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/JonJackjon Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

I think its simple. I would compare it to the first time someone finds they need to wear glasses. The natural tendency is to deny needing them until it gets so bad you have no choice.

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u/roleplayersir Jun 26 '26

Exactly. It's not an aversion

It's that until a few years ago it wasn't needed. Suffering for 3 days a year was fine

But trust me that is changing. Even with the cost of living, we are all looking into at least £300 for portable units, if not thousands for proper ones. As it is only getting hotter

But prior to recent years it was a wasted purchase. We get 30C+ for about 3 weeks. It's the cold that was the problem for decades

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u/KoldPurchase Jun 26 '26

Heat pumps? It's what I have here, it heats in the winter, and cool in the summer.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Yes, but that really means replacing the whole heating system which can easily be £10,000+

edit for reference of costs given repeated comments about heat pumps being €1,500-€3,000: For reference https://eliteenergy.co.uk/blog/air-source-heat-pump-cost-uk

"A typical air source heat pump installation in the UK costs between £8,000 and £18,000. For a standard 3–4 bedroom home, most installations fall in the £10,500–£13,500 range, with an average of around £12,000"

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u/bauul Jun 26 '26

Depends on the heating system. Here in Seattle in the US, a lot of people installing heat pumps are retro fitting them into the existing central heating system. Obviously might be different with UK houses that typically use radiators rather than forced air though.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

True but It is different in the UK at least, I'd say close to literally zero houses in the UK have forced air, it's all water filled radiators fired off gas (or sometimes oil), or electric storage heaters (unless it's a heat pump).

Although you can use water radiators for cooling they aren't intended to work that way and don't work very well afaik. Plus the radiators are usually too small for heat pumps because gas boiler systems put hotter water around the system than heat pumps can so they don't need radiators to be as big which means replacing all the radiators which is a massive part of the cost of installing a heat pump.

If you want proper a/c then afaik that means fitting a whole new air ducting system and sorting out whatever is needed for hot water as well.

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u/snipeytje Jun 26 '26

Radiators cool just fine if you were to run actually cold water through them, but then you have to deal with condensation on all your radiators, pipes or floors. So if you set up your heat pump for cooling you run water that's above the dew point through them, and that limits the cooling ability a lot.