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- Hacker News
- The old school way was to go away somewhere else in summer.
There is no replacement for air conditioning. It's a modern marvel. People who hate it should also refuse to have heating in winter.
by carlosjobim - Agreed. Interesting to see the HN echo chamber of downvotes in full force on this subject of what is efficient modern technology. AC is civilised and a huge quality of life improvement, I won't be uncomfortable and miserable in summer if I can afford not to be.by arcza
- You seem to be hellbent on marketing AC. I don't understand why it has to be a polarizing issue.
Clearly it is much different than heating in winter; the latter is a matter of survival, while the former is mostly a matter of comfort.
One could indeed argue that in the precarious state we are in, expending energy for unnecessary comfort should be minimized, something that passive designs can aid.
As we also try to minimize energy expenditure of heating, through insulation and other passive means.
- The old school way where? And for what class of people? The working class weren't moving for the summer.
Further I put a jumper on in the winter, have insulation in my house, have curtains etc to keep heat in. What's wrong with having passive ways of keeping warm or cool?
by benj111 - While all of these might offer some cooling in your home, nothing beats air conditioning.by elmer2
- Passive measures should always be in place first (and often do enough), with active as the last resort.by unfitted2545
- In many places in Europe, there is only 1-2 weeks where AC is needed, and that is the main reason why many people don't want to bother with it.by enaaem
- Is this an American thing? There seem to be a number of comments akin to "you'll prise it from my cold dead fingers" when that isn't being suggested.by benj111
- Insulation is way more important than cooling capacity.
Instead of adding a 2nd condensing unit, try adding spray foam and double glazed windows. I can keep my 2400 sqft Texas home ice cold with a small 3 ton system. There are similarly sized homes right down the street from me with 5+ tons of capacity across multiple condensing units.
The biggest problem with oversized cooling systems is latent heat removal. It's much better to have a slightly undersized system running constantly through the hottest part of the day than it is to have a very powerful system running with 50% duty cycle. It's also significantly better for system life (capacitors last much longer this way). During summer months, my hvac system cycles maybe one time between the hours of 10am and 10pm.
by bob1029 - By what measurement? They all surely beat air conditioning in terms of energy usage.by codingdave
- I've put some fabric on the outside of my windows using nylon thread, a stapler and some plastic suction cups. It made the day time temperature of my living room go from about 32°C to about 23°C during a heatwave in the UK. I won't need aircon in that room now. I do have an upstairs office that will keep on getting hot, so I might get an aircon there in a year or two. But I'm not desperate thanks to a tiny bit of effort.by exe34
- Anything except using AC like the rest of the world, hey Monocle? There is no comparison, and not to mention the excellent efficiency of R-32 based super inverter systems that are no different to winter heating heat pumps. AC should be the norm in Europe, but apparently it's "far right"!by arcza
- In the first line of the précis:
> Modern air conditioning isn’t the only way to keep cool in the summer
TFA is unobjectionable, but you've taken it as an attack on your identity as an enjoyer of AC. Nobody here is stopping you. Nobody here has called you far-right - you have Streisanded yourself.
HN tries to be better than this, which takes real effort from all of us - including me, including you - to rise above our atavistic identity crises. Bearing up a straw man is unedifying, please don't.
by psd1 - Maybe we need shade structures - a shade above/around the building and detached so that air flows underneath and there are no thermal bridges to the building proper. Like you would make to protect tents at e.g. Burning Man.
- Already in widespread use https://www.sips.org/what-are-sipsby rusk
- In theory, houses are close to this. The attic is supposed to allow air to flow—the house itself having an insulating blanket on all sides.
My home though appears to have very limited air flow in the attic-space. I'd like to get those "twirly things" installed on the roof to bring the attic-space air temperature down.
by JKCalhoun - That's called a tree, they work quite well! A little time consuming to grow to sufficient height howeverby zeryx
- I have long regarded Monocle with prestige and still to this day do. No gatekeeping - just get down to business - well researched and written. Keep it up folks.by ingen0s
- All these assume that the ambient temperature outside will be lower than the temperature in your home, hence you want the air to come in but keep the sun out.
In southern Europe this is false for many weeks during the summer. During heatwaves you want to open all the windows during the night, and close everything at 9ish-10. Because the temperature outside is going to rise to 40-45 celsius the ambient air will only heat your house, even drafts will feel burning hot. So not just shutters, but glass windows and curtains too,
Then about 8 hours later, you want to open everything back up and wash your balcony or terrace (evaporative cooling it essentially), you want to use a minimum amount of water, that will evaporate in the next 30-40 minutes because it attracts mosquitos.
But overall air conditioning is the way to go.
- nice of you to think that by evening you get cooler air :D we have had days where the only time of the day where the outside temp was lower than indoor's was between 01-07. So either you stay up to open the windows, or wait till early morning... but then you just get 1-2 hrs before having to close everything againby nunodonato
- > In southern Europe this is false for many weeks during the summer.
This is also now often false in non-southern Europe as well.
Apparently one of the reasons why French don't have air conditioning is because nights tended to be cool in the past, and so people left windows and doors open while sleeping creating drafts and letting the masonry cool.
But in the last ~15 years nights have been as hot as days at times, and so this strategy is no longer effective: you're cooked at night as much as you're cooked during the day during the heat domes. So the all-the-AC-all-the-time thinking of the US may be excessive, nowadays so is the never-AC thinking of many people.
You don't need to get down to 22C, but least <27C will save the lives of many people, especially the elderly (unless France wants to save on pensions?).
by throw0101a