Oh no you’re gonna trigger the Germans.

> Several countries require AC installation to be approved by the equivalent of a homeowners association or impose noise ordinances that increase compliance costs and paperwork.

This is not unique to ACs. Anything on the outside of a building requires your co-owners to agree.

We have those stupid regulations in Finland about how the outside of our apartments buildings should look - meaning you cannot put the condenser visibly on the outside of the building. I've heard stories of residents being scalded for putting flowers on their balcony railings that face outwards as it ruins the "look". Given almost all apartment buildings are built consistently between every floor they could ensure consistent placement of condensers across all floors and it wouldn't even look that bad.

What makes the situation much worse here is we have insanely good insulation on the buildings. They trap heat for the cold winters, but the walls just maintain all the heat during the summers. A new approach is needed to make it livable here.

In my own apartment I am not able to create a cross-breeze through strategic window opening to try and bring in cooler air from outside, so I've resorted to opening a window on one side of the apartment and using a Vornado fan to push air out the window on another side of the apartment - creating a pressurized system.

> Germany has reported more than 5,000 excess deaths this year.

We're up to more than 15,000: https://www.rki.de/DE/Themen/Gesundheit-und-Gesellschaft/Ges...

I don't necessarily disagree, but I am wondering what luxury will next become a necessity if we keep increasing our energy usage in order to get both more luxuries and necessities?

On the bright side, I suppose one mitigating factor is that renewable energy makes it less harmful to use energy to power A/C usage.

First words from the article:

>Yet as heat waves kill tens of thousands of Europeans each year

...Each year? Was it the case every year twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago? What has changed, miss Follett?

Last words from the article:

>But forgoing air conditioning is a refusal to move on from a lethally hot past.

Gee, I wonder if this global warming thing wasn't a mistake to let happen...

If that author is right, then we can and should punish the people responsible for global warming? Because that includes a lot of her colleagues at Cato and WaPo. The same who were against the same carbon taxes that would be useful to reduce and mitigate the global warming that kills...

Cooling technologies are a necessity and air conditioning is one of many possible options.

Europe north of France is substantially cooler than much of the US, even on the hottest days. Many homes could get by on ceiling fans, but they are very uncommon here.

We have similar rules for condos in Canada, so we used a portable one back when we owned a condo. It’s also kinda expensive to install one, too.

I mean it's mostly about energy efficiency, a well insulated house is as easy to cool in summer as it is to heat in winter. Most heat pumps can also cool and new construction in most European countries like Germany is equipped with floor heating and central ventilation which in summer allows you to run around 18 degree Celsius hot water through the system to cool it, that yields around 20-40 Watt of cooling power per square meter, and that's often sufficient to keep things chilly. Mind you not American style 18 degree Celsius kind of chilly, but 20-25 degrees easily, which I think is quite nice. The bonus of this system is that it's mostly "radiative" cooling as the cold surface acts as an absorber of infrared radiation, I find it much more pleasant than having cold air blown into your face.

We equipped our founding era building with wall heating and will test out the heatpump based cooling next summer, if it's not enough I would consider installing a small AC unit, that's super easy as well.

Don't know what the article wants to say, there's no ban on AC anywhere in Europe and small units are quite affordable, you can get a single split unit from Mitsubishi for 500 € from Italy. The only nuisance is that installation is heavily regulated in Germany so they rip you off with insane cost. That's definitely a thing that needs to change in my opinion.

Thats what I tell to all the wildlife when they collapse, too.

> HumanProgress.org is a project of the Cato Institute with major support from the John Templeton Foundation and the Searle Freedom Trust [1]

> The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. [2]

It's nothing more than US libertarian think tank trying to influence EU policy... Perhaps in an effort to push more anti climate change agenda/discourse in US (but that might be just my projection).

Thank you, case closed.

[1] https://humanprogress.org/about/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute

Sweden has a 'district cooling' as well as district heating. 2 completely different systems ofcourse. The district cooling is a centralized way of providing cold air/liquid to building and facilities across the city. The centralized producer of the cold stuff, they can also create the chilly stuff by utilizing waste heat from factories, large buildings etc. Pretty neat idea IMO, and something that ideally would be in priority instead of letting each building have their own AC and create a lot of noise.

Source: https://www.goteborgenergi.se/foretag/fjarrkyla

I'm not convinced by the author's point that ACs do not impose a burden on the electrical grid. They write that ACs have gotten more efficient, which may be true, but that's the same Windows developers have been saying over years and yet boot times and hardware requirements have gone way up. One million efficient units still require more energy than no units. And while I definitely believe that European hospitals and retirement homes sadly need ACs now (thanks global warming), I'm not sure everyone and their dog needs one.

