– Air conditioning has made some parts of the United States more livable. Take Florida, for example! Miami`s population has increased tenfold since 1940, from 250,000 to 5 million. The same goes for Arizona and Texas. That`s what I was wondering too. I live in Canada and have never lived anywhere without central air conditioning Of course, Europe has fewer air conditioners than the United States. But one thing you need to understand is that it`s cooler there, much less humid, and the houses are better insulated. Temperatures rise in summer, of course, but many factories and offices in many countries close in August, when the temperature is at its highest. You see, the purpose of air conditioning is to stay cool when the environment is really hot. If it`s technologically feasible and doesn`t pollute, why put up with heat (or mosquitoes) if you don`t have to? One pitch I received came from an American expat and it was about mosquito bites and air conditioning. It was perfectly timely, because when I read his idea, I burst out laughing. I sat on my couch with no less than 30 mosquito bites and cursed the little bastards who had ruined all the chances of sleeping peacefully for the next few weeks.
Since mosquitoes are in full force and there`s no air conditioning in sight here (which means we have to open windows without a screen to get air, hence the bugs), I thought I`d launch the guest post as soon as possible. Should the elderly and the sick do it themselves? What if they don`t have family nearby? The French authorities have set up a service where people can call and “examine” the elderly, but they do not come to do so. It`s just because whoever sets your office`s air conditioning level sets it too low. If you have air conditioning in your home (or in a hotel room), you can set it to any level! Why should you be anti-AC just because someone else outside your house is putting it too low…? It`s like saying, “I hate cars because I know a guy who`s a reckless driver.” I live in Italy and it seems that Italians and French have a lot in common. Irrational fear of air conditioning. They say it will make you sick. They are also afraid of being hit by a breeze. Therefore, no fan is used.
In Italy, it is called colpa d`aria or airstrike and causes a serious disease called cervical. Very bad. That is why, on a windy day, even if it is 95 degrees, Italians wrap their necks in scarves. Again, screens are not normal, BUT they exist. I got `em. All my American friends have them. But I only know one Italian family that has them. We also have air conditioners in two rooms.
These are internal units without external parts. Perfect for pretty villages. I`m sure they`re the most available in France. We often receive questions about air conditioning in our vacation rentals in Paris. Our goal is to make our guests have an unforgettable stay in Paris, and we have found that providing as much information as possible in advance is one of the best ways to ensure a comfortable stay. Based on many years in Paris, here are some of our insider tips on what to expect during your stay with air conditioning. Not everyone buys it. “If the French can`t pay something, they find 10,000 excuses,” retorts Gilles Bourquin, who runs the air conditioning company Clim Denfert, founded by his father in 1967. “They have it in the car, they have it in the office,” he notes, and yet: “Air conditioning is considered a luxury.” He means both on a practical level – there is a 20% tax on air conditioning in France, compared to 5% for a new heating system – and in cultural perception, where Bourquin believes that air conditioning has been unfairly vilified by left-wing environmentalists. “If it`s technologically feasible and doesn`t pollute, why tolerate the heat?” It is one of the main contributors to global warming.
So it would be a good idea to accept the heat. When I went to the U.S. last month, my first reaction was to cry when I saw that everyone was so dependent on air conditioning. I wrote to my friends in France: “I might as well stop fighting global warming, they`re all on air conditioning here. It`s dead for the climate… ». Two must-haves for a wedding! 😉 How long have you been in Mayotte? And in Louisiana, we use air conditioning for temperature and humidity. Most people don`t have both a dehumidifier and an air conditioner, so they only use the air conditioner, but they really should use both, as it saves energy in the long run. But our temperatures in July and August are much worse than yours. Plus, Americans are expected to work in the summer — we don`t have paid vacations, so you can`t leave when it`s hot. First of all, the heat of this summer is historically quite rare. Paris, for example, has a summer temperature regime closer to Seattle than any other American city. Those cold nights — average summer temperatures of 60 degrees — made air conditioning at home unnecessary.
This changes with rising summer temperatures. The U.S. military used to say that air conditioning was considered “inappropriate” for bases in Europe, except in Italy, partly an attempt to live like the locals. But after a scorching summer in 2019, the army decided to delegate that decision to garrison commanders. Soldiers stationed in family homes in Germany are now allowed to buy their own units. The France uses more air conditioners than expected, with a quarter of households using a single unit. That number is rising, but given the impact of global warming and the threat of energy shortages, French and European authorities hope to promote alternative means of cooling in extreme heat. But for others, it was time for a change.
Amid the record-breaking heat, they were ready to embrace what many in Europe have long dismissed as an unnecessary luxury and a planet-destroying threat: air conditioning. Three o`clock in the afternoon, 91 degrees, and the air conditioning is broken at Les Argentiers, the brewery that Ivan Rizzi runs on a work street in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. Need a new engine, says the repairman. Rizzi takes note, but decides not to remedy it for the time being. It doesn`t matter if there`s condensation on his guests` wine glasses or if it`s so hot or worse every day this week. Sixth, there is architecture. The European building stock is old. In most EU countries, more than half of the building stock was built before 1970. As a result, very few houses with air conditioning were built.
Tenants may not want to invest in a home they may not be able to take with them. Homeowners will have to pay for a complex and time-consuming installation that may require drilling into concrete, approval from a cooperative committee, and even approval from the local government. Today`s French building code includes requirements for fiber-optic internet cables (invented in 1952 and popular in the 1990s), but still no air conditioning ducts (invented in 1902). Because apparently, Internet servers are not causing global warming. You may have already guessed it, I am a child of air conditioning. Yes, it is clearly a first-world problem, but I am French now, and I have the right to complain. I`ve gotten used to a lot of other things living in France, but this one drives me absolutely crazy. There are absolutely no regulations against the use of air conditioning.
They screwed you. The only rule is that you often can`t add air conditioning unless you own the entire building or have the consent of all the co-owners, as some air conditioners are outside your apartment. This is the biggest problem, because many blunt co-owners simply refuse. The attitude that “we don`t need air conditioning” seems to me simply capable.