Government mandated thermostat settings

[LuvOrlando]

I had heard about the version of AC over there. European AC in hotels has been described to me, "Imagine a person with a mouth full of ice cubes blowing their breath at you," so before this news flash the idea of traveling over there in sweltering summers was very tempting.

In all seriousness, lots of people have health issues or are on medications where their bodies can't regulate temp properly, this is not good for lots of people, myself included so even if I liked the heat it would be unsafe. Imagine sitting there and not noticing as the room climbs 10-15 degrees then suddenly you are just boiling, it is not great.

 

[tvguy]

I had heard about the version of AC over there. European AC in hotels has been described to me, "Imagine a person with a mouth full of ice cubes blowing their breath at you," so before this news flash the idea of traveling over there in sweltering summers was very tempting.

In all seriousness, lots of people have health issues or are on medications where their bodies can't regulate temp properly, this is not good for lots of people, myself included so even if I liked the heat it would be unsafe. Imagine sitting there and not noticing as the room climbs 10-15 degrees then suddenly you are just boiling, it is not great.

I do wonder if we are losing our tolerance to heat because we are so used to A/C. I went to public school 1962-1975 in classrooms without air conditioning. No concession was made on 100+ degree days in May and June and September and October. In the last 20 years, thanks to Federal grants all (as far as I know) the schools in the district I attended and still live in have A/C, but if it isn't functioning properly, they close the school because it is too hot.

 

[Moliphino]

I do wonder if we are losing our tolerance to heat because we are so used to A/C. I went to public school 1962-1975 in classrooms without air conditioning. No concession was made on 100+ degree days in May and June and September and October. In the last 20 years, thanks to Federal grants all (as far as I know) the schools in the district I attended and still live in have A/C, but if it isn't functioning properly, they close the school because it is too hot.

I do think we tend to overuse AC in the US. It's 90+ here today, but I went outside to eat lunch because I was chilled through from the AC and needed to warm up. I wear a jacket inside all summer.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Looks like Europe is getting serious about potential energy shortages.

Spain has ordered thermostats not be set lower than 80.6 for cooling or above 66.2 when heating.

Germany has banned portable AC and heaters anywhere except hospitals and schools.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/3/2...ing-air-conditioning-below-27-degrees-celsius

I have no desire to visit Europe at those temps.

The energy, food, and inflation crisis in Europe this winter will be bad, especially on the Eastern side.

While our media hasn't reported it much, the Polish news and German news have been railing about this day after day all of this summer, and almost all eastern European countries have been abandoning or greatly adjusting their green energy policies and going all in on coal b/c that's what they have...and they know it's still not nearly enough if Russia won't sell them natural gas...

 

[shh]

Looks like Europe is getting serious about potential energy shortages.

Spain has ordered thermostats not be set lower than 80.6 for cooling or above 66.2 when heating.

Germany has banned portable AC and heaters anywhere except hospitals and schools.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/3/2...ing-air-conditioning-below-27-degrees-celsius

I have no desire to visit Europe at those temps.

to me personally (which I know doesn't apply to others necessarily) 66 is great - that's not cold at all. But nearly 81 degrees? Ummm nope.

 

[shh]

The fact that there are fewer air conditioned spaces makes the ban on portable units particularly harsh, because in most residences that's the only a/c available

Yup...seems shortsighted to me. We use portables to save running central AC in rooms where we don't need it during the day. If you're mainly in 1 room for 8-10 hours, it makes no sense to cool an entire home.

 

[shh]

almost all eastern European countries have been abandoning or greatly adjusting their green energy policies and going all in on coal b/c that's what they have...and they know it's still not nearly enough if Russia won't sell them natural gas..

I really feel for everyone there...to not have enough resources right now due to everything going on. Still, when it's cold, at least there are some ways to stay warmer. When it's disgustingly hot (and humid), your options are so limited, unless you live near the ocean and can get cool breezes by opening windows.

The times we've lost power or my AC broke, I felt so irritated and miserable...I couldn't even be around other people. I was afraid I'd take their head off for the slightest thing, lol. It's why you'll never see me in a theme park during summer.

 

[John VN]

SW FL here with chilly 78F outside going to 94F today. House at 79F overnight and soon up to 84F for daytime.

I do wonder if we are losing our tolerance to heat because we are so used to A/C. I went to public school 1962-1975 in classrooms without air conditioning. No concession was made on 100+ degree days in May and June and September and October. In the last 20 years, thanks to Federal grants all (as far as I know) the schools in the district I attended and still live in have A/C, but if it isn't functioning properly, they close the school because it is too hot.

