I get that a lot of houses in Europe don't have built-in air conditioning.
What I don't get is the argument that houses built to hold in heat in winter are inherently hard to cool. Insulation works both ways? In Texas, we want as much insulation as possible!
I get it's an infrastructure problem but it's one that has been staring Europe in the face for decades.
@obfusk I get that, too, and I've been in multiple apartments with big glass patio doors and huge windows all facing the sun and almost no insulation.
It's not an insurmountable problem.
@gwynnion no the main problem is inaction
e.g. awnings would help, but can't install those if you rent
and just today, with another temperature record broken, an "expert" was quoted on the news saying air conditioning is bad actually because it means your body doesn't get used to the extreme heat (after a week)
@obfusk Yeah, absolutely, and I keep seeing a weird mix of apathy and magical thinking.
Europe is the fastest warming continent and last I checked, heat is the biggest killer by far. And yet everyone kind of shrugs at the problem?
@gwynnion the Dutch response to covid has been to [checks notes] not recommend masks because preventing infections isn't part of public health policy
nowadays the media do at least acknowledge long covid is real but I've never seen any suggestion that anyone has ever considered doing literally anything to prevent cases
it just feels so bizarre that people acknowledge the problem and then just... completely ignore that we could do something
so I'm not exactly surprised we're doing the same with heat deaths
@obfusk It's bizarre given not only the number of deaths but the fact that GDPs are estimated to contract between 5-7% because of heat. You'd think even the bean counters would care about that?
But I guess as long as the effects can be externalized onto the poor, and those losses are less than they think it would cost to fix it: eh?
@obfusk
https://9mmballpoint.blogspot.com/2023/08/acclimate-change.html
This feels appropriate.
@tulx And if you had air conditioning (which you may not!) it would pump the heat out and keep it cool rather efficiently given the amount of insulation.
That's how we prefer to build here. Walls as thick as possible.
@gwynnion I wonder how easy it is to swap out air at night. I'm in a super eco house, but we're kinda set up with this in mind.
But I think it's just that Europeans aren't thinking that way yet.
@humanadverb It's purely a question of how hard you want to run the unit. I've always been told the optimal temperature is 30F under the outside temperature. Otherwise the system will be strained. The more insulation, the better in that case.
Europe is the fastest warming continent on Earth but there seems to be a gap between the way they think and the reality of the situation -- and a lot of negligence on the part of their governments who've done nothing to mitigate it.
@gwynnion
I would advise people to stock up on knowledge of passively reducing heat input for homes as possible.
Awnings, DIY thermal radiative paint, second hose for your AC, etc.
Heck even a cardboard painted white in your window could help.
It depends...
In Ukraine, for example Kyiv, apartment blocks are all covered with AC units. I'd say they'd rather have AC than thermal insulation.
In Poland, for example Warsaw, you won't see that many ACs (if any), but most buildings should have thermal insulation.
Thermal insulation should prevent heat from coming in. As somebody mentioned, windows may let sunlight = heat, but newer buildings have windows with reflective layer. It doesn't stop much light, but helps with heat. I have blinds with reflective layer in my bedrooms and they are super effective.
There's law encouraging building new houses with heat pumps and passive cooling features. For those who can afford building a new house...
Insulated or not, you still need to heat those houses. There just seemed to be no need whatsoever to cool 'em so far. At worst, maybe a hot week every other year? That wasn't worth it, so we're completely unprepared for cooling. The very concept of it still is somewhat alien to us.
I mean - I'm hearing the two big fans I got blowing slightly less warm air into the apartment right now and I already feel pity for those poor fans, trying to battle it out and predictably losing it, but this concept used to work well so far and it simply starts to fall apart right now, tonight - because even one hour past midnight the temperature difference is just insufficient to cool the apartment down for the next day, so that insulation would do the rest during daytime with everything shaded and closed.
Mind you - it's not the most modern, best insulation, but at least we got somewhat decent insulation right away when the house was built. It just can't keep up with the heat beating it without mercy during the day, so it does heat up and once it got heated and in absence of actual AC, there is very little we can do to get it out again, so it all adds up when heat waves strike, making insulation almost worthless at some point.
I've never understood this either. it's like thinking an insulated cup can only keep liquids hot but not cold 🤷♂️
IMO, the British are masochists and just like to complain.
@coolcalmcollected Like, I've stopped even asking these questions because Europeans get extremely defensive and hostile about it, and as far as I can tell, most of them are in denial.
"It only gets really hot 5 days a year. Who needs to worry about it?"
While hundreds of thousands of people die and their infrastructure needs like 15 trillion Euro in upgrades.
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