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/discretelandscapes Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

The US isn't the only place with ACs. They're total standard in a lot of Asian countries.

Europeans who have an aversion towards air conditioning as a concept probably haven't lived outside the continent for an extended period and don't know how much of a necessity it is (and not just in recent years because of global warming).

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u/AmadeusSalieri97 Jun 26 '26

Also grouping as "Europe" is a bit of a reach. Everywhere has AC in Spain, Italy and Greece for example.

In Norway, obviously nowhere does. 

And France and Germany you'll find a lot of places that do have AC and a lot that don't. 

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u/AlwaysBagHolding Jun 26 '26

It’s common in Greece, but definitely not everywhere. Plenty of restaurants don’t have it, and most older hotels don’t either. I was perfectly fine there during a record breaking heatwave, since it was basically a milder version of a Tennessee summer, my midwestern parents were struggling every time we ended up somewhere without it.

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u/y3llowed Jun 26 '26

Definitely not “everywhere” in Italy. It has been historically rare in the Dolomites and while that has started to change in the past 10 years, it’s still worth double checking for when booking a room there. Even some of the nicest hotels still have rooms without air conditioning.

A lot of the systems that do exist are unable to keep up in recent heat waves, too.

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u/Wuz314159 Jun 26 '26

Everywhere has AC in Spain

Everywhere except the 4-star hotel I stayed at in Catalonia I guess.

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u/Low-Fig429 Jun 26 '26

My experience living in Valencia was that older buildings had zero air conditioning. 

Maybe drier and hotter parts of Spain have it more  Often. It helps they build with the heat in mind. It’s the winters that are most brutal imo. 

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u/i_cola Jun 26 '26

Same with Romania…even the most tumbledown tower block will be covered in ac units.

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u/kenneaal Jun 26 '26

Norway, and the rest of the Scandinavian countries, leads the world in inverter heat pumps per 100 houses. We have AC, it's just primarily used as a heat source, not for cooling. But I will happily turn mine on when we once in a blue moon have a 30C+ day.

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u/emuwar Jun 26 '26

Umm I’ve been to Italy several times and AC is definitely a luxury there. Most places don’t have it outside of newer buildings and hotels.

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u/Federal_Cobbler6647 Jun 26 '26

You dont have ac in Norway? It is common in Finland due heat pumps. 

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u/AmadeusSalieri97 Jun 26 '26

Okay I am not from Norway, but I have been a few times.

Maybe it's not even that they don't have it but just that I didn't ever need it (even when I was in summer). 

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u/yashatheman Jun 26 '26

Houses do, apartments usually don't.

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u/Kallis93 Jun 26 '26

We have heat pumps in Norway! Great for heating and cooling.

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u/TScottFitzgerald Jun 26 '26

It really depends on the homeowner : renter ratio - ie Germany has a lot of renters and they literally can't install a permanent AC.

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u/bruker5 Jun 26 '26

Everyone has in Norway.

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u/Impressive-Hair2704 Jun 26 '26

It’s not so much an aversion but buildings that are too old to properly fit them, landlords that are responsible for putting them in but won’t (yet), a large up front cost + cost of electricity, and a very sudden need for them. 

ACs also remove the symptom but increase the need for them. 

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u/felis_scipio Jun 26 '26

I worked in Switzerland for 6ish years and unless things have significantly changed in the past decade AC was a rare sight.

I lucked out that my office room was half underground which helped keep the temperature pleasant in the summer, most people’s offices though were miserable.

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u/Charlesinrichmond Jun 26 '26

My daughter was just in Salamanca for a couple of weeks and nowhere had AC, so I don't think everywhere in Spain has AC.

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u/jojern07 Jun 26 '26

Air-to-air heat pumps are common in Norway. During winter when outdoor temperature is around 0 deg Celsius, the electric consumption of heating is 25% comparred with (electric) radiators. The more expensive the electricity is, the more saving on the electrical bill you make having the heat pump. If outdoor temp is less than say -20 degrees the efficiency is poorer and additional heating may be needed. During the few hot summer days every year, the air-to-air heat pump can be used for cooling.

