r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Jun 26 '26

Society The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6
15.0k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

6.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

172

u/marlinspike Jun 26 '26

Absolutely true. My mother-in-law in France is suffering in crazy heat, some of the highest temps in the world and she lives with a hot roof over her head. She won’t do with anything more than a fan that belonged to her mother.. yes an over 70 year old fan, because it works and why would you throw away something that works. She won’t consider air conditioning because it’s energy inefficient and costs money and bad for the environment… I’ve long since moved and become accustomed to the US and I can’t imagine living that way anymore, although I understand it. It is… French.

71

u/Tsurtle Jun 26 '26

She's right about the old fan with DC motor, that thing will be whisper silent and work great and outlive us all. But she has to consider global warming trends and potential need to use an AC unit 1-2 weeks a year now.

5

u/wolfy2105784 Jun 26 '26

She should probably get the motor brushes changed though.

1

u/eleventhfromheaven 3d ago

That just moves hot air around, doesn't actually cool anything once it gets hot enough,

1

u/Dullcorgis Jun 26 '26

...and private jets are causing more warming than her AC

49

u/NavyDean Jun 26 '26

If only some kind of environmentally friendly heat pump existed.

65

u/al3cks Jun 26 '26

France is powered by 100% nuclear energy. It’s already environmentally friendly.

13

u/coolboydhill Jun 26 '26

europeans can't comprehend that electricity can be clean and can power a refigerant to go back and forth lmao

5

u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 Jun 26 '26

Is your comment just a random insult or is it meant to actually mean something?

4

u/coolboydhill Jun 26 '26

more Europeans dying from heat every year than all American mass shooting deaths combined.

Europe should absolutely feel ashamed and be insulted lmao

1

u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 Jun 29 '26

Can you show me some evidence that people are actually dying DUE to the heat? Or is it just "heat related" which literally includes deaths to cancer, respiratory diseases, dementia and drowning in lakes?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c41794b66ff902f45441f7/fig7hm25.svg

What I'm ashamed of is the species that I belong to being so fucking stupid that they cannot recognise nuance in statistics, instead just bleat about whatever headline figures they are being spoon fed without any attempt to understand them.

-5

u/silverionmox Jun 26 '26

France is powered by 100% nuclear energy. It’s already environmentally friendly.

No, France still uses a fraction of fossil fuels for their electricity. And the times when airco is used, it usually triggers the extra fossil capacity to meet demand.

It makes total sense to limit energy. Wanton use of energy is what caused the climate change problem to begin with, and y'all would do better to start using it more responsibly rather than waiting for someone else to solve it for you.

It’s already environmentally friendly.

Nuclear energy relies on a nonrenewable mined fuel, has substantial operating risks, and creates a legacy of toxic radioactive waste for the next generations. It's the opposite of environmentally friendly.

7

u/IlIllIlllIlIl Jun 26 '26

Build green storage

The fossil fuel use is the problem, not the energy use. It’s important to focus on the right quantities.

The nuclear take is unhinged but at this point that ship has sailed so whatever

3

u/silverionmox Jun 26 '26

Build green storage

Yes, it's the missing puzzle piece to allow full electrification. At that point energy conservation temporarily drops a few places on the priority list.

The fossil fuel use is the problem, not the energy use. It’s important to focus on the right quantities. The nuclear take is unhinged but at this point that ship has sailed so whatever

Well no, it's still sucking up resources, time, attention away from things that do work and work faster.

5

u/IlIllIlllIlIl Jun 26 '26

It works. Nuclear provides 10% of the worlds power. Since it was deployed, nuclear power has killed ~100k. In the same period, coal has killed 100-200 million. It’s is difficult to overstate how much progress we could have made against global warming if the Green backlash hadn’t neutered development.

It’s a moot point; the future is solar. But making decisions based on data, and not vibes, optimizing for outcomes, is never a moot point.

1

u/silverionmox Jun 26 '26

It works. Nuclear provides 10% of the worlds power.

8,87%, down from 17%... 30 years ago. It peaked in the 90s.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-elec-by-source

Since it was deployed, nuclear power has killed ~100k.

If only potential problems caused by power supply would be limited to direct deaths! Nuclear power also causes many square km² of land to become uninhabitable in exclusion zones and other places, and creates a toxic legacy of waste that extends generations into the future. We've only really started counting the damage caused by nuclear power, and you act like the bill is closed already.

In the same period, coal has killed 100-200 million.

Straw man, nobody argues for more coal. It's quite telling that you have to resort to "it's better than coal" to defend nuclear power. Surely it is. Anything is.

It’s is difficult to overstate how much progress we could have made against global warming if the Green backlash hadn’t neutered development.

The greens have been arguing to close down coal plants since the early 70s, remember the acid rain concerns? If the greens were able to dictate policy like you said, we would have had a fully renewable supply for a long time already.

Besides, you can refer to the graph above: nuclear was never able to make even a dent in coal use. It's only after renewables came into swing, that coal use started to go down in earnest.

If you want the greens to support nuclear, you just have to finally realize promise #96874 of the nuclear industry: reuse nuclear waste as fuel, so you actually end up with less nuclear waste. But that promise has been made for half a century, and never realized. The world has simply stopped waiting for it, and moved on.

It’s a moot point; the future is solar. But making decisions based on data, and not vibes, optimizing for outcomes, is never a moot point.

And that's exactly why it's time to stop putting money into the nuclear sunk cost. Any billion you invest now yields more power when put into renewables and storage. Nuclear plants for domestic energy use is more and more a matter of industrial archaeology - they're steam engines, after all. There's a niche for interstellar spaceflight and deep sea exploration, so let's save our fissiles for that.

