logos999

Good morning Anthony
The warm (hot) weather only lasts a few days, 10 out of 12 months it's cool. So why worry, enjoy!

Christina

I was in Germany around the beginning of July and at the end of the World Cup, including Dresden, and it was very very hot. Plenty of Germans were not happy and playing, but complaining and grim. They don't like it being 95, either, but for some reason just are too cheap to pay for AC, I guess. My entire family on both sides are German, and I have relatives in Hamburg and elsewhere, so I know about German "thriftiness" and grumbling.

It is obviously very unhealthy and dangerous to send children out to play in the sun when it is 95 degrees. I certainly hope that isn't what they do when it gets that hot.

There is just some cultural weirdness about this, and it doesn't make sense and it isn't because they love it. It's just they refuse to admit it gets real hot there, or something. It isn't even the money, I don't think, as they will spend lots of money on other unnecessary things, and waste money, also. LIke the bottled water nonsense in restaurants rather than drinking tap water. That's a waste of money if you don't want it. My German friend said that was just because the restaurants want to extract more money from customers, that's all, and they can't charge for tap water. She said water was very expensive in Germany, that was one reason, so they don't want to give it away.

Coincidentally, I was reading an article in some French magazine a bit later and it detailed the water costs in various European countries, and Germany was on the high end. Italy was the cheapeast, and France and UK were in-between those two. It wasn't that expensive, though.

Unfortunately, I stayed in a 4* hotel in Dresden which didn't have AC. I wondered if that was even legal, as I've never heard of an official rating system that had 4* hotels that didn't have AC, even in a lot less sophisticated countries. They gave me some silly excuse about how it was too difficult to keep a big building cool. This was not an old place, as you know, Dresden has a lot of modern, new buildings. This hotel was only a few years ago and was very nice in other ways (except for somewhat cheap and uncomfortable mattresses). Other hotels and buildings manage to have AC, I don't know why they can't. Of course, the desk clerk can just make things up, I don't know the official excuse, but I was wondering if maybe they were just trying to save money and not turn it on and if the govt. didn't know they didn't have AC. This was the Dorint Novotel which says they have 4*, and I think they do. The clerk said something fishy about how they had AC but I couldn't regulate it in my room, but when I said the hotel didn't seem to have AC at all, at least it wasn't turned on because it was about 90 degrees or more in my room, she sort of backed off that statement that they had it.

AnthonyGA

A lot of places in Europe with A/C refuse to run it. It's amazing to see how stupid and superstitious Europeans are when it comes to A/C. Eventually the overwhelming reality of global warming will compel them to face facts, but that make take quite a bit of time (and quite a few deaths).

francophile03

Last July it was boiling in Paris and I was really grateful my hotel had excellent a/c. After a day of walking around I was grateful to get back to the cool comfort of my hotel room as the outside temperatures were almost 90F. with high humidity. I am sure that it would have been miserable staying in a hotel without a/c.

MorganB

Its not like you can just slap AC everywhere. The powergrid would collapse. Its not adapted to that kind of demand. It has been hot in Paris but NOTHING like 2003. As long as it continues to cool off at night its not so bad and at any rate the heat is almost over. AC units pollute, spew hot air back outside artificiallly raising the temp even more and are not terribly good for you any way. I think they could use more AC in Paris but the amount that is used in the US is excessive.

AnthonyGA

You can accommodate A/C by increasing the amount of power generated. In France, at least, nuclear power is cheap and environmentally friendly.

Everything spews heat into the environment, including your own body. A/C units transfer heat from one area to another; most of the hot air they produce is nothing more than heat removed from the area they are cooling. A very small amount of the heat is added by the motors in the A/C unit. Overall, the contribution to environmental heat is negligeable. The major contributor to heat from human beings is the burning of fossil fuels and the operation of motor vehicles.

There is nothing about A/C that is "not good for you."

Thank you for providing examples of the kinds of superstitions and misconceptions that Europeans typically hold concerning A/C.

MorganB

Sure you can add more power supply to the grid. France doesnt have the extra capacity. Look at 2003 when they had to crank up all the old coal generators and suffered from brownouts. If they had all this cheap extra capacity laying around dont you think they would have used it? They also had to CUT BACK on their Nuclear plants. The reason? The rivers were so warm that the warm water run off from the plants raised the river temps beyond acceptable levels threating the wildlife.

I can tell you that having lived outside of AC for 7 years now, when I return to Dallas Texas I freeze my butt off and often get a cold and sore throat immediately. Of course after I ajust to the AC I feel better but remain COLD.

====Overall, the contribution to environmental heat is negligeable.=====

According to the government, by urging corporate Japan to set office temperatures at a steamy 28° Celsius (82° Fahrenheit), the nation in 2005 reduced carbon-dioxide emissions by 460,000 tons -- the same amount that a million households create each month.

Where are the myths? You tell me.

AnthonyGA

The reason France runs short of power is that it is exporting a lot of it. I'd prefer that it keep the power for itself, but the money is good, apparently. Other European countries are too a-scared to use nukular power.

You realize that 460,000 tons is nothing, of course. And 28° C is too high, particularly if the relative humidity is anything other than bone dry.

