And yet many Europeans will still argue that ACs are evil and they shouldn't have them despite an estimated 175k heat related deaths per year. Although maybe this heat wave will change some minds.

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rsynnott 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Are the anti-AC zealots in the room right now?

Lived in Europe all my life, never seen this, in the past 40 years. I think it’s more an American fantasy than anything else. Historically, aircon in Northern Europe was pointless except for large office blocks, so was rarely installed. It’s been common in much of Southern Europe for a while.

I think it’s still a _fairly_ hard sell in much of Northern Europe; you might be talking about a few days a year when it’s actually required, which will discourage people from putting it in. Thought about it myself when I was WFH during covid, but in Ireland in particular it really is just a few days a year, at worst.

	▲	bob001 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Are the anti-AC zealots in the room right now? The first response to my post was one. Last post that touched on this a couple weeks ago had a number of them as well.

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skrebbel 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is this a strawman?

It might be my bubble, but I see a lot more people complaining about anti-AC warriors than actual anti-AC warriors. Do you have an example?

I mean it also doesn't make much sense anymore does it? You turn the AC on when the sun is out and theres an energy surplus.

We got AC last year, and solar panels at the same time, so the AC climate impact is zero. All reactions from neighbours etc were either neutral or positive. (This is in the Netherlands, which frowned upon aircos until very recently)

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Sharlin 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Always fun, having to fight a problem caused by X by doing more X. At least there’s the silver lining that solar production and the need for AC go hand in hand.

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stavros 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The problem wasn't caused by air conditioning, it was caused by burning fossil fuels. Perhaps we could find a way to have air conditioning without burning fossil fuels?

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Sharlin 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Obviously. But as of now, AC means burning carbon (~50% of Europe's electricity production). Demand for even more electricity may accelerate the transition, hopefully, but right now the projection is that all the extra capacity and much more will be taken by data centers and consumer electricity bills are going to double or triple. Hopefully that will never actually happen but who knows.

Obviously consuming even more should never be the solution to problems caused by overconsumption. We should be figuring out ways to keep electricity use in check rather than consuming more and more, but that's a fact that people would rather not accept.

	▲	skrebbel 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> But as of now, AC means burning carbon Source? Where I live (NL) the electricity prices are very low on the days/times you’d need AC because of all the solar power generated then. I think you gotta back up your claim that 50% of electricity consumed by ACs comes from burning carbon. It strikes me as very counterintuitive (or dated)

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bob001 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, all that CO2 generated by nuclear power plants and renewable energy is terrible. But I guess if enough people die then Europe's carbon emissions will also go down so it's a win! And thank you for proving my point.

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Sharlin 8 hours ago | parent [-]

~50% share (in some countries much higher) fossil-based electricity is still 50% fossil-based electricity.

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bob001 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That tends to happen when you spend a couple decades shutting down the non-fossil fuel energy sources. Germany used to be 30% nuclear up to 2005 so well past climate change is real times. Now it's around 1%.

	▲	Sharlin 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I know. But it is what it is now.

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stavros 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Then don't do that.

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swiftcoder 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> And yet many Europeans will still argue that ACs are evil

I have literally never met this straw man European (and I live here). Heat pumps are going in all over Europe at a rate of knots, and solar adoption rates in southern Europe mean that using those heat pumps to cool down in summer will be basically free