How do they survive in Europe without A/C?

[wintermom]

We just got back from our big, beautiful church with a Roman church design and NO air conditioning. Oh my word was it HOT!! :001_huh: I've heard that many homes, offices, hotels and conference rooms in Europe do not have a/c. How do people survive this, especially in ties and suits? :tongue_smilie:

[milovany]

We don't have a/c in our mission church here in Washington state and it's been in the 90's for a week. I've put myself in charge of positioning the fans, LOL. But since we stand for services (eastern Orthodox), it's hard to get the air hitting everywhere especially if all 50-60 people come. But we do it. We don't have a/c in our house either. I don't know. I guess we like to sweat. ;)

[missmoe]

Many people in the US don't have AC either. When we lived in Saint Louis one could tell who had AC by who sat outside on their front porches/stoops.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm from Sacramento, where it would be horrible to live without AC. Now I live in Switzerland, and there is really only a week or two per year where it would be nice to have AC. People here are much more comfortalbe with things like sweat. lol! We have a few fans, and we survive. It's not like CA, where you would need AC for three or four months out of the year!

 

My parents went on a trip to Rome in August and said it was just miserable with the heat.

[mazakaal]

Where I live in England it rarely gets above 70. No need a/c here.

 

We didn't have a/c when I was growing up in NY either. The only time I really remember suffering with it, though, was when I was trying to fall asleep. I don't remember it being that bad in the daytime.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I've never been to Europe but I survived 17 years growing up in Japan with no a/c. We did it by: opening a lot of windows and burning a lot of mosquito coils. We also sweat a lot and drank a lot - esp. iced barley tea. And we took showers just to get out and towel off and be wet from sweat five minutes later! We wore loose cotton clothing. And we used fans - both electric and hand held ones. And handkerchiefs to blot sweat from our brow. Plus you do acclimate to it a certain degree. But there were deaths from the heat at times - esp. the elderly.

 

P.S. Humidity is a much bigger deal than the number on the thermometer.

[Laura Corin]

The work day starts early, there is a long siesta break at midday, then the work day continues later.

 

Laura

[Annie]

The highest forecasted temperature for the next week and a half or so here in Paris is about 73 degrees, and that's only for two of the days. It has been beautifully cool so far this July. Back home in central Virginia it has been in the 90s pretty consistently.

 

I'll take the 60s/70s without AC over the 90s with it!

[Mabelen]

Parts of Europe hardly ever need AC apart from the ocasional heat wave!

 

Others do need it and many have. I grew up in Madrid with no AC and falling asleep at night in July and August was tough, I guess that is why we kept late nights anyways! Nowadays most people do have AC, as well as stores, offices, the underground and the buses, but they still like to keep late nights!

[Cassy]

Where I live in England it rarely gets above 70. No need a/c here.

 

In fact, here in North Yorkshire we actually had our heating on one evening in June :001_rolleyes:.

[Mom in High Heels]

So far we've had about 6-7 days where it's been over 75. As I type it's 57 outside (10am) and our high today is supposed to be 68. For this entire week the highest we have forecasted is 73. That's not to say it never gets hot here, because it does and when it does it's miserable. When Han Solo was born in April of last year, we were having an unusually warm April and I was dying at the hospital. James Bond brought 3 fans for me. Of course it dropped back down into the upper 50's/low 60's the day after we came home. We've also had a few really hot weeks each summer, but they don't last nearly as long as they do in the States. Still hot=miserable.

Many people here have portable a/c units. They are on wheels and have a hose that vents out the window. You can have in the LR during the day and wheel it into the bedroom at night.

I have to say that due to medical issues, we have a/c units in our housing and when it is hot everyone is jealous. When the World Cup was going on in 2010, we had may viewing parties at our house because it was really hot out and it was nice and cool at our place. Our friends really loved us for that.

 

ETA: Many of those big cathedrals are crazy cool in the summer. I'm guessing because of the stone.

[Lily_Grace]

We live in northern Italy. Our walls are about a foot thick and made of concrete. The windows all have wooden shutters. The floors are tile or stone.

 

All of this helps keep us cool. In the summer we open the windows at night and let the air in. During the day, the shutters upstairs get closed and we move down to the ground floor and basement. If it gets absolutely unbearable there are small ac units, one on each floor, but they don't put out much cold air.

 

Italians also have a custom, like many other parts of the world, of taking off the afternoon. Everything shuts down from about noon until 3pm. People go home and relax, take a nap, and then head back to work until 7-ish. Dinner is at 8/9pm, when it's cooler out. There's a slower pace overall in Europe, at least the places I've lived. People don't hurry and get themselves worked up- they meander down the road, stop to talk in the shade, linger over a coffee. There's no rushing.

[lailasmum]

Some shops and offices do have air conditioning and my dh wishes he had it at work as it gets so hot in his theatre but in general it's not hot enough for long enough to make it worthwhile. I do appreciate it in my car but it is usually pretty cool in the house on a hot day. Also in our area the dew seems to settle pretty early and the temperature plummets late afternoon so it's really uncommon to have those extremely hot nights. If we did then maybe more people would get air con for night time comfort.

[TammyinTN]

When we lived in Germany we had a couple of hot weeks in July/August. We would lower our shades when it started to warm up outside and the house stayed nice and cool until bedtime when we raised them and opened up the windows again. Each of our rooms had fans as well. When we lived in an apartment for 2 years I had 2 portable AC units. One for the kitchen/dining/den area and then one in the end for the bedrooms. Worked like a charm and blocked out the noise from our neighbors.

