Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[mongers]

Problem with A/C in non-wet and windy Europe  is that it kills humidity and gives lots of sore throats. Not good for hospitals and the rest.
(Better) insulation and blinds persianas in Castilian and Portuguese, opened in the morning and at night and closed during the day would be a good start, Southern Europe has been doing that for a long time.

And vast majority of Brits total fail at that; my new neighbours, nice people, but all during the recent heatwaves, doors and some windows open all day, come 8pm and a hit of cooling down, everything shut up for the night. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Also, the other heat wave classic: full A/C, with open windows. 

[Josquius]

Im sure there's something with the heat and humidity that gives me massive headaches. Ugh.

[HVC]

Im sure there's something with the heat and humidity that gives me massive headaches. Ugh.

It's called dehydration

[garbon]

Problem with A/C in non-wet and windy Europe  is that it kills humidity and gives lots of sore throats. Not good for hospitals and the rest.
(Better) insulation and blinds persianas in Castilian and Portuguese, opened in the morning and at night and closed during the day would be a good start, Southern Europe has been doing that for a long time.

This is an odd European affliction though as a/c works perfectly fine in dry, windy, desert climates like that in southern California.

[HVC]

Problem with A/C in non-wet and windy Europe  is that it kills humidity and gives lots of sore throats. Not good for hospitals and the rest.
(Better) insulation and blinds persianas in Castilian and Portuguese, opened in the morning and at night and closed during the day would be a good start, Southern Europe has been doing that for a long time.

This is an odd European affliction though as a/c works perfectly fine in dry, windy, desert climates like that in southern California.

And super humid climates like southern Ontario. I too have heard this complaint from some Europeans before and I don't get it. We go from super humid outdoors to AC indoor all the time.

[Sheilbh]

This is an odd European affliction though as a/c works perfectly fine in dry, windy, desert climates like that in southern California.

I'd suggest affectation rather than affliction given that the rest of the world generally seems capable of using it. The climate is changing Europe is suffering more and more severe heatwaves more regularly in which, across the continent, hundreds of people die every year - but we won't adopt AC for fundamentally aesthetic reasons. It's very:


And again I always think that literally no-one would respect any of these arguments if they were applied against central heating. I don't really get why heating = important, cooling = morally suspect/climate change denialist/American.

[garbon]

I have learned to be...charitable.

[Josquius]

This is an odd European affliction though as a/c works perfectly fine in dry, windy, desert climates like that in southern California.

I'd suggest affectation rather than affliction given that the rest of the world generally seems capable of using it. The climate is changing Europe is suffering more and more severe heatwaves more regularly in which, across the continent, hundreds of people die every year - but we won't adopt AC for fundamentally aesthetic reasons. It's very:


And again I always think that literally no-one would respect any of these arguments if they were applied against central heating. I don't really get why heating = important, cooling = morally suspect/climate change denialist/American.

I think there's a problem in what goes together with AC.

If you're building a house for cold weather you will usually not just do heating. You'll do all sorts of other tricks to make it more efficient at keeping the heat in.

With AC meanwhile... It doesn't go together with traditional methods of cooling. Rather it's stereotypically applied to terribly built inefficient buildings.

[Bauer]

I just use portable ac that I wheel out from under the stairs for a couple months each year.  Eventually when my furnace goes I'll replace it with an electric heat pump.

[HVC]

And again I always think that literally no-one would respect any of these arguments if they were applied against central heating. I don't really get why heating = important, cooling = morally suspect/climate change denialist/American.

Because AC is an American thing, so ewww. Ignoring the fact it's used across Asia and South America too

[Sheilbh]

I think there's a problem in what goes together with AC.

If you're building a house for cold weather you will usually not just do heating. You'll do all sorts of other tricks to make it more efficient at keeping the heat in.

With AC meanwhile... It doesn't go together with traditional methods of cooling. Rather it's stereotypically applied to terribly built inefficient buildings.

An aesthetic prejudice then

British new builds have really high energy efficiency standards for insulation, as you say all of those things beyond heating. Which is fine except we are now a country that fairly regularly has temperatures north of 30 degrees and sometimes hitting 40. So that's all good but even more requires a system that can both heat and cool spaces.

[Josquius]

I think there's a problem in what goes together with AC.

If you're building a house for cold weather you will usually not just do heating. You'll do all sorts of other tricks to make it more efficient at keeping the heat in.

With AC meanwhile... It doesn't go together with traditional methods of cooling. Rather it's stereotypically applied to terribly built inefficient buildings.

An aesthetic prejudice then

British new builds have really high energy efficiency standards for insulation, as you say all of those things beyond heating. Which is fine except we are now a country that fairly regularly has temperatures north of 30 degrees and sometimes hitting 40. So that's all good but even more requires a system that can both heat and cool spaces.

In part. But not just aesthetics.

But both heating and air con work best in a pretty sealed system.
This is also how you keep heat in using other methods.
The best ways of cooling however tend to be about air flow and not being too sealed. Which doesn't fit together with air con.

Maybe it's coming back to "Americans Pff" but as I say air con also conjures up super inefficient buildings where they don't even try and keep the cold air in.

[HVC]

It's the same tricks. good insulation, good windows, and if you want to get fancy orientation towards the sun. Hell now a days it's even the same unit, just basically running in reverse. No one would tell you to open you windows during mid day in the winter to get the most amount of warmer breeze from outside that you can

[Legbiter]

Problem with A/C in non-wet and windy Europe  is that it kills humidity and gives lots of sore throats. Not good for hospitals and the rest.
(Better) insulation and blinds persianas in Castilian and Portuguese, opened in the morning and at night and closed during the day would be a good start, Southern Europe has been doing that for a long time.

I'm telling you guys, the Icelandic glaciers peaked in 1890 and have been slowly shrinking ever since, the local temperature here almost hit 16° today. Doom is coming.

Seriously though since North-West Europe is going to hit the upper-temp bands more frequently, just buy those small AC units that will keep a room or 2 cozy for grandma and make sure large organizations like hospitals and old folks resisdences don't roast during regular weather.