almost everyone will need this option as global warming barrell out of control.
I hate it when people chop down all of the trees around their house, I assume because they don’t want the leaves on their yard. I have a bunch of trees around my house, the downside is it is sort of dark in the house and it is hard to have a garden, the plus side is it must be at least 10 degrees cooler inside in the summer. I’ve left the house overdressed thinking it is a cool day because of it.
You’d have to have an extremely drafty house for them to pull air from the bottom of the house and your attic floor should be well insulated anyway. The recirculating air is coming from the soffits and vents. The best reason to have an attic fan is if you have an AC unit in the attic, then you want to get hot air out of that space.
Well, yes. Until people caused climate change, we didn’t need air cooling systems. Depending on where you lived, you need to build to keep heat IN buildings, even.
But, here we are, a planet on fire. So now we need air cooling to survive, lest our weakest, elderly, infirm, young children die. Then down the line once it’s even worse, it’ll be needed just so that any of us can survive.
Feck the bourgeoisie and the generations of apathetic fools under them that have allowed this to happen :-(
Man, when you’re in the high 90s, with humidity in the same numbers, it doesn’t matter how high your ceilings are, how much airflow you have under the house and through the attic, it sucks. And by sucks, I mean it can kill people sometimes.
Growing up here in the south, we didn’t have AC until somewhere in the late eighties, and that was a big window unit. Most days during the summer, you had no ability to do much of anything without suffering. After the window unit, we could at least eat dinner without being nauseous from heat.
This house didn’t have central air until 2003, when I put it in after I made a small bundle selling a book. I will never fucking go back to not having it. We keep it set fairly warm unless my wife is having trouble (MS fucks your ability to thermoregulate, and getting overheated can cause problems that can last weeks), but it simply isn’t realistic to do without it.
I have no clue what Europe is like in terms of summer weather patterns. But the south has these old houses like ours that are built to make the weather as livable as possible, and they don’t really succeed any more.
If I had the money, I’d likely switch to a heat pump, but I don’t, so oh well.
And that’s not even going into the extra expenses that come without AC of some kind. You get the heat and humidity going, and mold becomes a guarantee rather than a possibility. Wood warps, and stuff like plaster or drywall don’t exactly enjoy the humidity either.
Plenty of AC in Greece, per room split units not central.
Everyone has AC(often more than one), but noone has any money to pay for the electricity to use the AC. So many people dont use them or only use them for a couple of hours.
This is the main reason according to my European friends. The electricity cost is the issue.
Splits with heat pumps are more efficient anyway. The fancy ones with ceiling cassettes seem easier to install and maintain too, with zonal temp controls for even better efficiency.
Sure but most of them do not have heat pumps here.
You sure, because I’m pretty sure like 90% of AC in Europe is probably heat pumps because it doesn’t make sense for them not to be. It doesn’t change the cost at all, it functions the same like if you just used cooling.
I know at least that every AC I checked here in Croatia was a heat pump.
I was probably thinking of ground heat pumps.
Two different climates too. USA is centred closer to the equater then all of Europe, which means more people live in year round heat, and want A/C to cool off.
Right? People forget this all the time and say “just open a window you baby” bitch it’s been 100+ (37c) every day for three months here, %50 humidity minimum. Our overnight lows are your daytime temps.
Even water temps in bays in FL have been pushing to 100F
Oh boy… cue up all the “Grrrrr America bad!” comments.
Lets see if we can play Lemmy Anti-America Bingo…
They’ll be comments that American homes are supposedly worse quality than European ones by people that don’t understand construction or economics.
Americans are wasteful.
Someone will mention European windows.
Post from people who misunderstanding thermal mass.
Lots of people forgetting what humidity is.
Have you ever been in a typical, modern European house?
Sadly (for the US), on average every single point on your list is true.
Just look at the places in the US hit by catastrophes. Basically, nothing but maybe foundations remain. If there is a fire, they usually add their mass to the fire instead of resisting. If a fire actually reaches a European town the damage is quite lower than what can be regularly seen of in the US.
And yes, Americans are wasteful. In so many regards, it is not funny. Living in suburbia and driving gas guzzling trucks where a normal car would more than suffice are just two examples.
European windows (and the general thermal isolation of houses in Europe) are way better at keeping cold and heat separated than even the better insulated cardboard boxes Americans call “houses”.
Do you understand Q = Cth Δ T?
And most Europeans deal better with humidity (and heat) because they are used to it.
No you’ve got your bingo card full, go home and whine.
All the kneejerk “America is bad” people from reddit are here
As someone who struggled to sleep in sweat soaked sheets in a small hotel in France can they at least give you a fan?
Too dangerous. Could cause fan death
Korea has entered the chat
Aren’t heat pumps a cleaner, better alternative to traditional AC?
Heat pumps ARE AC. Also your fridge.
Air Heat pumps are AC.
There are different types which uses earth or water body heat and are even more efficient but expensive.
Technology wise they are AC though
Yes. And many homes in Europe have them. US term for them are split AC systems.
A heat pump is just an air conditioner that works both ways (it can pump heat into or out of your house).
In the US, most people just buy air conditioners because natural gas furnaces cost less to operate than heat pumps.
The move to renewables and rooftop solar is making heat pumps more attractive than the conventional AC + furnace, but nothing about a heat pump is more efficient than an AC in the summer because they are fundamentally the same thing.
Where heat pumps are a big efficiency win is in places without natural gas. Assuming your winter weather doesn’t get too cold, pumping outside heat into your house uses substantially less electricity than resistive heating.
Thanks everybody for your input 😉 Now I know the differences!
These comment threads could use some air conditioning!
TIL that Fahrenheit exists.
Wait until you find out about Kelvin
I know about Kelvin. I hate it.
It wouldn’t surprise me if that changes over the next few years.
Very misleading title
The new analysis estimates a timescale for the collapse of between 2025 and 2095, with a central estimate of 2050
To be clear, this is still really bad, but it’s typical media reporting where scientists say sometime in the next 70 years and the media changes it to “next year”
I don’t disagree about the headline, but ~70 years for something that last happened in the ice age is imminent on a geologic scale. I mean, shit: that’s within my kid’s lifetime.
Oh yeah no for sure, we’re pretty much past the point of no return at this point for shitty things happening in my of our lifetimes, even if humanity decides to suddenly start doing something about it
On the other hand we weren’t supposed to hit +1.5° average before 2050, and here we are in 2023, unless a global scale event happens to cool the earth, we’ll hit this mark.
This year arctica never had this low ice cover. Same for antartica. Mountains are falling in Switzerland because of the lack of ice cover. It’s very bad and there might be cascading effects.
Gulf stream stopping could very well be happening in 2 years. It is a possibility. But even if it happens in 2050 it’s not really good you know.
If the gulf stream shuts down you’ll get your glaciers back and then some.
Oh great, and the climate will certainly not change one bit! /s
Shit.
I’m sure the media will have a new and different apocalypse for us in a couple of months.
That’s how they keep Americans away
88% of Americans have AC? Because here in Canada it also feels like 20%, if not lower.
(BC Lower Mainland) I installed a heat pump in my main living area last year and by god it has been my best investment in years. Hydro bill dropped and I’m very comfortable all year round. Can’t believe how long I put up with not owning one.
Are you on your 43rd consecutive day over 100°
