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Comment by RandomLensman | Hacker News Reader

Most of Europe doesn't need air conditioning? By what measures/what large countries don't have any need there?

Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Benelux, the Nordics, Baltics, most of Central Europe don't have a need for AC. It might make life more comfortable during some days of heatwaves but it's definitely not a need to survive.

Southern Europe has experienced more scorching heat the past 1-2 decades and AC is going to become a necessity given the trend of climate warming but it's not Arizona.

Also I think people aren't aware that the USA doesn't use the same methodology to count heat-related deaths, a heart attack from someone working out in the fields on 35C+ weather is not counted as heat-related, Scientific American published an article about it back in 2024[0].

[0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-deaths-from-h...

> It might make life more comfortable during some days of heatwaves but it's definitely not a need to survive.

Well I don't know , I lived 4 years in the Netherlands in one of those apartments that have huge windows on every room. During the summer some days got closed to 37-38c and the sun sets at what , 11PM ? I was pretty scared our newborn might die - I put a fan right on her of course but I'm not sure this setup is OK at all.

    the sun sets at what , 11PM ?

No. Even now, in the longest days of the year, the sun sets at 10pm, and we're not even into the hottest days of the year for another month or two as the days continue to get shorter again.

Yeah 10PM is still really bad, the house becomes a freaking oven

The numbers you cite are from last year, which was unusual historically as records, not the norm. The sunset in the hottest month will be 9pm, and those highs of >30C are experienced for less than one week. I think you're missing the point of the parent posters where it's over 25C in the large parts of the US for 3-4 months of the year.

If "need" is defined as directly required to survive, but that isn't how I would define it. (So many things aren't "needed" then.)

A need is a necessity, is AC a necessity or a comfort? It's only a need if without it your life would be so insufferable that you cannot live normally, otherwise it's not a need but a comfort.

Many things aren't needed, survival doesn't mean biological survival so you don't need to bring up "a smartphone isn't a need" since without one a life in modern society becomes quite insufferable (banking access, government access, etc.).

Is AC a need or a comfort to you given this?

Some people live their lives quite ok without a smartphone in Germany, for example - so not a need there either.

I don't like the heat, so need for me - comfort is a need.

Baltics definitely have need for AC for few weeks in summer. Just because some people get by, doesn't mean there isn't a need.

It's the reality: it doesn't get hot in the summer and it doesn't get cold in the winter. The climate is 'maritime' and moderated by the immense influence of the Atlantic/Mediterranean/Baltic. On the east coast of USA you might expect the same, but the wind is from the west and thus to some extent reproduces the savage 'continental' weather of the interior. The main body of Americans live in extremely hostile weather environments.

Around 40C isn't hot? Around -20C isn't cold, for example?

Europe is not a country or a single place. In central Spain, where 40 ºC is more likely, you'll find more air conditioning than in the UK, where people think that 25 ºC is hot.

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