this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

AC unit you grew up with

Lmao grew up with? Most of us have never used AC at all in europe. Here in the UK no homes have AC. The issue is that people are installing it now because of climate change and the result is massively higher energy use.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not necessarily in your house. I'm talking about the design of the units from when you were a child (Many public buildings in the EU have AC regardless of houses not having it). AC was invented in 1901, and has come a very long way since then, and we have begun combining it with old principles to extract the best of both solutions

Combining modern refrigeration/cooling techniques with well designed passive systems that exploit material properties (Heat capacities, transfer coefficients, etc.) to their advantage is the future of HVAC. It started with CFCs and knowing we could exploit their boiling point with mechanical force to chill air beyond the outside air temperature. Who knows where science and engineering may take us next!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People in the UK are installing air cons, because most houses are very bad and have no insulation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is not true? L1A, L1B, L2A, and L2B exceed american insulation regulations by a huge amount, and they exceed the EU regulations as well. I did some roofing once upon a time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Most houses in the UK are not new builds, that's the issue.