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Comment by ActorNightly | Hacker News Reader

> us simply cannot have AC

Im really curious how this works. Do standalone units not exist?

Same question. Electricity and logistics are really the only physical barriers. With solar and a single mini split couldn't you essentially prevent heat death with some very high probability?

Freezing to death in winter should be a harder problem at this point right?

Electricity and logistics solve the heating just as well. You can use the same device if you want to. Heat pump is just an AC run in reverse, literally all you need is a little valve to reverse the flow.

As long as it's only a little below freezing. Try that in Norway, or even somewhere like Austria, and see how it goes.

Then you'd just use "old fashioned" electric heating

They work just fine until -25C or so. (COP around 3). After they they still do work you just fine but work effectively as resistive heaters as you approach COP of 1.

Obviously you need a model they is made for which winters but people use them all over Finland including Lapland without any issues. If you want to save some money on the coldest days you burn some wood in the oven/fireplace if you have one.

edit: heat pumps (both air and ground) have been very popular in the nordics for quite some time now. One big reason is that we have cheap electricity and very expensive oil/gas. Lately also municipal level central heating networks have been slowly moving to heat pumps as their source of heat.

Some people rent. Some people can't afford one. Some people, like me, are in a short-term let in a country where it doesn't make sense to buy appliances if you're to leave after a few weeks.

Now that I had to explain my personal living arrangement, am I please excused from the constant nagging about europoors and their stupid hangups about AC?

I mean, I rented for a while in Seattle, and had a window unit I would take with me every time I moved. Is that not an option?

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