I also have reservations about why an American libertarian think tank writes about what Europeans should do, but that's probably on me.

A total ban is nonsensical. If you’re concerned about noise regulate the sound level. If you’re concerned about energy use, tax it and put the money raised into a solar subsidy. But the idea you can have a heat pump and can’t have an AC is absurd because a heat pump literally is an AC flipped around.

idk fam I live in mauritania and we just tough it out

Luckily, we in Croatia have ACs, a lot.

What temperatures are we talking about here? Aren't people living in much higher temperatures in tropical zones just fine?

I tend to stay away from topics like this which generalize and basically tell a whole continent they are living their lives "wrongly".

But I have to say, AC is not "banned" anywhere in Europe, apart from certain cantons of Switzerland. In Germany you have a right to AC actually, if your community votes to "veto" the installation a court can overturn that.

Here in Norway AC is not the standard in hotel rooms. For 80% of the year, that's OK - but it can become pretty uncomfortable if you're booking anytime between mid-June and mid-August.

The standard here are heat pumps, at least for residential housing. It is really only a problem if you live in blocks or apartment buildings that are housing associations, with strict rules regarding how such heat pumps should be installed.

With that said, for my travel to Europe - especially down south, AC in the hotel room is an absolute necessity. A couple of years ago we ended up in a completely booked hotel in Italy (mid July), where the AC in our room was busted - it was beyond miserable. Ended up changing hotels after one night.

"This article was originally published in The Washington Post"

Pretty much all you need to know in 2026.

For some reason, room-level air conditioning is basic public health, but weather engineering is a sci-fi villain origin story.

In our London apartment leasehold, we have a water-sourced air conditioning unit. No external condenser required, it instead dumps the heat into the waste water. It has been incredibly helpful during this heat wave as someone who really struggles in the heat and works from home.

It's not ideal during a drought though to be using water like that, it would be nice if we had a grey water tank system so we didn't have to waste drinking water. It doesn't seem possible to install a grey water tank like that in our apartment though. Given our apartment already has district heating, there's not a super strong reason why it couldn't have district cooling as well, but the regulations are not in our favour here.

We installed it all without planning permission, although it still might require permission from the freeholder depending on the rules regarding Service Media alterations (as it requires new plumbing for our mains water).

The AC propaganda coming from the US this year is really strange and out of proportion. About ten times as many people die from the cold in Europe as die from the heat.

The truth is that until recently AC was not needed in the mild climates of much of the continent and it is already present everywhere in the South and East. Regulation and affordability is part of the story, but its far from the primary factor for most people.

Its funny how its mostly US-based libertarian types concerned about AC in Europe. There are plenty of things Europe over-regulates, but this is not it.

This is all a trickle down effect of energy policies fyi.

I've been thinking for a while about whether it would be feasible to produce an affordable 'personal cooling chamber' for lower income people in places getting scorched in the summer that don't have A/C.

Basically an automotive air conditioning unit hooked up to a battery and solar panel, with a tanning bed type form factor (up to maybe capsule hotel size), painted or coated to reflect light & heat. Highly portable.

I'm not sure if it's remotely practical, but it would be interesting to run the numbers, and I'm certain there is at least someone out there who would buy it even if the cost turned out to be higher than I envision.

You might be surprised how far you can get with a simple fan. What your body needs is to evaporate heat. You sweat, it evaporates, skin cools down. Airflow helps that process a whole bunch. It's physics. It may not make hot weather feel perfect but it will cover the necessity pretty much anywhere.

Same goes for tree shade and sensible city planning, also architecture (see all those textured dark grey or black condos currently in fashion and shudder). The other day I was biking along a road after dark and residual heat around it is so noticeable, biking 5 meters closer to the trees it felt so much colder.

I've spent some time in SE Asia. Many homes out there don't have an A/C. Apparently the real number is like 85%.

Should air conditioning maybe be less regulated in Europe? Sure. Do I enjoy A/C on occasion? Sure, guilty. Is climate change real? Sure. But A/C is a necessity like water/sewage/electricity? In Europe?? Idk.

Edit: I agree in advance with everyone saying it sucks without AC but just saying, a strategic fan (and opening windows if possible, closing curtains, etc) can be OP. It might sound stupid but for years I literally forgot fans existed because I was where everywhere is AC and often no fan. Just try it...

Edit 2: I think if you're in a hot AND especially humid place (probably not EU) I'm not sure if I'd take AC or dehumidifier

While at an outdoor event this year on a very hot day early in the season - before my body had time to adapt to the summer heat - I got a warning from my Apple Watch that my heart was elevated even though I didn’t appear to be moving. My heart was up over 120 BPM just standing around.

I went to my car, turned on the AC, and drank some water. My heart rate went back to normal, but it was pretty unnerving.

