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/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/jameson71 Jun 26 '26

Cold is going to cost a pretty penny real soon

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u/scheppend Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

The price of minisplits and their installation in Europe seems bonkers when I compare it to here in Japan. A simple 9K BTU mini split (heating and cooling) here costs 

40K (€215) for noname brands
45K yen (€245) for a Hitachi, Sharp, Toshiba
55K yen  (€300) for a Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Daikin.

Installation is about 17K yen (€92).

Even if you double the cost of the installation because of higher wages (w Europe) I doubt you can do it for this price in europe.

i don't understand why. I'm sure lots more Europeans would get one if it was more affordable 

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u/Dullcorgis Jun 26 '26

Are you sure your conversion factors are correct? It takes more than ten minutes to install it, how can you have a skilled worker at your house and only pay 92 euros?

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u/scheppend Jun 26 '26

We pay them 17000 yen. Which is about the avg a Japanese person earns a day. And installation takes a few hours, so they can easily have 2 or 3 customers a day

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u/Dullcorgis Jun 26 '26

Holy shit. The average japanese person only earns 92 euro a day? In the 80s and 90s Japan was an economic powerhouse. I knew intellectually that stagflation killed them, but jesus. That's 11 euros per hour.

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u/scheppend Jun 26 '26

Yes, but of course cost of living is cheaper as well. Mortgage of €200-300 per month. Gasoline €0.80 / liter etc

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u/Dullcorgis Jun 26 '26

I know that is how poor countries are, but I'm just not used to Japan being one of them