How's the AC situation there? When I went to Europe last year I found it rare for a home to have air conditioning (extremely commonplace here in southern South America where I'm from)
back
9 comments
It's not that common in South America as you might think though, it depends on the country/region of that country.
I'm from Colombia, the Caribbean region to be more exactly, and it's obviously common there (if you're middle class and upwards, and can afford the rise on the energy bill), but in other not so warm cities you barely see them. I'm currently living in Chile and I've yet to see an AC in an apartment/house.
Looking at the conversation here, I'd like to see some stats correlating average/high temperatures and AC use. According to wikipedia, average summer highs in Paris are only a couple of degrees lower than Montevideo, yet in Montevideo it's very common for (middle class) homes to have AC and in Paris it's rare.
AC at home is almost non-existent in France.
It's more common in offices, some shops...
My grand father is in hospital at the moment and most of the rooms don't have AC.
I was in Paris until yesterday, and just got back to NYC. Being stuck in the heat wave without AC made me realize one thing: given the choice of no AC, or NYC-style "it's winter all year long" AC, I take no AC any day. I'm probably in the tiny minority though.
That said AC at reasonable levels is wonderful.
I love the Cool Biz campaign in Japan.
As the sister comment said, it's still very uncommon to have ACs at home, at least in the germanic countries (Austria in my case). Though with summers like this I've definitely heard more people talking about possibly installing air conditioning, and I myself bought my first fan ventilator last year because I couldn't stand the heat anymore.
Funny weird, I also bought my first fan ventilator last year. I used to put some ice in a bowl in front of it.
This year (last week) I bought a second one to put in the bedroom and set it up for the night. That breeze was really refreshing.
Like others said, pretty rare.
However I feel that this year people are buying the Portable AC units a lot more (there’s no stock left for moderately priced portable units on Amazon at the moment). I’ve lived in Delhi most of my life so I can survive 33 degrees in Paris, but our cat doesn’t seem to enjoy it.
I think I've ever seen AC in a flat or a home only one time and it was a portable air conditioner in a rental home in the South.
But malls, offices and the like have AC.
I've never been in South America, but I'd say that the average weather conditions in France (less heat and humidity) makes AC less important.
It's important to note that here winters are milder than in Europe, and it's unusual for buildings to have central heating. Most people buy AC to heat their homes in the winter as well, so it's not just a purchase for the summer
I'm also in Paris, and just yesterday someone told me that, I replied : "made AC less important". Clearly things have changed in the last 15 years. Paris and London haven't adapted yet to this change.
I don't think we're yet at a point where AC is important as important as, for example, South America. The current temperature is a record high, not an average temperature.
In Germany almost nobody has AC. I would expect France to be the same.
I am waiting for Amazon to deliver mine, it is supposed to arrive on Monday. It is expected to cool down a bit next week though.
Some collegues have an office in central Paris that is the ground floor of a traditional Haussmann block, they didn't have AC the last time I visited.
I'm currently in my company office located in the Sentier district – famous for being a startups hub. No AC, just a fan and open windows (the biggest issue is the car noise, even though traffic has been restricted for days).
Lots of neighbors have AC running but all the windows and doors wide open.
Edit: I live in an pre-Haussmann flat (5th floor, right under the roof). Crazy hot but no AC and no fan, all the windows open since Monday, days and night, even when I'm not at home. Crossing fingers re possible theft, but at least no one can steal my non-existent AC).
Another point: I was chatting with my brother yesterday, who's working in the construction, only for flats and apparently the current building code makes it nearly impossible to have central AC in an appartement building; end result some people will use a portable unit and drill a hole or run it with an open window