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Comment by kleiba | Hacker News Reader

I currently live in Germany. From my perspective, a more shocking headline would be: An office building in Germany that HAS air conditioning.

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Yes. Germany is incredibly cheap that way, claiming it's "not worth it due to short summers". Doesn't matter. If you need it only 2-3 months a year, that's still a NEED right there. Especially during 38C days.

At least Germany does windows right.

I have been impressed staying at hostels that had, what I would call, “suicide windows”.

In Toronto apartments, you have to take invasive action to let the window open more than 10cm.

Does windows right? In our office (Berlin) we are not even allowed to open them.

It is funny people discuss 25°C. We had last week 36°C inside of our office, and a solution from the company? Work from home.

Actually the solution is paid leave as it's not possible to do office work at these temperatures. Read up on it, for next time.

Can I get a source on this? 36C isn't that uncommon a temperature where I'm at - it'll even hit 36+ on a hot winter's day.

Currently in the south of France.

I’m not sure what’s more unbearable:

1) The number of people (age 22 to 70) that claim air conditioning makes you ill

2) The heat

3) The lack of screens on windows in a city built near a marsh (mosquitoes)

At least i’m by the sea until today.

I just got back from a long sabbatical in Spain and 1 through 3 I'm with you. Why do people just accept flys in their house? Why don't the windows have screens? I don't think I saw a single screen on a window the whole time. Drove me up a wall. At least AC is decently common in Spain, at least more common than I've seen in most other major European cities.

In Switzerland it's hit and miss. New buildings usually have good air conditioning, but anything a bit older doesn't. And there are a lot of older buildings in Switzerland. It's a country that has 4 very pronounced seasons, so if there's a heatwave (like right now), it usually means hot offices... the productivity impact is quite significant.

Yes, deeply annoying.

But it is becoming more popular.

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