There hasn't been much history for heat waves in northern Europe, but we used to have very long and cold winters. As such people invested heavily in heaters and insulation, and simply opened the window during the warmest few days during the summer. An AC unit and installation is quite a large cost in order to just make a few days better once every few years.

Now days the winter is much milder and the summer warmer. Modern ACs that can run in reverse is also much cheaper and can reduce the need for more expensive heating solutions, so we are seeing a uptick in number of homes with AC installed.

I think they were suggesting a window unit air conditioner based on the price quoted. They can be installed without any modification to your home and you can take them out in the winter and put them in storage.

In terms of running them in reverse, there are already window unit heat pumps which tend to be a bit more expensive. Personally I'm waiting for the Gradient window unit heat pump to come out since I like the idea of the saddle-bag design and I want the heat pump capabilities, but I'm going to wait for reviews first since afaik this is their first product.

In the UK, most offices, shops, cars, and (intercity) public transport already have AC but it just doesn't get hot enough for long enough to justify installing it most homes.

Portable AC units are relatively new to the market, but I can see them becoming more popular in the coming years.

Agreed, I think the market is ripe for a nice affordable portable one. Doesn't even need to be energy efficient either considering it will only be run for about 20 days a year.

Hopefully 20 days, could be 40 days if global warming continues. I think newly installed A/C should use inverter, or at least it's not a unit with a duct hose.

In the process of buying a house in the UK.

Both my office and the bedrooms are getting proper AC (haven't ruled out doing the entire house).

It isn't going to get any colder over the next decade or two.

Have you considered using a heat pump for cooling?

That's what AC is.

You are basically right. What I meant is using a geothermal heat pump to cool using the underfloor heating system. (I lack the proper English vocabulary for this domain, I hope you get what I mean).

In the UK, ground source heat pumps are fairly common.

I'm leaning more towards PV panels on the roof to offset the AC.

It's the UK, I'd actually need to use the AC maybe 20-30 days a year for a few hours and maybe an hour a day in the summer just to get the temp down before bed.

PV panels would easily offset that.

Even with summer weather like it is this year I still not convinced that A/C at home is essential in England. Nights are still cold - today's early morning temp was about 23°C and tomorrow 17°C is expected. If you live in a brick house you can vent it throughout the night and it would keep more or less livable temperature at daytime (31°C was the daily maximum inside my dwelling while outside was 38°C). Also while England on average is a humid place during heat waves humidity is low which make it easier to endure them.

I suffer much more during winter - more than tree months at about 18° (and heating bill is high even with the temperature way below my comfort zone).

It's not an "aversion" it has been up to this point an unnecessary luxury expense (before all of a sudden the temperatures started inching up).

I'm sure there's been a huge run on AC units in the UK and in years following I'm sure the shops will be stocking them quite a bit more.

It's the same story as Portland/Seattle/Vancouver area where previously it only got genuinely hot for like two weeks and AC wasn't really that required, but then we had that absolutely nutso heat dome last year, and that changed everyone's thinking. People have bought AC units and now we're seeing that AC is standard in new apartments in Vancouver.

Self-flagellation fetish

I understand why you're getting the downvotes...but you're kinda right.

I don't really get the defeatist/martyr attitude of Euroland people when it comes to all sorts of issues like this. They seem encounter an economic (or other) problem and immediately think it means they should forfeit quality of life vs. fighting or working hard. Maybe it is more common for those people to see the world as zero-sum?

As an American, I find this "lay down and die" attitude quite confusing and repulsive.

Or another way to look at it is that American cultural value of "Individuality" has been corrupted to lean towards more and more selfishness because of consumerism ... so much that some Americans now think it is normal to have a selfish attitude and are wired (by constant consumerist marketing) to place their needs above all, without bothering to think about how their decisions and actions impact others. What you see as indecisiveness or lack of action may actually be genuine contemplation ...

> Or another way to look at it is that American cultural value of "Individuality" has been corrupted to lean towards more and more selfishness because of consumerism

Wanting everyone's life to be better is progress, not selfishness.

Wanting everyone to suffer because of some "original sin" is an abhorrent viewpoint that only results in more misery.

Painting "progress" as "selfishness" is a trick played by those too lazy to do the hard work to improve their own lives, and in general move civilization forward. In the end, they are primarily harming themselves with this disempowering belief.

> What you see as indecisiveness or lack of action may actually be genuine contemplation

I'm sorry but this is laughable. How long do you reckon you'll need to think about this?

The solution is simple, but not easy: ADD MORE AC UNITS AS TEMPERATURES WARM.

