During the recent (ongoing?) European heat wave I read that AC is uncommon in Europe. I wonder if it will become more common now that heat waves are becoming more common?
This is true, Europe is behind in AC installations. Here in Greece most houses have AC as well as other means of cooling (shades, heat shielding, natural means...) but this is not so in Central/Northern Europe. I’ve also heard about AC installation companies expanding business up north where demand is growing year by year.
See below a small paragraph from [0]:
“Europe accounts for just 6 percent of the global share of air-conditioners, compared with 23 percent for the United States and 35 percent for China, according to a 2018 report by the International Energy Agency. More than 90 percent of Japanese and American households have an air conditioning system; fewer than 10 percent of Europeans’ have one. In Germany, the figure is below 2 percent.“
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/world/europe/heatwave-rec...
I do not like this wording. It implies that progress entails an inevitable march of more and more air conditioning, and that this is a good and desirable thing, and that Europe needs to get with the program and start installing more AC.
I see AC installation as a net bad: it indicates that temperatures are exceeding comfortable levels, it burns energy (which will exacerbate the temperature problem in the long run), and it relieves the need to design buildings so that they maintain a comfortable temperature without AC.
The fact that demand for AC is rising is extremely alarming.
> This is true, Europe is behind in AC installations.
That's because historically you simply didn't need AC in Central and Northern Europe. Also, only recently residential buildings ("zero energy house") have begun to use air-based heating which makes central AC feasible. (Obviously when you use AC you can forget the "zero energy" part). So for the huge majority of the existing buildings retrofitting AC is only feasible for a select few rooms due to cost.
European windows open on hinges, they don't slide.
This makes it hard to install such an unit and keeping the window airtight. It's also hard to get agreement from landlords (most people rent), so many people get portable units that blow hot exhaust air out via a dryer-vent style hose. That get stuck out the window, and the window is poorly air-tightened using a velroed-on barrier. The advantage is that it requires zero "modifications" and thus you can just do it.
The downside is that they're horribly inefficient.
I suspect that many European buildings have good passive thermal insulation, because of colder and longer winters than in most of the US. This must help get by with fewer active cooling devices.
Also, European side-opening windows make it much harder to install an AC unit than American slide-up windows; in many cases your only option is a split system.
We (very) generally build with sticks and bricks with uPVC framed double or triple glazed windows. Double skin of bricks externally, one skin internally for load bearing walls and wooden "stud" walls for the rest. However there is a lot of variation after that. Modern building regs stipulate a lot (decent amount) of thermal insulation in roofs and acoustic insulation between floors and rooms if possible. When we had our 1920s build modernised somewhat, we had to have additional steels and wooden structure added to account for potential additional snow loading on the roof because it would no longer melt quickly.
Yes, we do get good passive cooling in general with this design. Some better than others. Half of the ground floor (first floor in en_US) of my house is tiled with underfloor heating. The dogs love it when dumping thermal overloading - it is cool to the touch regardless of air temperature.
Now, if I wanted to add AC to my house it would not need to account for window shape. I don't understand that comment. Slide up windows are called sash here in the UK and are generally associated with the Victorian era! To add AV I would simply get another consumer unit added to my home 'leccy feed. Then I would fit the internal air out in the primary living area and connect to the external unit by drilling holes in the wall. Not sure where the windows fit into this. Oh and I'd try and fail to get the wife to close the bloody doors.
Not going to happen - I'll stick to being British and whine when it gets warm.
As an example, the house I grew up in, late 1940s, was piped for heating only, to an oil furnace. When my parents wanted an AC, they got a window unit. (Bonus: The original heating system had ceiling vents, at some points the house was re-vented for floor vents)
My place has in floor heating, if I wanted AC there aren't any vents in my house, so same thing, I'd have to get a window unit.
That is not true most houses built in the US have central AC not window mounted. They might be popular on the West Coast but the majority of house do not have those.
> because of colder and longer winters than in most of the US
On that one the US is just a bit silly. Even in place where it's reasonably cold, houses are frequently built out of cardboard. I'm looking at you, Boston.
Have a look at the construction techniques in Stavanger (Norway). The houses look suspiciously cardboard but look a little closer and you will see how to make a wooden house habitable in a very large range of temperatures.
I happened to be passing through Stavanger on a cruise from Southampton (as you do) and studied Civ Eng at uni. Whilst docked and bimbling about the place, I saw a house part way through construction. Basically, if you sandwich enough dense foam and silvered insulation in between your structural components, then you can survive some pretty demanding temperatures.
Stavanger, along with other coastal cities in Norway, actually has a relatively mild climate.
It’s winter temperatures range is only slightly cooler than Edinburgh - and quite mild compared to many US cities!
Norway seems to have a reputation for fierce cold weather, but outside of the mountains and the Arctic north, both relatively unpopulated, it’s not really deserved in my experience!
> because of colder and longer winters than in most of the US.
Are you kidding ? Europe has pretty mild winter compared to North America. Everything north of the Washington state / Kansas / Virginia lines is getting pretty rough winter by European standards.
Most Europeans freaks out when they see 1/2" of snow. In N.A., it's business as usual.
Those European windows look quite good. I think face seal with triple pane. I wish window replacement were not so overpriced in the US. Even the basic ones can get expensive. And some of that stuff is getting into newer homes here but sadly will be quite expensive to retrofit into our older homes.
Even old (25+ years) windows have two seals, usually the outside seal is in the outer frame, and the inside seal is on the inner frame. And even back then at least two panes, single pane windows you'll only see on garden sheds and the like...
Yes two pane is common here in the US but from what I heard triple pane is common in the EU and they are considering quad pane.
Anyway there is a high end home contractor with a YouTube channel and he sometimes travels to various places to see how things are done there. He did a whole series of videos on Swiss and German house construction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MBMHAOTt04
I live in America, my apartment building has side sliding windows but people still have in window ACs (with an attachment, not to mention many places in America have central AC). Not that we are really apart of this heat wave being on the west coast.
I tend to see more and more air-con hoses popping out of windows open enough to accomodate them whilst out and about during summers in the UK. Units get cheaper, demand increases. So I'd say yes.
For me, a two litter bottle of water, frozen and stood in a bowl in my bedroom with the window and door closed. Does wonders as draws out the water with condensation upon the bottle - lowering the humidity. Also cools the air.
Though I'm sure I'll get some form of aircon in the next few years.
I read that AC installation companies have been getting a lot of business in the past few weeks, and anecdotally I've heard from local businesses looking to install it as well. So I'd say yes, it'll definitely become more common.
My neighbor is from France and always complain about people ruinning A/C because they hate the noise from hvacs. They basically never run theirs, even when its 100F+ outside. So story checks out.
