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Comment by bojangleslover | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand why Europeans are so averse to AC. You don't have to run it all year (obviously) and it plugs into the wall so it is compatible with renewables, much in the same way as are EVs.

You can even put one in your bedroom and only run it at night for £500.

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There hasn't been much history for heat waves in northern Europe, but we used to have very long and cold winters. As such people invested heavily in heaters and insulation, and simply opened the window during the warmest few days during the summer. An AC unit and installation is quite a large cost in order to just make a few days better once every few years.

Now days the winter is much milder and the summer warmer. Modern ACs that can run in reverse is also much cheaper and can reduce the need for more expensive heating solutions, so we are seeing a uptick in number of homes with AC installed.

I think they were suggesting a window unit air conditioner based on the price quoted. They can be installed without any modification to your home and you can take them out in the winter and put them in storage.

In terms of running them in reverse, there are already window unit heat pumps which tend to be a bit more expensive. Personally I'm waiting for the Gradient window unit heat pump to come out since I like the idea of the saddle-bag design and I want the heat pump capabilities, but I'm going to wait for reviews first since afaik this is their first product.

In the UK, most offices, shops, cars, and (intercity) public transport already have AC but it just doesn't get hot enough for long enough to justify installing it most homes.

Portable AC units are relatively new to the market, but I can see them becoming more popular in the coming years.

Agreed, I think the market is ripe for a nice affordable portable one. Doesn't even need to be energy efficient either considering it will only be run for about 20 days a year.

Hopefully 20 days, could be 40 days if global warming continues. I think newly installed A/C should use inverter, or at least it's not a unit with a duct hose.

In the process of buying a house in the UK.

Both my office and the bedrooms are getting proper AC (haven't ruled out doing the entire house).

It isn't going to get any colder over the next decade or two.

Have you considered using a heat pump for cooling?

That's what AC is.

You are basically right. What I meant is using a geothermal heat pump to cool using the underfloor heating system. (I lack the proper English vocabulary for this domain, I hope you get what I mean).

In the UK, ground source heat pumps are fairly common.

I'm leaning more towards PV panels on the roof to offset the AC.

It's the UK, I'd actually need to use the AC maybe 20-30 days a year for a few hours and maybe an hour a day in the summer just to get the temp down before bed.

PV panels would easily offset that.

Even with summer weather like it is this year I still not convinced that A/C at home is essential in England. Nights are still cold - today's early morning temp was about 23°C and tomorrow 17°C is expected. If you live in a brick house you can vent it throughout the night and it would keep more or less livable temperature at daytime (31°C was the daily maximum inside my dwelling while outside was 38°C). Also while England on average is a humid place during heat waves humidity is low which make it easier to endure them.

I suffer much more during winter - more than tree months at about 18° (and heating bill is high even with the temperature way below my comfort zone).

It's not an "aversion" it has been up to this point an unnecessary luxury expense (before all of a sudden the temperatures started inching up).

I'm sure there's been a huge run on AC units in the UK and in years following I'm sure the shops will be stocking them quite a bit more.

It's the same story as Portland/Seattle/Vancouver area where previously it only got genuinely hot for like two weeks and AC wasn't really that required, but then we had that absolutely nutso heat dome last year, and that changed everyone's thinking. People have bought AC units and now we're seeing that AC is standard in new apartments in Vancouver.

Self-flagellation fetish

Masochism

I understand why you're getting the downvotes...but you're kinda right.

I don't really get the defeatist/martyr attitude of Euroland people when it comes to all sorts of issues like this. They seem encounter an economic (or other) problem and immediately think it means they should forfeit quality of life vs. fighting or working hard. Maybe it is more common for those people to see the world as zero-sum?

As an American, I find this "lay down and die" attitude quite confusing and repulsive.

Or another way to look at it is that American cultural value of "Individuality" has been corrupted to lean towards more and more selfishness because of consumerism ... so much that some Americans now think it is normal to have a selfish attitude and are wired (by constant consumerist marketing) to place their needs above all, without bothering to think about how their decisions and actions impact others. What you see as indecisiveness or lack of action may actually be genuine contemplation ...

> Or another way to look at it is that American cultural value of "Individuality" has been corrupted to lean towards more and more selfishness because of consumerism

Wanting everyone's life to be better is progress, not selfishness.

Wanting everyone to suffer because of some "original sin" is an abhorrent viewpoint that only results in more misery.

Painting "progress" as "selfishness" is a trick played by those too lazy to do the hard work to improve their own lives, and in general move civilization forward. In the end, they are primarily harming themselves with this disempowering belief.

> What you see as indecisiveness or lack of action may actually be genuine contemplation

I'm sorry but this is laughable. How long do you reckon you'll need to think about this?

The solution is simple, but not easy: ADD MORE AC UNITS AS TEMPERATURES WARM.

AC is becoming more common in hot areas (from experience in the South of France you can kow see some homes with AC whereas it was unheard of before) but the UK is hardly a hot area. These are 2 days of 'proper' heat and there are many ways to cope.

> 'proper' heat

In what world is 40C "proper" heat?

In british english parlance, sometimes "proper" is used like that as emphasis, not a discussion of whether it is correct or right or the expected situation.

America is a richer nation (higher salaries, GDP per capita) and housing is way bigger (in terms of square footage)

I don’t like it because the difference of temperature when I go outside makes me to feel sick. AC is not environmental friendly, consumes lot of energy and makes the street where I live much hotter. I prefer the old school fan.

In the US I couldn’t stand the cold temperatures indoors because the AC. Horrible.

How does it make you feel sick? I don't understand how that could work physiologically.

Same mechanism why you get more sick in the winter. Periodic thermal shocks and therefore periodic capillaries expansions and retractions in you airways, sinuses. People are quite susceptible to it here in central EU, me included. US people seem to be kinda conditioned to the constant thermal shocks.

Here many only have and use AC in their cars and only in peak summer and I remember there used to be warnings in TV news that you should turn off or start gradually decreasing AC intensity before arriving to your destination a getting of your car. (It was usually as a part of some interview with some GPs, discussing why are people getting more sick in peak summer.)

That's not what causes people to get sick in the winter. Warnings about AC use is car are nonsense. Why would you believe that?

You are aware that you can control the temperature that the AC targets? I live in the US and so have AC and I set it around 29C under normal conditions (if it is unusually humid I find I have to set it a bit lower to be comfortable.)

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