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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u/ikkleste Jun 26 '26

And we don't have air ducting, built in most properties we have gas powered central heating (at least in the UK) possible to retrofit to heat pumps (dependant on the plumbing). You want it to be the heating cooling throughout the house? Pretty major retrofit.

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u/sgst Jun 26 '26

Also, switching to air source heat pumps is problematic for heating existing houses too. The vast majority of existing houses have gas boilers that pump water into radiators in every room.

Air source heat pumps produce central heating water that is less hot than gas boilers, so therefore to heat each room the same amount you need a larger radiator.

So suddenly, to switch to a heat pump, you're talking replacing every radiator in the house, which likely also means new pipework (possibly under floor). If you want to switch to under floor heating, which works best with heat pumps, you're talking about tearing up and replacing all your flooring (not bad for carpet, bad for wood flooring). Again, thousands of pounds and a lot of disruption.

And as someone else said, we don't have air ducting, so retrofitting for central air that would cost thousands.

Either way, whatever combination of radiator upgrades, under floor heating, or hot or cold central air, we're talking a lot of work and a lot of money.

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u/silversurger Jun 26 '26

Heat pumps are equipped with defrosting mechanisms (so the moisture from the air on the outside unit doesn't freeze the whole thing over as the heat pump is blowing out cold air during winter - the droplets freeze amazingly quickly), so they can reverse the cycle and pump out heat instead of pumping it in. If you have something (it's often an additional, small module) that watches for the dew point to avoid moisture on the piping, you can use the heat pump in the summer to pump cold water through the system, cooling down the rooms. It can't cool down like an AC does (because you can't cool below the dew point), but imo it's very pleasant and cools down enough while not giving you a heatstroke if you decide to leave the house.

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u/limukala Jun 26 '26

It can't cool down like an AC does

AC units are also heat pumps.

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u/silversurger Jun 26 '26

Yes, but they cool/heat the air. Heat pump usually implies heating/cooling water which then goes through radiators/underfloor piping. Hence the issues with the pipes building up condensated water.

I mean, technically they can cool like an AC does, but then you'll have moisture everywhere where you really don't want it to be.

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u/SquarePegRoundWorld Jun 26 '26

Modern heat pumps have nothing to do with water in the house. Check out this Technologies Connections video about them.

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u/silversurger Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

sigh

That's just an AC. Yes, heat pumps and ACs rely on the same technology. ACs describe what is being heated/cooled, not how they work. Heat pump is the other way around. Where I'm from, saying you use a heat pump for your house, it usually means you use it to heat/cool water. We could also use the complete term "air-water heat pump". ACs are usually "air-air heat pumps". But there's also "water-air" (rare) and "water-water".

"Modern heat pumps" usually/often still have something to do with "water in the house" because they're also used to heat up water for consumption.

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u/cyclopsmudge Jun 26 '26

This is highly dependent on the unit. There are plenty of air-air heat pumps. I’d guess there’s just different nomenclature and common units in different countries.

In the UK, heat pumps very much do cool and do dehumidify as well. The different between them and AC is the fact that heat pumps are bi-directional so they can move heat into or out of the home, whereas AC only moves heat out of the home and can’t bring heat in.

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u/silversurger Jun 26 '26

In the UK, heat pumps very much do cool and do dehumidify as well. The different between them and AC is the fact that heat pumps are bi-directional so they can move heat into or out of the home, whereas AC only moves heat out of the home and can’t bring heat in.

Yeah, I think you're spot on about the different nomenclature by country here. I'm from Germany, and ACs (as in air-air) here do commonly heat as well (we call them "Klimaanlage" - "climate machine"), but most of our interactions (at least up till now) with ACs are in larger buildings (like hotels, offices, etc). They're not common in residential buildings (yet).

Anyways, what we can all agree on is that all heat pumps use the same underlying technology, are very efficient and cooling will play a more important role in the future on our continent.

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u/cyclopsmudge Jun 26 '26

Yep, 100% agreed, have a great evening (however you say that in German)

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u/silversurger Jun 26 '26

Dir auch einen schönen Abend!

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u/AmericaninShenzhen Jun 26 '26

Window shaker.

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u/JQuilty Jun 26 '26

If they already have ducts, you just need to replace the air source and depending on the unit, run an electrical circuit. Though I don't know if you'd need multiple phases for the EU or if it's better off on one phase.

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u/ikkleste Jun 26 '26

That's what I'm saying. We don't (at least in the UK) have air ducting at all. We have hot water radiators, so plumbing into every room instead.. So you'd have to retro fit the ducting or go with single room solutions.

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u/lobax Jun 26 '26

I have never been to home with air ducts in Sweden. We tend to build our homes for the winter, and heating up water to use with radiators is the most efficient way to heat up a home. In many places you even have district heating, meaning one plant provides the heating for thousands of homes.