A lot of people in hot climates would be dead without A/C. Where are the environmentalists in winter, when every building in the Western Hemisphere is overheated?

logos999

Anthony, it's you people that are different and complain. My german friends and colleages have no A/C and don't need or want it. It was quite warm yesterday, nobdoy thought it a problen to go cycling in the afternoon, just a "It was quite warm today, wasn't it", is all you'll hear. Even at McDonalds, people don't stay inside, but rather enjoy the warm weather outside. If you'd wachted ZDF TV, they said do "drink enough water, don't use A/C. If you have to, it's dangerous for your health, if the differential is more than 3C. Enjoy, it'll soon be over. YOU have "heat" problems not "WE". It' rather bizzare ;-)

AnthonyGA

I'm different from Europeans; I'm not different from people who have lived for long periods in very hot climates (as I did).

Europeans are clueless, and they will have to learn the hard way. They think that the current heat is just a brief change from the normally cool climate of Europe. They will discover, in time, that it is not a temporary change, but a permanent shift, and when they realize that, you can be sure that they won't be going outside air-conditioned buildings to "enjoy the warm weather."

What you here on TV is often nonsense. There's nothing unhealthy about A/C. Even some European doctors don't know what they are talking about. I heard one in France tell people not to drink too much water, as it would make them sweat. I guess the alternative to sweating—heatstroke— is preferable to some people, or perhaps some French doctors simply don't know what heatstroke is, or how hot weather affects human beings.

MorganB

Antony since you seem to have such insight on climate change perhaps you should speak at the G-8 to convince world leaders to take it seriously.

AC being necessary is a fact of life in hotter climates such as in Texas where I lived for 15 years. So far in Paris in the 7 years I have lived here, only in 2003 would AC have been something other than an unnecessary luxury.

However AC set on 69 or 70 like in the malls and businesses in Dallas is absurd. Sure 82 is a bit warm. How about 78? Imagine the energy savings across the nation, the drop in pollution both from the AC units as well as the production of the electricty needed to run the AC. How about not building large glass towers in Texas that take no consideration of the fact that Texas is hot. You know that feeling you get when it is so hot that you might vomit. Its because you are walking out of a meat locker onto a black parking lot with no shade.

Things will have to change in both Europe and the US. Perhaps AC will be needed more and more in Europe . Perhaps also the US can get a grip on its wasteful habits.

mpprh

Hi

"Author: AnthonyGA
Date: 07/22/2006, 07:13 am

You can accommodate A/C by increasing the amount of power generated. In France, at least, nuclear power is cheap"

I can assure you it is not cheap.

Peter

mpprh

"A lot of people in hot climates would be dead without A/C"

You should tell this to African tribesmen, bedouins, etc who live in hot climates without power.

Peter

norween

<<<<I heard one in France tell people not to drink too much water, as it would make them sweat.<<
It must have been an USAmerican doctor, the US people always complain than the french sweat and thus produce this unbearable body odor !!!!!

scrb

I was in Paris the first week of July. The first couple of days were brutal. The apt. didn't have AC and opening the windows didn't help because the air didn't circulate.

But it had a fan and I survived. It was even worse in the Metro, packed and even hotter and my shirt was soaked with sweat.

You notice that southern European countries like Barcelona has air conditioning being more common.

Only thing about AC is that the more you use it, the more you contribute to the warming phenomenon.

But what can you do?

Neopolitan

Norween, I think you've always misunderstood. Most people don't object to the fact that others (including the French sweat). They object to the fact that those sweaters don't take showers or wash under their arms and other vital places for days or even weeks at a time and don't use any form of deodorant. There's a big difference.

AnthonyGA

If you look at the way African tribesmen live, you can understand how they get by without A/C. If you enjoy that lifestyle, fine. But I prefer to live in the 21st century, and A/C is necessary for that.

The doctor who said not to drink fluids was French.

Most people will start to smell after a few hours of sweating, no matter how carefully they cleaned themselves beforehand. It is true, however, that people who skip personal hygiene smell a lot worse. In France, it's rare for people to have such poor hygiene if they grew up during or after the Sixties, but older French people may reek. There are still a few younger people with poor hygiene, more so than in most other European countries, but the situation is gradually improving.

Increased use of A/C is not so much a cause of global warming as a consequence of it. When it's hot, you must refrigerate.

One reason why some areas set A/C so low is that they want it to remove humidity. If A/C is set too high, the air is cooled, but the humidity is not removed, and so the air develops a sickly, clammy, moist feeling. This is common in buildings with inadequate air conditioning. People sweat in such an environment, even if the air is cool, and this creates a vicious circle that makes the situation worse and worse. In the worst cases, the air can smell bad as well, thanks to hundreds or thousands of people sweating profusely. You have to make sure the evaporator coils of the A/C get below the dew point if you want dehumidification (the further below they are, the more humidity you can remove).

norween

<<<Norween, I think you've always misunderstood<<<
Maybe - since i'm european, i'm stupid by nature (according to mr anthonyAC), so - what can i do ?

Neopolitan

After recently spending 10 days in Paris and doing a lot of trips in close quartered busses or metro cars, let me assure you that it was not merely a "few" who failed the body hygiene test. And trust me, I know the difference between the smell of someone who has been freshly sweating after having taken a shower in the morning and used deodorant, and someone who clearly has not done either for days. Many of these people were well dressed -- including young businessmen or women clearly on their way to work in the morning. How on earth can they survive in the modern marketplace arriving for work in the morning smelling the way they did?

norween

Because they are stupid, dirty, smelly (and you forgot RUDE) french!!!!!!!!!!!!!!