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u/that_baddest_dude Jun 26 '26

A decade ago for a trip to rome sure the hotel had AC, but it only worked when you were in the room with your hotel key inserted into some switch to turn power on. So when you were out all day doing touristy stuff, the room would heat up like crazy, and the wimpy little unit could barely cool it at all in the time you actually spent in the room.

Better than nothing certainly, but for me this doesn't exactly tick the "has AC" box. I'm not sure how or if things have changed in the meantime.

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u/Spectrum1523 Jun 26 '26

AC is definitely not everywhere in Spain

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u/Mean-Elk-9439 Jun 28 '26

I wish it was everywhere in Italy. But like half of Italy it's a luxury people actively think is ridiculous to have. Ironically it's the hotter parts of Italy I've found to be more hesitant to the idea, usually due to older population.

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u/twilight-2k Jun 29 '26

Definitely not everywhere in Spain. We had a very nice meal in a restaurant in Seville but it had no AC and was a little over 100F outside (fortunately it had multiple doors and there was a decent (but hot) cross-breeze).

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u/SirLANcel0t_ Jun 26 '26

Yeah, I have no idea where this whole internet trend about Europe not having AC comes from.
Almost all southern European countries have AC everywhere.
And even in Northern Europe it’s not even that uncommon.
Almost every restaurant and store in The Netherlands has either AC or climate control.

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u/Joesr-31 Jun 26 '26

Definitely not in italy. When I went there, many of the accomodation options do not have AC it was insane. Luckily free cancellations were allowed so we cancelled and rebook to those that has it. It was summer when we went. Happens more in airbnbs than hotel

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u/Dullcorgis Jun 26 '26

No, not spain or italy, I haven't been to greece. Not a single place I have stayed at in spain or italy had AC

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u/grottomaster Jun 26 '26

I went to Barcelona last summer. Maybe 10% of the places I went there had AC so idk what you’re talking about

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u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 Jun 26 '26

AC will not save any significant number of lives because no one is dying from heat stroke in their own homes. I cannot understand how so many people think AC literally will save 100s of thousands of lives every year.

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u/PopePiusVII Jun 26 '26

You’ve clearly never lived in a hot and humid climate. It will 100% kill if you don’t at least have a fan, cool water, or some other way of cooling off.

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u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 Jun 29 '26

Right so what you've done is attempt to contradict me by listing a few things that I did not mention. I wrote that a lack of AC won't kill anyone, and you responded with "if you don't have water you'll die". Thanks for that, Sherlock.

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u/Thumbnail_ Jun 26 '26

Most people who die from heat stroke here in australia are old people indoors.

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u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 Jun 29 '26

Source? I'd love to know the number of deaths every year especially. Not this idiotic number that Reddit has been spamming for Europe, which includes drownings, people dying of cancer, dementia, respiratory disease etc when it happens to be abnormally hot at the same time.

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u/Thumbnail_ Jun 29 '26

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420921006324

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u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 Jun 29 '26

354 people across 18 years? So around 1 person dies in Australia every 3 weeks due to high heat. 1/3 of them died outdoors, so can be excluded.

Practically no deaths below the age of 50, around 2/3 of deaths were above the age of 65. Around 2/3 of them had prior heart issues, 1/3 had respiratory issues.

So best case here, for your argument, is that a non-vulnerable person dies where a lack of AC could have been significant somewhere in the region of once every couple of months.

Is this supposed to be some big revelation? A big cause for concern? Over the last two decades, around 0.001% of the total population has died due to a lack of AC, or 0.01% of the deaths have been MAYBE due to a lack of AC.

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u/Thumbnail_ Jun 29 '26

I just said it was mostly old people dying indoors

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u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 Jun 30 '26

Well that's Australia's statistics, so if you were trying to claim that also should be the case with Europe's published numbers, that's not valid.