NEVER in my younger days would I have believed that I could be spending all day IN MY HOUSE with the temp. approaching 94F (right now and up to 96F earlier this week) outside feeling comfortable with the inside thermostat set at 84F and the house now at 83F. Moved to SW FL from NJ in JULY '86 melting every day from the heat and now after all those years as a 72yo GEEZER with super thin blood AND skin it's not that bad.

Just had 440WATT Solar Panels installed on the roof and with the NET METER being hooked up very soon maybe I'll drop the house temp. down a couple and still come out ahead.

 

[kdonnel]

And I think as far as AC, you would be uncomfortable without the restrictions since ac isn't common.

I have always found hotels with A/C. It is not that difficult. Paying hundreds of euros a night to sleep at 80+ degrees, no thanks.

 

[tvguy]

SW FL here with chilly 78F outside going to 94F today. House at 79F overnight and soon up to 84F for daytime.


NEVER in my younger days would I have believed that I could be spending all day IN MY HOUSE with the temp. approaching 94F (right now and up to 96F earlier this week) outside feeling comfortable with the inside thermostat set at 84F and the house now at 83F. Moved to SW FL from NJ in JULY '86 melting every day from the heat and now after all those years as a 72yo GEEZER with super thin blood AND skin it's not that bad.

Just had 440WATT Solar Panels installed on the roof and with the NET METER being hooked up very soon maybe I'll drop the house temp. down a couple and still come out ahead.

100 degrees is the norm in the summer here. My wife keeps it at 72 at night and 75 during the day, and being retired we spend most days at home. I have a 9.36 kW solar system, so my panels the past 4 months have produced more power than we use so I can't complain. My bill to the electric company the past 4 months has been $23.05 which is the fee for being hooked into their system.
I do remember in about 1970 when they enclosed the shopping mall here they advertised in the summer that they "were keeping it great at 68" inside on summer days.

 

[Colleen27]

Yup...seems shortsighted to me. We use portables to save running central AC in rooms where we don't need it during the day. If you're mainly in 1 room for 8-10 hours, it makes no sense to cool an entire home.

It makes sense from an energy use standpoint, though, because for the most part central air is much more efficient than window units. And of course, if a lot of the people with portable don't have central air, that is an even larger reduction of strain on the grid.

I do think we tend to overuse AC in the US. It's 90+ here today, but I went outside to eat lunch because I was chilled through from the AC and needed to warm up. I wear a jacket inside all summer.

That's the biggest reason I hate going down south in the summer. I don't have a/c at home (in Michigan) and very seldom wish I did. We do have a window unit in storage in the basement but still haven't put it in yet this summer because we just happened to be away from home the one week we've had warm enough that we'd have wanted it. So I'm not used to the constant going from 80+ to 60-something and back again that you get in places where every building is air conditioned. When we go to Disney in the summer, I have to carry a light sweater or flannel for the restaurants, and God forbid we get caught in one of those afternoon rain storms because then I'll freeze through every indoor attraction and experience until I dry off or go back to the room to change.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I lived outside Heidelberg in the 90s, it got hot and humid and no AC. My asthma was crazy. We lived in 3rd floor apartment that backed up to a working farm. The smells of onions was almost unbearable at times. No elevator either and laundry room was in the basement.

Funny that you mention Heidelberg. Your story is almost identical to mine - I lived in Heidelberg a few years ago during a heat wave and it was miserable. I had to sleep on the floor of my apartment with a portable fan next to me most nights as my apartment didn't have AC. No elevator in my building either and the laundry room was in a cellar of an adjacent building that was hotter than the surface of the sun. I was studying at the university and none of the university buildings had AC either.

 

[MillauFr]

I'm guessing the government mandated thermometers will be enforced just about as much as government mandated speed limits.

 

[DeeBee3]

The energy, food, and inflation crisis in Europe this winter will be bad, especially on the Eastern side.

While our media hasn't reported it much, the Polish news and German news have been railing about this day after day all of this summer, and almost all eastern European countries have been abandoning or greatly adjusting their green energy policies and going all in on coal b/c that's what they have...and they know it's still not nearly enough if Russia won't sell them natural gas...

Thank you! Independent news media here in the US has been talking about the situation in Europe for months. Now all of a sudden it's getting some coverage more nationally.