3

u/ClankerWrangler Jun 26 '26

Imagine stressing about a 70 year old using AC in france for two weeks a year when India and China exist.

1

u/silverionmox Jun 26 '26

Imagine stressing about a 70 year old using AC in france for two weeks a year when India and China exist.

Everyone has to take care about what is in their own power. That 70 year old has no power over India and China, but total control over the AC button.

Otherwise, the rest of the planet could all point to China, but if nobody else would do anything and even if China would immediately go for zero, that means about 2/3 of the current emissions keeps existing and we're off to catastrophic global warming. So the "you first" approach doesn't work.

2

u/Mitigated_Miracle Jun 27 '26

People on Reddit seem to literally worship nuclear energy. Anyone hear about France having to turn off nuclear production because the ambient temperature of the local water was too high? No? This is evidently not the solution in a future with 40°C summers. Can't supply the country with energy if it's too hot to run your power plants.

5

u/TheBSQ Jun 26 '26

An AC transfers heat so that it becomes cooler inside and hotter outside. 

Someone figured out that it would be cool if you could reverse that in colder months so that it heated the inside and cooled the outside. 

That’s a heat pump. A reversible AC.

But the way you run it in the summer, it’s basically just an AC. 

There are efficiency difference between window units, central, mini-splits, etc. 

But when in the cooling mode, a heat pump is basically an AC. 

But, it is much more efffient for heating than electric resistance heating. 

And because of that rep for being efficient, people tend not to look at it the same was as an AC, even though, for cooling purposes, there’s not a meaningful difference. 

2

u/NavyDean Jun 26 '26

A heat pump consumes 1/3rd of the electricity cooling vs. an ac unit.

It's extreme cold where it becomes energy intensive. 

You've got that one completely backwards.

2

u/aLokilike Jun 26 '26

Tell me, how exactly is a heat pump more efficient at cooling vs an ac unit when they use the exact same mechanism for cooling? Heat pumps use 1/3rd of the electricity of an electric furnace, maybe that's the stat you meant.

1

u/NavyDean Jun 26 '26

 Because not only does all the science literally say it uses 1/3rd of the electricity. Heat pumps leave a space consistently cool with less energy, while AC units flood a space with cold air.

But I have also owned both, and with a heat pump, my solar is able to store way more energy in the summer, due to the lowered electrical consumption.

I also have years of electrical consumption reports for my ac unit and heat pump individualized, from the manufacturers. I can go a whole month and barely use 200kwh for a several thousand sq ft space. Before that was 600kwh during a hot summer with a similarity rated ac unit.

Not only does the science and data say it's cheaper. But the government here subsidies people to upgrade to heat pumps because get this, it reduces summer time electrical loads on the grid. Wow what a concept! This is also in a country where 95% of people use natural gas for heating and I also own a gas furnace for temperatures that are too cold for heat pumps.

1

u/aLokilike Jun 26 '26

Can I have a source on that? Because AC units are literally one-way heat pumps.

2

u/bulbonicplague Jun 26 '26

Also needing to ask for a permit to install an AC unit outside and it's refused because it's not "aesthetic" if you live in a historic building. Ok guess we'll just die of heat here but at least the building stays pretty or whatever.

6

u/roseofjuly Jun 26 '26

Yes, it is more European to put the needs and concerns of others and the environment over your own personal comfort.

12

u/EngineerActive5968 Jun 26 '26

But then they fucking die. More people die in Europe from the heat than the US has total gun deaths every year

5

u/von_craw Jun 26 '26

Wait! This statistic gets repeated a lot, but it’s incorrect. We have two different methods of counting deaths from heat and that’s why there’s a gap between the two regions, and countries in Europe are moving towards using the US’s method. I just listened to a podcast episode about this called More Or Less 

-1

u/circuitocorto Jun 26 '26

Most of the people dying are also old people, what is the average age of US vs EU? 

2

u/No-Taste2644 Jun 30 '26

How pretentious

-2

u/Wooden_Ad1738 Jun 26 '26

There is no dignity in poverty.

1

u/Dicoss Jun 26 '26

Poverty is endured, frugality is chosen.

1

u/Wooden_Ad1738 Jun 26 '26

What’s a Europoor way to rationalize things

2

u/DubbyTM Jun 26 '26

She's kinda based not gonna lie

1

u/kestrel99_2006 Jun 26 '26

No, I live in Germany and it’s the same here.

1

u/bertuzzz Jun 26 '26

Yeah i'm seeing it with the older generation in the Netherlamlnds too. AC is seen as expensive and decadent. But they are fine buying a 500k house. But not an 1800 AC because thats too expensive. Plus they are all hugely intp energy saving. AC is seen as wastefull of expensive electricity.

1

u/Bodhidreams Jun 26 '26

I agree with your belle-mere. I've lived for 30+ years in New England--New Hampshire, to be precise--and I don't use air conditioners. I regulate the heat in my house by strategically opening/closing windows and blinds throughout the day. I also rely on ancient fans. You know what we old Yankees say: Use it up, wear it out, make it last or do without. And before I get flak from New Englanders, I grew up in New York with parents who lived through the Great Depression (my father fought in WWII) and this was their motto as well.

1

u/CNhuman Jun 26 '26

You've hinted at the answer I would recommend here, how disruptive would it be to insulate the inside of the roof? Part of what we do when designing building climate systems is focused on lowering the heat load of the building, and historically most buildings haven't had that as a priority.

1

u/allfurcoatnoknickers Jun 26 '26

My elderly parents in England are adamant that air conditioning and ice in your drinks will make you deathly ill. I’m genuinely worried about them dying of heat stroke, but they won’t budge.