Ars TechnicaAccepting a 2°-warmer world means running a lot more air conditioning
The need for air conditioning will skyrocket, with Africa and Europe hit hardest.
Adam Trickett 
@arstechnica Or we could just have properly built houses that don't heat up in summer and cool down in winter...!
Needing heating and cool just means your house isn't properly built - which I accept is a problem for many older properties, but we've known how to build passiv houses for more than a decade, so we've no excuse!
Anton Piatek@drajt @arstechnica not sure though that rebuilding all of Europe is the answer here though...
@sldrant @arstechnica average age of a house at demolition is surprisingly low, 60 years in the UK, and we've known about global warming for decades and known how to build better homes as long, so we did have the time, but I agree that now it's too late to fix, but it's still not a reason not to demand better homes rather than the tat that is mostly built.
@sldrant @arstechnica plenty of houses can also be upgraded to passiv or near passiv standard. Once done they are cheaper to run and better placed to withstand temperature extremes and geopolitics forcing energy prices up.
While I accept there is a significant capital cost up front, it can be managed by government intervention and will be cheaper in the long run.
@drajt @arstechnica I mean, I've added extra loft insulation, the walls are done (at least nobody is prepared to do anything more to them). Not sure how much more I can do but it still takes a lot to heat in winter. Next step is solar pv and heatpumps, neither are trivial jobs/prices
@sldrant @arstechnica I agree it's capital intensive, but check out SuperHomes. We went to the house of a retired IBM bod in Winchester, he calculated that it would be better long term to upgrade his house to Passiv standard than buy an annuity from his pension. The network is actual house owners who share ideas and open their homes every now and then.
We've put in PV and done what we can with new glazing and insulation, but our house is listed & over 200 years old, so will always need heating.