To Ban Air-con

[chaosmaker]

On a rapidly heating planet, shouldn't we be looking for ways to build/fit housing for all sorts of extreme weather?
Air-con just makes it hotter for everyone overall as it adds heat into the environment and makes it worse overall.

There isn't enough money on the planet to pay me to get on the Northern or Jubilee lines this week! Like many of my colleagues, I have arranged to work from home. Many, many people cannot, and I feel for them.

My house just outside London is old, thick walls, and there are a lot of trees around. I am just about managing, but I wonder about all the elderly people in the city. I don't have AC.

OP, It is a noble sentiment, and, yes, in an ideal world we could ban AC, but most housing in Britain is just not suitable for this heat. I do understand why people put it in. It's a short term solution to a huge problem, but many people simply couldn't live without it. We would have to tear down half the housing stock built in the last 60 years and rebuild.

Don't forget to open your loft hatch too, let the heat escape higher up. But only do it when it's cooler outside ie after 9pm.

Nah, I'll give up my air-con (only got it last year and it's in our bedroom so used when we're in bed only) when someone builds me a quality house that stays cool in summer and warm in winter.

Until then I am stuck in a 1970s terraced house that has the sun on the back all morning, front all evening, is freezing in winter and boiling in summer despite all the insulation, has fuck all air flow and is just miserable.

I am curious to know how me being fat has made the inside of my house 30c today, that is an interesting leap from a PP.

This... And they will be lovely and cold because of my air conditioning unit. While I agree there should be a better way, currently this is what we have.

If that AI diagnoses your cancer where a human would have missed it then it would have been very foolish indeed to ban AI.

I agree some shops and offices with Aircon are too cold, which is obviously wasteful.

I think we should have legal limits on the temperature when Aircon is used, to avoid overuse. And also ensure that Aircon shops keep their front doors closed.

It's been done elsewhere: https://www.euronews.com/2022/08/02/spain-tells-shops-to-save-energy-by-keeping-doors-shut-and-limiting-air-con

Edit to add: I realise this was a temporary energy-saving measure though and I don't know if there are permanent limits anyway.

Sorry, but what planet are you on???

There is absolutely no way that countries like China and Russia would ever agree to a ban on AI.

So what do you think would happen to the economies and security of Europe if it introduced a ban on AI but China, Russia, North Korea etc. didn’t????!

No one needs air con in their house in the UK, but in crowded places with a lot of windows likes trains and buses it is sometimes needed. Supermarkets and offices often put it up too high. In other countries it is needed though and telling them they shouldn't have it would be like telling people here they can't heat their house in winter.

Insulating homes well for conserving heat and preventing heat loss also usually means they are good at keeping heat out in extreme temperatures. Personally I think we have so few extremes of heat we should focus on heat insulation in all new builds and proper insulation in older properties rather than panicking about a week of heat which looks as though is all we are going to get ( rain forecast every day next week for London area).

People lived in Australia long before air conditioning was invented!

Of course, the indigenous people weren't big on wearing clothes. That probably helped. But the European colonists mostly survived too.

One thing I think should be banned is shops and restaurants keeping their doors open while they are using air con (or heating).

There’s some stat floating around that more people die in Europe from heat waves than in America from gun violence. And it’s so simple, there are basic units that you can easily install yourself. After all it’s only going to get warmer …

I grew up in Australia where it would hit 40c in summer and we had no aircon. Sure, it's not pleasant but people weren't dropping like flies. My great-gran lived to 94 despite these conditions. I went to and from school where there was also no aircon and sat outside eating my sandwiches under the shade of a gum tree.

Remember, people do acclimatise to the heat (or cold) so what is unbearable here because we rarely experience it, isn't nearly so bad there where people are used to it and know how to deal with it.

Not the Med, but we have a house in Portugal. Up to 10 or 15 years ago, airconditioning was not necessary: it was built with nice high ceilings, deep verandah, terracotta floors, external shutters etc. I can count on one hand the number of times the temperature got over 40C prior to 2016 and even in July and August the shade temperature rarely hit even 30C in Faro. It always cooled down enough on an evening that life was manageable and on particularly hot nights one would just have a dip in the pool before bed.

The truth is that the climate now is very different and has changed rapidly in the last ten years. The current heat dome in Portugal marks the second year in a row the temperature has risen above 35C in May, which genuinely used to be unthinkable. We regularly see 40C for two weeks in a row in July and August, it's much more humid, and it doesn't cool down at night. We put AC in three years ago.

Back in the UK, our new build's internal temperature can hit 30C even with windows closed and curtains pulled tight. Because of the plot layout we cannot plant anything to shade windows, and to fit external shutters would require replacing all of the outward-opening windows too. We'd happily do it, but it's a leasehold property and the freeholder won't let us. Being Manchester, if we leave windows open at night then nefarious dudes climb in through them and take things that belong to us, not them.

We've had a couple of portable AC units for a while, but bit the bullet last year and installed a complete system. It's an absolute game changer. As PPs have said, no would would seriously question heating a British home in winter to make it tolerable and healthy; why all the coy pussyfooting around about cooling it in the summer?

Yes, you would be unreasonable to ban air con.

We have a severely disabled adult son, who can’t regulate his temperature. For the past ten years, we’ve used a mobile air con unit to cool his downstairs bedroom. We can’t leave it running all night because we have to put a hose out of his window.

Last night, despite having cooled his room before bed, his room got up to 30 degrees and he had two seizures, I had bugger all sleep.

Thankfully, during the day the unit runs and he’s fine. We never go on holiday so I feel we balance out our carbon footprint. He would die during the summer without air con.

I’m so miserable today and the spirit of this thread has really annoyed me.

In which way?

Lol you going to tell that to all the countries who RELY on it, the middle east for a start? Good luck with that.

I'd agree OP only if we could stop working when the outside temperature exceeds 27c

Our homes are designed to retain heat. For many people, tomorrow’s temperatures are 8-12c lower
than today’s. It will not make any n difference to some people’s home temperatures

That sounds really hard. Why can't you leave it on overnight if you don't mind me asking? Would some kind of limiter on the window help so it couldn't be opened fully, if it's a security or safety issue? I'm sure you've thought of that already though ☹️ I hope you find a solution.

People are forced to live in cheap red brick (absorbs heat), poorly insulated houses. Broken Britain strikes again.

I am quite used to heat from living in China but I have to say, the houses in the UK are just built to retain heat so temps on paper are only 25 which is not hot at all, but the house will be miserably stuffy. Something I hadn’t really expected.

Thank you for your kind words.

Similar to a PP, we couldn’t risk someone trying to get in, or even cats around here.

At some point, we will bite the bullet and have air con installed - outraging the OP even more.

Your long term plan makes sense if there is a more climate friendly option available but YABU to suggest banning aircon in the meantime.
I should disclose that DH and I have aircon in our bedroom (installed end of last year) and it has been amazing for the last two nights to sleep properly.
In our defence we have had 11 solar panels on our roof for 15 years and we have 1 car which we rarely use.