Oh, the weather outside is...

[Akka]

I'd say it's dangerous just because of all the energy use that gets normalized.
But you might have a point here.

Think of all the old tricks that could keep a home cool entirely passively, that are left unused because we can simply slap energy-guzzling AC instead.

All I can say is try living through a summer on the US east coast without it. Don't like heat, you say?

I heard that the East Coast was taking a heatwave of epic proportion with "temperature up to 38°C". That sounds about the same as here, so I guess we're even

 

[Lexicus]

Think of all the old tricks that could keep a home cool entirely passively, that are left unused because we can simply slap energy-guzzling AC instead.

That is indeed exactly what I'm talking about. Passive engineering solutions are preferable from an energy-use perspective.

I heard that the East Coast was taking a heatwave of epic proportion with "temperature up to 38°C". That sounds about the same as here, so I guess we're even

Well, my point is that kind of heat is actually fairly normal for summers here despite the news making a big deal out of it.

 

[Arakhor]

Actually MinuteEarth recently did a video on why air conditioning is actually really bad for the planet.

 

[Hrothbern]

Yes
There is with the Climate change a huge growth market for AC's.
Better get that better regulated regarding recycling design and refrigerants (causing greenhouse effects when released after the AC product life cycle).

But heat pumps are the future !
You need a little bit of additional energy to pump heat from a cooler place to a warmer place.
An AC often a one-way heat pump.
But two-way Heat Pumps are heating devices in winter that use much less energy than traditional heaters. And if well designed (regulated recycling design and execution), they are harmless cooling devices if used during the day (with solar generated electricity available).

In fact, I expect many countries to have a long term strategy to replace traditional heating with heat pumps.
Using that same device as AC a very simple addition of valves.
In a house with enough heat capacity (thick wall) you can use daytime solar energy to store heat in your walls for the evening (and night).

Attaching that heat pump to a concentrated higher temperature heat sinc (salt-ceramics based) in your house (to use the heat pump again during solar hours to fill up), you even get heat stored for hot water.

It's all Green economy.

And back on topic hot weather today:
Yesterday "we" broke in the Netherlands a new temperature record with 39.3 C. The old one of 38.6 was from 1944.
Today we have a fair chance to get above 40 C (104 F).
Pfff

 

[Morty]

You ever get hail out of your thunderstorms over there?

occasionally - but it's the exception rather than the rule

On the AC front, ironically our AC unit at work broke this week (thankfully fixed now) - so after months of people complaining about 1C change here or there, we were all in agreement that some AC was better than none!!

Today's forecast - hot and sunny - 70% chance of England's all-time highest temperate (38.5C/101.3F) being broken

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'm pleasantly surprised to see that this thread is over 2 years old now and still going strong. Next to the long one in the now-zapped IALS social group, this is my most successful thread ever, so thanks, folks.

But please remember that I did ask in the OP that the conversation not drift into arguments about global warming/climate change/politics, as we have another thread for that.


There was a wind/tornado alert earlier, but aside from blowing some stuff around the parking lot, nothing worth worrying about seems to have happened here. I did finally have to open a window (thankfully the pigeons haven't taken over my balcony this year... so far... so I've got nice, cool air at the moment).

 

[Lexicus]

Today's forecast - hot and sunny - 70% chance of England's all-time highest temperate (38.5C/101.3F) being broken

Wow, that's quite hot. We're on our third day in a row of extremely nice weather, though admittedly it was a bit humid on Tuesday.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

But heat pumps are the future !

As are instant hot water heaters. At least in the US, most places use tanks full of water which is continuously heated to provide warm water to the unit. This is very inefficient and there are now units which attach to your water supply that use a lot of energy to ~instantaneously heat water as it passes through, as it is needed. This is much more efficient because you're not having to heat a giant tank of water all the time, only the water that is actually used.

 

[Kyriakos]

occasionally - but it's the exception rather than the rule

On the AC front, ironically our AC unit at work broke this week (thankfully fixed now) - so after months of people complaining about 1C change here or there, we were all in agreement that some AC was better than none!!

Today's forecast - hot and sunny - 70% chance of England's all-time highest temperate (38.5C/101.3F) being broken

38,5 Celsius?
Quite the heatwave.

 

[Lexicus]

As are instant hot water heaters. At least in the US, most places use tanks full of water which is continuously heated to provide warm water to the unit. This is very inefficient and there are now units which attach to your water supply that use a lot of energy to ~instantaneously heat water as it passes through, as it is needed. This is much more efficient because you're not having to heat a giant tank of water all the time, only the water that is actually used.

