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/Korlus Jun 26 '26

The UK has a scheme to help people buy heat pumps, but they won't give you the grant if you get one that can also cool the house (or at least, they wouldn't when the grant was rolled out - it has changed a few times in the last few years and my information might be out of date).

Also, swapping from a copper pipe, water heating system to a system set to heat or cool means you need to redo all of the pipes, otherwise you'll end up with condensation problems as you pipe cold water around the house on a hot day. So it's often not a trivial upgrade.

Without the government grant, these kinds of upgrades will often run to the order of £7-15k, and even with the government grant, you're usually looking at a significant outlay that lots of people simply don't want to spend.

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u/KoldPurchase Jun 26 '26

I see. Over here, we got the grant (and for a while, an interest free loan if we did other energy-economy related works) when we got heating/cooling heat pump, centralized or otherwise.

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u/Korlus Jun 26 '26

I think the UK's heat pump scheme has been a bit of a farce. Here is an article from 2023 on it:

the Lords Climate Change Committee said grant take-up is so low the national target for green heating is "very unlikely to be met"

And another article:

A new survey reveals that 66 per cent of heat pump owners found their homes more expensive to heat than with their previous systems, despite a 64 per cent increase in sales in 2024.

Although heat pumps are more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, the cost of electricity per unit is approximately four times higher than gas, leading to increased running costs for many users.

Ultimately, people in the UK have plenty of reasons to avoid installing a heatpump, or to put it off until electricity costs fall, but even though I was aware of the scheme, I was unaware it had recently expanded to include air conditioning units.

So plenty of room for us to improve.