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Comment by nyc640 | Hacker News Reader

I think it means..

  American Household : [XXXXXX------------------------]

  European Household : [----------]

Where the X's are electricity usage by American households on air conditioning (20% of total electricity use), which is equal to 60% of all electricity used by a European household.

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Comparing this to jacquesm's excellent and detailed explanation I have to admit that sometimes a simple picture can really be worth a thousand words.

He has my vote.

Europe is also much cooler then most of the USA in the summer. You all are welcome to come and hangout in the south any summer you want, then you will have a better understanding of the AC usage here. If I lived in Europe I probably wouldn't need AC either.

And you are welcome to try and stay in any of the southern countries of EU in summer and survive without AC - Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece are all unbearable without AC.

I did say most of the USA. I also am quite confident that the average temperature in the south is much higher then even those countries.

A quick search shows that in Texas the average is 36 degrees while Greece is 28 degrees and 28 degrees in Barcelona. Also that doesn't even include our lovely humidity!

Agreed. I lived in the Pacific Northwest for about 7 years and I used AC maybe twice. Now, living back in the Southeastern US, it stays on for months at a time.

Yep ;)

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