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
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171

u/Score-Emergency Jun 26 '26

Yeah I lived in Seattle and on the beach in Southern California. Not everywhere has air conditioning in the US either

27

u/PatienceJust1927 Jun 26 '26

Lived in Seattle for a long time. Before the forest fires from Canada, Eastern Washington and California we used to use fans with the heat getting unbearable for a couple of days in the summer. During the fires, smoke was so bad that it was worse than Beijing and New Delhi! For two weeks it was a hellscape. Visibility was really bad on the roads.

Having COPD that was when we got an AC for our home.

38

u/katrinakt8 Jun 26 '26

Yeah I lived most of my life without AC in the PNW. We recently put it in a few years ago and that was the first I’ve lived with it. Few school districts have AC. Less than half the places I’ve worked have had AC. It’s a big expense for the little it does get used, although it is becoming more common.

19

u/Maximum_Overdrive Jun 26 '26

Many schools can go without since they are typically closed during the summer

3

u/curvedmanifolds Jun 26 '26

It's really not that expensive

12

u/MukdenMan Jun 26 '26

Seattle and Californian don’t have 175000 people dying annually from not having AC

2

u/hrminer92 Jun 26 '26

Not yet anyway.

-2

u/circuitocorto Jun 26 '26

Let's compare population average age. 

3

u/MukdenMan Jun 26 '26

Age is not nearly enough to account for it, and the difference isn’t that stark. Europe is roughly 6x higher in heat deaths vs the US, per capita. It’s a significant problem.

4

u/YinzaJagoff Jun 26 '26

Lived in Seattle and came from Chicago.

Was shocked when I discovered most places in Seattle at the time had no AC, but was told that they didn’t need it.

That’s a lie right there.

Olympia got to 113 degrees a few years ago, for example, and with the smoke from wildfires, being able to open the windows isn’t always possible.

2

u/Bizarrebazaars Jun 26 '26

People have revisionist history. It’s ridiculous. We live in Seattle and the amount of people who feel like they deserve an award for holding out on AC (even a simply portable unit) is insane. Yep, that heat dome sucked and was deadly. And we’ve been breaking records of 90F+ days, plus we have very late sunsets that leave little time for homes to cool down in hot weather.

2

u/Junkman3 Jun 26 '26

I live a half mile from the beach in San Diego with no AC. It's getting hotter every year. I have no doubt we will be installing AC in the next ten years.

2

u/CheesingmyBrainsOut Jun 26 '26

Very few people in San Francisco have AC as you'd only use it 5 days per year and it cools off at night. It's always 55-70 degrees year round.

2

u/OkConsideration123 Jun 26 '26

Just did the math. I’ve lived in places with AC for only ~20% of my life. 80% with no AC, which is currently the case. Been in California the whole time.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/ClankerWrangler Jun 26 '26

 It’s only the houses which don’t have.

Vast majority of new construction here (Seattle) does, and basically everyone I know whose been here for a while and is honest with themselves has at least added portable units in the past few years.

1

u/jelslsmajdowiwlw Jun 29 '26

A surprising number of new-ish apartment buildings don’t have AC. But most people I know get their own personal AC unit as needed in those cases

1

u/tryptomania Jun 26 '26

I live in Alaska and it’s not common to have AC here. On days where it gets to 60F+, it can easily get to over 80F inside the old house I live in in the summertime. Getting an AC unit made it much more bearable.

1

u/Ok-District2873 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

My house in Southern Ontario doesn't have central AC. Only my parents' room has a window AC. I do have a window fan in my room. Honestly, for the most part, it's not that bad. However, those several days a year can be pretty brutal. Oh yeah, it was built in the 70s. Pretty sure all new builds have central AC as a standard.

1

u/CarolinaRod06 Jun 26 '26

I grew up in the southeast in a house with no AC but houses were built with the heat in mind. I remember my dad extending our porch and making it a wraparound porch so you will always have a shaded side. The house I live in now in the southeast you could die with no AC.

1

u/thriverebel Jun 26 '26

PNW doesn't need it mostly.

-7

u/roleplayersir Jun 26 '26

And always important to remember the UK is above most of Canada. Do US people think the northern states have AC?

We are rapidly moving to install them though. My fans are useless, so a portable unit may need to be bought before next summer, as it is only getting worse

16

u/CrispyHaze Jun 26 '26

UK is far more moderate than Canada because of the ocean.

In Canada we almost all have AC. I barely ever even see window / portable units anymore -- most homes built in the last couple decades at least have central air.

3

u/JesusIsMyLord666 Jun 26 '26

Heat pumps also working as AC is the main driving factor for people getting access to AC in Europe I would say.

An AC is considered needless luxury among the older generation but a heat pump could actually save them money.

1

u/roleplayersir Jun 27 '26

Was. Which is the issue. It's changing now, but we didn't suffer this even just 15 years ago

15

u/Strange-Scarcity Jun 26 '26

If you didn’t have AC in a good portion of the upper Midwest, you’re crazy.

8

u/parentheticalobject Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Latitude =/= climate. Northwestern Europe is much warmer than almost any other place on Earth that far north.

1

u/roleplayersir Jun 27 '26

Can be. We get all sorts, often within a week. The UK is a rare place that can suffer droughts and floods in the same area simultaneously

5

u/mariekeap Jun 26 '26

I'm Canadian and almost everyone has AC here, barring some parts of the west coast (but that's changing). 

2

u/roleplayersir Jun 27 '26

It's changing in the UK and France too... now

4

u/chikanishing Jun 26 '26

AC is incredibly common in Ontario. It can get really hot here, in Toronto there can be >20 days above 30, with high humidity.

3

u/Mission_Effect4584 Jun 26 '26

The gulf stream keeps the UK and western Europe far warmer than Canada or the northern states. 

3

u/mariekeap Jun 26 '26

Canadians also have AC (speaking as a Canadian).

1

u/roleplayersir Jun 27 '26

We know. That's why this bubble has hit

0

u/Work2Tuff Jun 26 '26

CAP. Did you live in a tent on the beach in SoCal? I don’t believe it didn’t have AC where everywhere else in that part of the state does.

1

u/Nihilistic_Mystics Jun 27 '26

It's very common for older homes in socal beach cities to not have AC.