Masochism

AC is becoming more common in hot areas (from experience in the South of France you can kow see some homes with AC whereas it was unheard of before) but the UK is hardly a hot area. These are 2 days of 'proper' heat and there are many ways to cope.

> 'proper' heat

In what world is 40C "proper" heat?

In british english parlance, sometimes "proper" is used like that as emphasis, not a discussion of whether it is correct or right or the expected situation.

America is a richer nation (higher salaries, GDP per capita) and housing is way bigger (in terms of square footage)

> Why not just suggest they go sit in the garage with a car running?

Because an ICE car engine's thermodynamic efficiency is already abysmal and running an AC off the alternator current makes it even worse. That and carbon monoxide poisoning.

But if you have an EV, it's a pretty nifty idea right now to plug it in and turn on the AC to cool down. I'm going to share that idea with some folks I know in the UK with EVs.

Car A/C is generally run directly by engine rather than via electricity, unless your car is strong hybrid/EV. Anyway it's worse for efficiency. Hybrid cars with electric A/C are better than that because it has true generator rather than alternator, and its engine run occasionally while not moving.

Another tip for cooling car is to avoid sunlight as possible. Glass surface on car is so big.

Most of my UK friends opted to drive to work and back (with the AC running the whole way) and work from the office because their home office was too hot to work from home.

I’m not sure “no ac at home” is actually a good idea lan for the environment.

If it plugs into the wall it can run on renewables. In fact if it's hot and sunny that day the grid will be more able to power it with solar.

On weekdays here in California, A/C usage and grid stress both peak around sunset, just as PV output flat-lines.

Surely it will use all of the magic grid storage in place that renewable promoters always talk about.

Adding more entropy to the system isn’t really the answer. Cooling people before rooms is a better answer.

Unless there are dogs involved, in which case you'd cool them before people, or just cool the room and everyone is comfy.

Machines to gather resources to build factories of machines for workers to drive to, their cars needing a similar concept to exist, to build ACs is a huge part of their problem.

Physical laws of the universe are well defined at this point.

Since English is not my first language, does 'Why not just suggest they go sit in the garage with a car running?' suggest to gas themselves or is there another meaning implied?

> Thereby consuming more energy and warming the planet faster.

This is a ridiculous statement. Your personal consumption choices aren't dooming the planet.

The only thing accomplished by anti-progress rhetoric like this is that you push moderates further away from your cause.

True; my choices alone are not. I am one is seven billion making similar choices though; that adds up.

Your insistence you live in a bubble and have no impact on others is what’s turning people away from Federalism; people who don’t know you don’t feel obligated to coddle your sensibilities, hence the down votes.

Ok, so you would prefer to let millions suffer because of their "carbon sins" while the intellectual class entertains themselves with pie in the sky ideas for solutions?

I prefer action-oriented solutions that reduce misery for real people today.

No matter the cost to real people in the future. Aren’t you a real humanitarian.

I don’t care either way; all I was calling out that solving the problem generating more industrial waste is contributing to the problem.

Your real issue is with physics not me.

On the one hand, you claim my choices have no consequence and on the other if I choose to ignore suffering, I’m part of the problem. Industrial solutions create suffering and death through accidents, toxicity… just creating more of the same suffering.

You have a real issue with basic logic. Pound sand; your tough sounding words don’t wave off that physics makes it all impotent rage.

Enjoying watching all the work rot and millions suffering and dying around the world anyway.

I don’t like it because the difference of temperature when I go outside makes me to feel sick. AC is not environmental friendly, consumes lot of energy and makes the street where I live much hotter. I prefer the old school fan.

In the US I couldn’t stand the cold temperatures indoors because the AC. Horrible.

You are aware that you can control the temperature that the AC targets? I live in the US and so have AC and I set it around 29C under normal conditions (if it is unusually humid I find I have to set it a bit lower to be comfortable.)

How does it make you feel sick? I don't understand how that could work physiologically.

Same mechanism why you get more sick in the winter. Periodic thermal shocks and therefore periodic capillaries expansions and retractions in you airways, sinuses. People are quite susceptible to it here in central EU, me included. US people seem to be kinda conditioned to the constant thermal shocks.

Here many only have and use AC in their cars and only in peak summer and I remember there used to be warnings in TV news that you should turn off or start gradually decreasing AC intensity before arriving to your destination a getting of your car. (It was usually as a part of some interview with some GPs, discussing why are people getting more sick in peak summer.)

That's not what causes people to get sick in the winter. Warnings about AC use is car are nonsense. Why would you believe that?