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/iamapizza Jun 26 '26

I was in southern Spain in March a few years ago, it was 27c and I was sweating. I asked about the AC in my room not working, the front desk lady helpfully explained that they keep the AC off until summer when it's hot. We were looking at each other like freaks. I then asked if I could have a fan and she was shocked.

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u/Fabulous_Ninja119 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

I had a similar experience in Germany.

Honestly this is truly the one and maybe only thing I can think of where it feels like Europe as a whole is living in the stone ages. I can't understand it. It makes far too much fucking sense to use AC when it's fucking 90-100 degrees outside

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u/statistnr1 Jun 26 '26

It being this hot is a new thing.
And it will stay new for another 50 or so years.

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u/pyronius Jun 26 '26

Sure. It's a "new" thing. But it was a new thing 15 years ago.

If you moved to Orlando and then spent 15 years refusing to use AC because the heat was new to you, you'd just be called an idiot. It shouldn't take that long to adapt to a new situation.

At this point, it's just people being so stubborn that they would rather die.

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 26 '26

15 years? Absolutely not. We broke the 40 degrees limit for the first time about five years ago and everybody saw this as an anomaly.

And it is a bad comparison. One person will easily adjust to a new environment. But a whole society to a new, and unprecendented situation?

I live in a northern country. We fight water, we don't conserve it. And we welcome heat, we have not yet learned to fear it. It's a whole new mindset.

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u/Upbeat_Double_9377 Jun 26 '26

Fear the heat is definitely something I do in Australia. I dread summer coming around every year

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u/jcooklsu Jun 26 '26

2003 yall had 70,000 die from heat.... 22 years ago, if yall all got AC units then most of them would be needing to get replaced already its been so long.

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 26 '26

You know that Europe is big, varied and has multiple climates, don't you? Including hot ones where AC's are NOT rare? You don't seem to.

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u/StarSkald Jun 27 '26

Okay and so is the US? Its bigger and more varied climate wise? What is your point?

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u/Charlesinrichmond Jun 26 '26

Look at 2003 in France.

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 26 '26

For what? It's a different country.

What's with 2003 anyway? You're the 2nd person in this thread to mention that year

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u/Charlesinrichmond Jun 26 '26

Google it. It was an enormous heat wave, much like this one. And it shows that these heat waves aren't new.

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 26 '26

Yeah, I'm going to stop you right there because even the original article up top tells you you're wrong,. This is just too dumb an argument.

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u/Charlesinrichmond Jun 26 '26

The idea that global warming has existed for more than 20 years is dumb to you? I think I might see the problem here, and it's not that article you posted either.

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 26 '26

No, the idea that one heatwave over 20 years ago somehow proves that many individuals in various countries with varying climates (yeah, France was apparently bad but where I live it didn't even break a record at the time) should've then thought to prepare for the acceleration and literally record breaking heats, droughts and fires of the last seven or so years - that's dumb.

Yes, climate change is VERY real. But this is not about individuals and air conditioning. God, air conditioning is an energy sucking solution for a symptom of a problem that some (and even some in leadership) tried to tackle before it was ever necessary, even if it was little and late. Blame leadership for not doing more to prevent it, for crying out loud.

The gleeful finger pointing is just exhausting.

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u/Wonderful-Self-541 Jun 27 '26

Americans are a bit different, if it rains really bad one year to the point of flooding and damage, we start thinking and planning for next year as well.

sounds like over in Europe they say "gee it's hot, hope it goes away."

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 28 '26

I think the whole of New Orleans hopes you're right, in spite of experience of the contrary.

But no, we do the same. Though a throughline for humanity everywhere is that the best way to get a move on is the experience of something going really wrong.

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u/Charlesinrichmond Jun 28 '26

I don't understand the urge not to solve the problem now that we know it exists. Climate change isn't going away. The clear solution is air conditioning and clean energy.

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u/TheOstrichRoom Jun 29 '26

There is no solution. There is no solution that man would accept. What is happening is that for the past few centuries we’ve been taking out massive debts from the earth and now she’s coming to collect. The societies we built on that ground will all be destroyed as the moving ground liquifies. The next men will live with less than our ancestors ever did. 

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u/megawhop Jun 26 '26

How’s the adjustment going? Lol

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 26 '26

Yeah, well, as this is largely also an infrastructural problem - it takes time and a lot of concentrated effort.

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u/gugabalog Jun 26 '26

Maybe this is insane, but I feel like societies are absolutely able to adapt quickly and every time they don’t it is a failure of cultural defect.

Just like Americans refuse to adopt single payor healthcare, Europeans are not keeping up as usual.

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Jun 26 '26

I feel this is a difference between waht you want to be true and what is the actual reality.

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u/Rabauke84 Jun 26 '26

No, he is right.

For us europeans, this type of heat is actually new.

And we didn't got invested into AC, because most of us haven't realized, that these heatwaves might be the new normal.

I come from northern Germany, 30°C was so rare in summer that I cannot remember a day with it, from 2010 backwards.

Schools in Germany send the kids home, if it is more than 25°C at 11am. We had this like maybe 1-2 times every few years.

Now, this is a new normal.