 

[DeeBee3]

I do wonder if we are losing our tolerance to heat because we are so used to A/C. I went to public school 1962-1975 in classrooms without air conditioning. No concession was made on 100+ degree days in May and June and September and October. In the last 20 years, thanks to Federal grants all (as far as I know) the schools in the district I attended and still live in have A/C, but if it isn't functioning properly, they close the school because it is too hot.

I never had A/C in school (went in 80, 90s, 00s). Maybe it depends on the school system. I was hot in the warmer months and freezing cold in winters. Just bring a sweater or wear your coat! And I don't live in a rural or low-populated area.

 

[tvguy]

I never had A/C in school (went in 80, 90s, 00s). Maybe it depends on the school system. I was hot in the warmer months and freezing cold in winters. Just bring a sweater or wear your coat! And I don't live in a rural or low-populated area.

I was never cold in school in the winter. They had a boiler and pipes filled with hot water running under the classroom floors, and the floors were so hot you couldn't touch them.
My kids never went to a school without AC until they hit High School. Catholic High School, and on days when the forecast high in the PRINTED edition of the newspaper was 98 or above, they had Hot Weather Days and got out an hour early, at 2 pm instead of 3 pm. My kids are 4 years apart, and Hot Weather Days ended my son's Senior year because they had add AC to all buildings. So Hot Weather days were over by the time my daughter started. But that school REQUIRED students to take summer school 3 of their 4 years, so that may have played a role in the decision to add AC. That, and someone donating the money to put it in!

 

[tzolkin]

I do think we tend to overuse AC in the US. It's 90+ here today, but I went outside to eat lunch because I was chilled through from the AC and needed to warm up. I wear a jacket inside all summer.

Living in the southern US, I certainly appreciate that AC exists but I definitely feel like most people over use it. I absolutely hate walking inside from 100 to a 60 degree blast of AC and then shivering. I remember several years back everyone on the Dis was complaining that the AC temperatures at Disney were being set much warmer than normal. I was thrilled when I noticed the temperature difference during my trip because I didn’t have to carry a sweater with me everywhere and didn’t have to leave any restaurants because I was freezing.

I find that most people dress for the weather. So it just makes no sense to me why some people keep their home or business at a colder temperature in the summer when people are wearing sundresses and shorts and then warmer in the winter when people are wearing boots and sweaters.

I can assure you when it is a suffocatingly humid 100 degrees outside and I walk into an 80 degree air conditioned house, I feel cool and comfortable.

 

[gshanny]

The schools in our district have to have ac. The first school I worked in has 2 tiny windows maybe 12 inches tall,and not not much wider, in most classrooms. I was in an interior room, so I had no window. The second school I worked in started with no ac except in actual classrooms. They then decided to replace the windows with tinted sheets of glass. There are no actual opening windows in the entire 2 story building. The school I work in now has 1-2 tilt in windows that are about 2 feet wide and 12 inches tall in most rooms. They don't open enough to get a breeze. I am in a room with no windows(I do have a wall vinyl of a window opening to Magic Kingdom with the fireworks!). The high school has tiny windows in the exterior rooms. The original part of the building had only one room out of a set of 4 that was an exterior room.
We have a situation where we can't go without ac now. They seem to make schools that can't go without ac because we have pretty gass, but no windows.
We also have so many electronics that create extra heat too. I can't imagine the computer lab without ac. It would get so hot in the classrooms most things would shut down in the heat we can have.

 

[Sinder]

I had heard about the version of AC over there. European AC in hotels has been described to me, "Imagine a person with a mouth full of ice cubes blowing their breath at you," so before this news flash the idea of traveling over there in sweltering summers was very tempting.

In all seriousness, lots of people have health issues or are on medications where their bodies can't regulate temp properly, this is not good for lots of people, myself included so even if I liked the heat it would be unsafe. Imagine sitting there and not noticing as the room climbs 10-15 degrees then suddenly you are just boiling, it is not great.

Just read today that 750 have died in Europe so far due to the heatwave. This could make that number go much higher.

 

[DeeBee3]

I also just remembered that when I taught in the middle school (top 3 largest in NY state) there was no AC in any classroom, only in main office and teacher's lounge. We go all the way through June so it does get quite hot. I remember being in the middle of pregnancy and I actually had to call across the hall to a teacher friend because I needed to get some cool air. It was just suffocating to me while pregnant.