I think my parents switched to one of these a few years ago, my rental place in DC still has the old water heater afaik tho.

 

[Hrothbern]

As are instant hot water heaters. At least in the US, most places use tanks full of water which is continuously heated to provide warm water to the unit. This is very inefficient and there are now units which attach to your water supply that use a lot of energy to ~instantaneously heat water as it passes through, as it is needed. This is much more efficient because you're not having to heat a giant tank of water all the time, only the water that is actually used.

Thermochemical heat batteries using phase transformation of salts (like harmless and cheap CaCl2 and others) have energy densities 5-10 times higher than water at high temperature and are easy to use in housing energy systems.
There is still some optimation in development to increase the lifetime, the number of cycles. But this is already in the many thousands (a bit of nano technology involved).
The advantage of instant hot water heaters for small amounts of water like a cup of tea etc in the kitchen will always stay that you do not lose heat in your piping (which can be a lot if the boiler is far away).


As it happened: today it was indeed in NL a new record at 40.7 C (105.3 F)

 

[Lexicus]

Press F to pay respects to our European comrades

 

[Colon]

40C here in Antwerp. I'm guessing I went through to even warmer temperatures when walking around in the neighbourhood for errands, due to the urban heat island effect. Strange sensation. As if you're next to an big oven that's just been opened, only the heat stays and and you can't walk away from it.

National record was 40.7C.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It's so hot right now my EV won't charge in an outdoor charger. All the energy is going toward keeping the batteries cool. Pretty extreme.

I'm really glad I didn't get a Nissan Leaf - the price is attractive but I just found out they still haven't added active cooling to the batteries and that means it would have been permanently fried from a day like today.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'd say it's dangerous just because of all the energy use that gets normalized. But you might have a point here. All I can say is try living through a summer on the US east coast without it. Don't like heat, you say?

We lived in NC for 20 years without AC. We used shade, 5 ceiling fans and and a whole house exhaust fan to keep things cool in the summer.

And not just the east coast. But yeah it does probably hide some of it. But TEXAS was stinking hot before global warming and a lot less densely populated prior to AC.

AC in the 1950s made Florida retirement possible. In the 60s it moved to AZ. That started the great migration from the NE to the south and southwest that continues even today.

As are instant hot water heaters. At least in the US, most places use tanks full of water which is continuously heated to provide warm water to the unit. This is very inefficient and there are now units which attach to your water supply that use a lot of energy to ~instantaneously heat water as it passes through, as it is needed. This is much more efficient because you're not having to heat a giant tank of water all the time, only the water that is actually used.

We imported our first tankless water heater from Spain in 1978 and when we did some remodeling here in NM, we installed two. Endless hot water is a wonderful luxury.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

We lived in NC for 20 years without AC

Did you live up in the mountains? When I lived there (Fayetteville) it was so hot the roads would literally melt; I ruined more than one pair of shoes on my walk to work.

 

[Morty]

from one extreme to another - now have weather warnings in place for a weekend of rain.

From the UK Met Office:-

Accumulations of 40-60mm are possible, with perhaps as much as 80-100mm in places, especially over high ground.

Anybody seen an ark at all!??

 

[Birdjaguar]

Did you live up in the mountains? When I lived there (Fayetteville) it was so hot the roads would literally melt; I ruined more than one pair of shoes on my walk to work.

No, we lived 15 miles NW of Chapel Hill in Orange Cty.

I recently found some pictures of the house we built there and will scan some and post them when I get a chance.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

As I'm typing this, we are having a wind storm bad enough to scare Maddy. Stuff is blowing all over the parking lot, and it's very noisy and dusty (I'm going to have to close the window - I need fresh air, but right now there's too much dust blowing around).

Hopefully this won't be as bad as the storm in my OP for this thread. Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch, but they should have included wind and tornadoes as well.

I should go do stuff now that needs electricity; if any trees come down and hit the power lines, there could be an outage.

 

[Zkribbler]

Think of all the old tricks that could keep a home cool entirely passively, that are left unused because we can simply slap energy-guzzling AC instead.

I live in the tropics but have designed my house to forego AC. It's beside the sea and has lots of cross ventilation. Plus I built it in a former coconut grove, and so there's lots of shade, so much so that I can't get grass to grow or flowers to bloom.