I find something very refreshing in this, reading from Europe where we get told "gas" is the big bad, even threatening to make condensing gas boilers illegal from time to time [0], despite over 95% of homes (in the UK) being heated by this method. I gotta be honest it's just so weird living in such energy poverty in Europe. Most of Europe doesn't heat or cool adequately, Spain and Portugal barely heat their homes in winter and boy it gets cold with 41F/5C nights. Then Germany/Switzerland refuse to use A/C even though the summers get to 95F/35C. Just a few days ago a friend told me he went to the doctor and the doctor passed out during examination from the heat.

[0]: https://www.edfenergy.com/heating/advice/uk-boiler-ban

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nicoburns 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> Reading from Europe where we get told "gas" is the big bad, even threatening to make condensing gas boilers illegal from time to time

Long-term this is true, and it makes sense to ban gas boilers (potentially with some exceptions): electric heat is significantly more efficient, and can run on renewable energy. But that requires a big investment in infrastructure build-out (heat pumps) which will take decades, and we definitely need to be careful that we handle the transition without screwing people over.

	▲	ricardobayes 8 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, most households don't have the 25-30k available to switch to heat pumps. If we dig deep I think we partially solved why people don't have kids anymore in Europe: for that you need optimism, and to be told every few years even something basic as your heating system is due to be illegal (!) doesn't really fill people with optimism. Same thing with banning internal combustion engined-cars, which was reversed too... Europe as a whole needs to manage these tech transitions very differently in my opinion.

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igl 3 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So we should only address the symptoms and not the cause. What are you saying?

Modern AC units are heat pumps the same box cools in summer and heats in winter, more efficiently than a gas boiler.

What is your stance on heat pumps? Conservatives here, who use the same talking points as you, are against them and they prefer to use oil and gas.

And is 5c a extreme night temperature? Where are you from? I'm not from Europe I think.

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actionfromafar 15 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Europe has unlimited wind, not unlimited gas. Electrification of most things is just a matter of time. Gas for heating is wasteful. I think AC will get very popular eventually once the stragglers realize that these are not unusual one-off warm summers, but is a result of global warming.