How do people in hot countries continue to populate?

If you're at home, shut the curtains and open the windows. If you have to commute, that's trickier and all sympathy. Find the cool side of your house if there is one. Back of my house faces north so we're fine, really. I quite like a bit of sun and it'll be raining soon enough. Are you in a flat, OP? They can be like ovens.

The heat with AC and swimming pools is entirely different. If you can keep cool for much of the day, you can put up with a few hours in temperatures which would otherwise be uncomfortable.

I felt heatwaves a lot less when I worked in an airconned office for much of the day. My flat was a little uncomfortable but I slept better at night even so, then now when there is no chance to cool down.

Have sex in the shower?

I have ceiling fans (UK), I don't know why everyone doesn't. It's not much more expensive than fitting a ceiling light. I have some portable air cons which I haven't needed since leaving London.

This is at the heart of our discomfort.

3k is alot to most of us.

They are not wrong though.
I agree that we need AC but it is concerning. The thing that cools us down is ultimately making heatwaves worse. 😯

This is absolutely right. Not sure why some posters are making snarky comments?! Air con is very bad for climate change

🙄

It's what you're used to, as well.

I don't find 30 particularly hot. 40 is hot, but I'd just slow down a bit and stay out of direct sun, I wouldn't be banging on about sweaty arseholes.

You probably tolerate cold a lot better than I do.

Air con!

There should be more...

Careful. Next you'll be suggesting window screens to keep the bugs out. 🤣

The UK is very backward in many respects. Most first world countries have air conditioning throughout the house. Split cycle - so it is heating in winter, and cooling in summer. Their hospitals are fully air conditioned and their public transport.

Our system also provides heat. It's all electric operated by one thermostat. In Florida it's not all that uncommon in the winter to run both heat and air conditioning in the same day. Cold mornings can sometimes turn into uncomfortably warm afternoons, especially when different weather fronts are moving through.

I had marble floor. Ceiling fans. Bedding designed for heat.

What a shame that the old forms of architecture are being lost and replaced with air conditioning. In Mexico we used to have Adobe houses that were warm in winter and cool in the summer, while on the coast you could find houses built of bamboo or reeds that would let the air waft through them

An Australian here - and yep, we have airconditioning and some states, its a model that switches to warming. Nothing stopping people in the UK doing the same.

Another Australian here.

Very hot weather (and I mean high 30's and beyond) tends to be followed by a break in the weather cycle. So, air flow through the house is important. When the temperature drops you open front & back doors to flush the heat out.

Air con air con air con.

Meanwhile it's winter here. I'm in the southernmost part of Australia's mainland & wearing 3 layers, listening to howling wind and contemplating a wood fire. 😆

Can't help you on the sex issue. Cold shower or bath first?

We have refrigerated aircon!
I also had my son in the Aussie summer , it was a heat wave the week he was born. Average 42 degrees!

British homes are not built for hot weather - they are built to keep the heat in.

I’m in Australia, most homes are built with double brick. We have a reverse cycle air-conditioning unit downstairs and upstairs is ducted reverse cycle air-conditioning. We also have ceiling fans in every room and blinds help to keep the sun out.

When I lived in a house that wasn’t air-conditioned I bought a portable refrigerative air-conditioner and ducted it to the window. It was about $1,200.

I also bought a large ice pack/blanket from the pet store that you put in the freezer and then under your pet bedding to keep them cool in the summer. I put this under my pillow and it cooled me down so I could sleep.

I don’t understand every year when it’s summer in the UK people complain on mumsnet about the heat - but do nothing about it.

You could get a box fan which you put in your window to remove the hot air. You could install a wall mounted refrigerative air-conditioner in one room of your house so you can sleep. You could even do what I did and get a pet ice blanket and a portable air-conditioner. The pet ice blanket really worked. It’s probably the cheapest thing I bought to keep me cool.

Fans also really work but you need to ensure you create a draft by venting the hot air out of a window with one fan and having another fan positioned somewhere else in the room (some distance from the window) to create the draft.

I think you just adjust to the temperature. I went to the UK years ago and was surprised to see people sunbathing in parks etc on what felt like a pretty average day to me - only to discover in the papers it was a heatwave!!
Then recently went to Vietnam and it was the other way around - I was struggling in the heat and locals were wearing jeans and hoodies.

We have aircon and solar panels too, I bet I use less non renewable power than you!

@MadCattery the aircon in our villa went out one day, we had to sit in the car to cool down and work out where the best place for an air conditioned day out would be. Brutally hot without it there