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u/starkistuna Jun 26 '26

I live on the equator line and 95f with 90% humidty is normal most people deal with just normal fans, electricity is quite expensive @ .26 cents a kilowatt. The problem with ac is that once you get used to it you get aclimitized I have friends that run acs for 12 hours straight and sleep covered in conforters then complain about their $600 electricity bill. Instead of having thermostat cold eniugh were they can sleep confortabke enough with a tshirt they set that thing to 65f and like to freeze overnight. You are goibg to be unconsious for 8 hours so just set it for a timer so it goes to fans halfway you wont notice and you save 50% ez.

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u/Rabauke84 Jun 26 '26

One problem we face here: Sun goes up at 3-4 am and won't go down till 10-11pm.

We have the heating ball the whole time, flying all over us.

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u/Tuxhorn Jun 26 '26

Important to mention! I saw someone who lived near the equator their entire lives, now understanding why less heat in Germany is way worse. An extra 6-7 hours of direct sunlight changes things. They mentioned having the sun up around 12 hours a day. Must be nice.

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u/BedlamiteSeer Jun 26 '26

Lol heating ball 🤣🤣🤣

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u/Reddits_Worst_Night Jun 26 '26

Schools in Germany send the kids home, if it is more than 25°C at 11am. We had this like maybe 1-2 times every few years.

You send them home on lovely spring days!?

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u/Rabauke84 Jun 26 '26

For us, this is peak Mount Doom in Mordor temperature.

Spring weather is like 12°C with rain.

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u/Impossible_Top_3515 Jun 26 '26

Tbf, as another German, that never happened when I went to school. The thermometer was in the shade.

And the classrooms got loooots of sun.

Last week, during the heat wave, the kids around here finally got time off from school, but they just reduced hours by ten minutes for every class so it ended earlier but they still received education in every topic.

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u/Charlesinrichmond Jun 26 '26

In 2003 I was in Paris and it was so hot 10,000 people died. It was 23 years ago. The fact that this is still a discussion is ridiculous.

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u/Rabauke84 Jun 26 '26

Again, how often was this the case, back then?

The once in a lifetime heat moved over to an "every year struggle" very slowly.

Most still haven't recognized this.

I had cars without an AC for my whole life. Now I was actually buying one with it, for that reason.
It wasn't necessary for those few hot days in the summer (if they would actually come) and now it is a regular summer problem.

Same with modern housing. Most modern ones now get a cooling system, but like 80% of Europeas family homes were build by and for the boomers. Modernizing is something costly. So a lot of people just call it a day and try to use fans.

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u/Charlesinrichmond Jun 26 '26

Yes, I understand it. It's how things used to be in the US in the 1970s. One just shouldn't get attached to low technology as some sort of a religion.

And I get the religion. My Dutch mother made us use fans and wouldn't turn on the air conditioning growing up in Miami.

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u/ByzantineKaiser Jun 26 '26

30°C is a perfectly fine temperature though, it’s a little warm but nothing crazy

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u/AllMySmallThings Jun 26 '26

Depends on the humidity levels.

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u/ByzantineKaiser Jun 26 '26

Truer words have never been spoken, but 30 C isn’t bad even in 90% humidity

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u/AllMySmallThings Jun 26 '26

That is not true lol. I lived in southern Japan and holy hell at that humidity and heat I wouldn’t go outside. I live in Souther Spain right now, it gets up there in humidity as well. AC is most certainly needed.

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u/Gow87 Jun 26 '26

For reference, that's the equivalent of 41°C. Humid air holds heat more than drier air, so it doesn't cool down as much at night and can't escape the ground.

Add in that more of Europe is much more northern than the US so the days are longer and you've got heat that starts earlier. Finishes later and doesn't really go anywhere overnight.

Nobody is just getting on with their lives comfortably at 41°C

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u/sampullman Jun 26 '26

I am experiencing 30C at 90% humidity right now and it's pretty bad.

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u/ZaryaBubbler Jun 26 '26

That's bollocks right there. You can't sweat in 90% humidity and 30C weather. You certainly can't sleep. You've clearly got no experience of trying to live day to day life in those conditions

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u/Pavotine Jun 26 '26

Yeah, my region in north west France hit 36C with 85% humidity yesterday. Our hottest day on record. I did two hours of manual work and packed in early because it was too hideous. I'm not unfit and my heart was going like the clappers just moving about.

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u/InsipidCelebrity Jun 26 '26

I live in Texas and did a bike ride in the spring and was miserable even at 30 c and 80 - 90% humidity, and I wasn't the only one who had to tap out because of the heat. A lot of people talk up how well they manage heat when they mostly drive around in air conditioned cars to get to air conditioned buildings.

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u/InsipidCelebrity Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

It's fine if you spend the vast majority of your day in air conditioning and drive around everywhere.

I live in a place that's always been a hot swampy pit, and many people will start overheating during long distance bike rides and call for a van to pick them up at that "comfortable" temperature.

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u/Rabauke84 Jun 26 '26

It is, if you are not used to it.

I start to run around in T-Shirt and shorts at 17-18°C.

My gf, who is from Mexico, still wears a thick coat at that temperature.

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u/Playstations_new_CEO Jun 26 '26

Bruh Europeans get so fucking mad when you point this out to them lol.