The scarier thing was this was a youth sports tournament. These kids are playing all-day tournaments in 33C+ heat (and sometimes 36C+) for a solid two months of the year. While they may cope with the heat better than I do, I worry it’s only a matter of time before tragedy strikes.

That being said, this year I am making an effort to rely less on AC and do some moderate exercise in the heat to increase my tolerance.

Imagine a world where a larger share of companies focus on actual, verifiable improvement of outcomes for people. Not a world dominated by selling more consumption. A world where we go to work to make things better. Outcomes driven by improvements in human health, longevity, and happiness, not by bottom lines and profit margins. To get to that world we will have to be more open about being imposters.

> This ailment is mysteriously absent from the United States, where indoor temperatures are often kept at around 75 degrees even when it’s 100 degrees outside

If having a high temperature delta was a concern everyone in Texas would be dead by now.

I set my thermostat to 65F in August. My house is at 67F right now and it's 81F outside (at 7AM). We're still catching up from yesterday. I don't see the point in allowing the condensing unit to shut off when it's this hot and humid out. You are just giving the angry super Mario sun a head start when you let it turn off in the morning. The temperature in my house will still rise to 74-75F with this unit running non stop. The forecast for today is approximately 100F.

At some point, the cost of electricity becomes constant (100% duty cycle). You can't run the air conditioner more than all the time. It makes the equipment last a lot longer when it's not being cycled every 10-15 minutes. It can be cheaper to just keep things brutally cold given the relatively affordable electric rates. $300 capacitor replacement can buy a lot of kilowatt hours in the ercot and entergy markets. Short cycling a compressor with high pressure and you could be replacing one every other year.

If any of this sounds offensive, I would invite the offended party to join me for lunch in downtown Houston or Galveston sometime this week.

I'm not sure what the point of this article is, apart from fearmongering about a new boogie man.

Very strange take, you can buy an airco unit in the EU today get it delivered tomorrow morning and, assuming it's the portable kind that just need to be plugged and exhaust outside, have it running right away. For more permanent ones you might need a professional to install it if you don't know yourself. There is absolutely 0 barrier if you need or even just want one.

Proof in Belgium : https://www.coolblue.be/en/air-conditioners/filter which ironically enough aren't even available anymore because they are out of stock, so clearly purchased showing people had no problem getting them. Alternative example 12000BTU A+++ energy rating delivery next week https://www.bol.com/be/fr/p/climatiseur-mobile-puissant-clim... To be clear I'm not advocating to buy these, or not, only that they are freely and conveniently available.

And AC can heat too! For example, in some EU countries gas boilers are still a huge thing, even though increasingly archaic. At the same time many of its users denounce AC because of reasons, apparently missing the fact that an AC is an (air-to-air) heat pump. Incredible how Big Boiler somehow convinced people to keep heating their houses by burning gas in these contraptions while ACs could do the job with much higher energy efficiency while also cooling the house in summer (and yes many places with these gas boilers have _hot_ summers these days)!

At least in France, almost all excess deaths were in hospitals and retirement homes. The rest were workers. And we had more heat than Germany. Yes, it is a necessity in some places (schools, nursing homes, hospitals). an AC at home is a luxury. Which, great if you can afford it.

> HumanProgress.org is a project of the Cato Institute

You are reading propaganda.

This is all, sadly, very true. Anti-AC sentiment is prevalent throughout Europe, and like all superstions, it's based on false assumptions, and extremely resistant to actual evidence.

Right now in my city it's 30c, with 79% humidity, and real feel is 41c, and it's late evening. And, next year it's probably going to be worse. I can see things going really bad for health compromised people pretty soon.

And, we have a flaky electricity, without enough focus or renewables, so, because of war(money)games in the middle east we have a huge gas crisis, and having one/two hours of load-shading every day.

So, tell me, what are we going to do when we can't run the freaking AC, because our power grid failed?

This is encouraging curing the symptoms, not the true problem.

And, the more AC we use, it will increase the ambient temp. And more people uses AC, the more the temp grows. How long we are going to keep doing this? it sounds like another corporate drama to put it on us, the general people instead of solving the issue they create. Heat increased, use AC, it's not a luxury, but we are not going to stop destroying environment.

> During a heat wave in 2022, one Frenchwoman said AC “makes you sick, and it gives you a headache.” Left-wing French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon has claimed air conditioning “destroys your sinuses.”

AC giving people headaches and destroying their sinuses sounds a bit bonkers. Ok let people install it then, slap a “government believes this may give you headaches and destroy your sinuses” sticker on it and let people decide.

I guess before the heat wave this could have a been a litmus test for stupidity but now it should be a litmus test for maliciousness.