[Halftime Hope]

a lot of the older homes in the Chicago area don't have central air, and 30 years ago they didn't have air at all. Late July/Aug are typically brutally humid and fairly hot, so they are pretty miserable.

 

I know two families living in south Florida that don't have a/c. One of them was my parents. Their house is a lakefront home, so the breeze is usually good by mid-afternoon, but they used ceiling fans everywhere and spot fans as needed. When we were there emptying out there house after their move--hard physical labor--we kept a glass of something iced going constantly and wore woven cotton clothes rather than knits. it was pretty miserable since we are used to keeping the air turned down quite cool.

 

Cool showers just before going to bed and sleeing under a fan help.

[Oakblossoms]

People don't hurry and get themselves worked up- they meander down the road, stop to talk in the shade, linger over a coffee. There's no rushing.

 

 

People WATCH OUT! We must move to Europe;)

[MommyK]

Does Europe need hairdressers and plumbers?

 

Cause we're roasting. Ugh.

[Firefly]

The homes are older and are constructed to keep the house cool. Some American homes are just plunked on a lot without regard to orientation with the sun or prevailing breezes, and the window design is more for aesthetics than heating/cooling. Newer ones have no shade. I felt the difference in my high schools...old stone buildings from the 40s with high ceilings, shade, and big windows are cool on the third floor, while cinder block 70s bldgs with little windows that partially open are boilers.

 

SO true. No A/C here (I'm in the U.S.)... our house was built in the late 1600s and positioned/designed to maximize sun exposure in the winter and keep cool in the summer.

 

DH's family is from France, and their chateau is about three hours south of Paris. It's made of stone and does a good job of keeping the place cool. Usually it's pretty temperate there but one summer we were there there was a brutal heat wave-- that was the only time I felt it was a little uncomfortable.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Firefly

[Parrothead]

We have no AC here. We had our first 2 day heat wave where temps got above 80 about 3 weeks ago. We are having our second now. It should be over today then temps will drop back to the 70s. We should start to see fall-like temps late next week.

[Amy in NH]

We live in northern Italy. Our walls are about a foot thick and made of concrete. The windows all have wooden shutters. The floors are tile or stone.

 

All of this helps keep us cool. In the summer we open the windows at night and let the air in. During the day, the shutters upstairs get closed and we move down to the ground floor and basement. If it gets absolutely unbearable there are small ac units, one on each floor, but they don't put out much cold air.

 

Italians also have a custom, like many other parts of the world, of taking off the afternoon. Everything shuts down from about noon until 3pm. People go home and relax, take a nap, and then head back to work until 7-ish. Dinner is at 8/9pm, when it's cooler out. There's a slower pace overall in Europe, at least the places I've lived. People don't hurry and get themselves worked up- they meander down the road, stop to talk in the shade, linger over a coffee. There's no rushing.

 

That sounds lovely!

[mazakaal]

The highest forecasted temperature for the next week and a half or so here in Paris is about 73 degrees, and that's only for two of the days. It has been beautifully cool so far this July. Back home in central Virginia it has been in the 90s pretty consistently.

 

I'll take the 60s/70s without AC over the 90s with it!

 

Annie,

 

Could you tell me what the weather in Paris is like in September? I'm supposed to be going with my mom, but am really not sure what I should plan to pack.

[mazakaal]

In fact, here in North Yorkshire we actually had our heating on one evening in June :001_rolleyes:.

 

I was tempted to put the heat on this morning - I'm wearing a cardigan and my big, furry slippers. It's not actually that cold outside, but it's so damp that I feel chilled.

[regentrude]

Different building techniques.

My parents' house is one hundred years old, stone, and stays reasonably cool in summer.

It usually is not as humid in Germany (and most parts of Europe), so it cools down at night. You open all windows overnight to let the cooler air in and close them in the morning. During hot days, you close shutters or roll down awnings.

[Amber in SJ]

Not everyone in California has AC. We don't here in San Jose, and believe me it can get hot. We are just coming off of a week that saw a several days hit 100.

 

You learn to do everything in the morning or wait until it cools down at night. Your oven doesn't get used for the Summer months.

You throw open all the windows in the very early morning to cool the house down and close the windows & blinds when the sun hits.

On blazing days you retreat to the one room in the house that has a room size AC (master bedroom) and drape yourselves like limp dishrags on the bed and read/ nap/ play games/ legos for the hottest hours of the afternoon.

 

Lots of coping strategies.

 

Amber in sunny SJ

[Cinder]

I grew up in HI without a/c. Most homes didn't have a/c though most businesses did. The main public library and the big shopping mall were open-air; they're enclosed and have a/c now. We just opened all the windows and used a fan when it got really hot. Then we closed the windows when it got cold. Like 70F. :D My dad lived in a high-rise condo and he had a/c. It was necessary because his building was next to the highway and the noise from it was unbearably loud.

[chiguirre]

In Caracas, houses don't have a/c because the walls are quite thick, there are heavy shutters and they're designed to allow air to flow under the eaves. My inlaws' house is quite cool inside even when it's 90 outside. Apartments sometimes need a/c although we rarely ran ours because we could catch a good breeze with our windows open. It's also never gets as hot and humid as the northern US. That horrible sticky heat is miserable without a/c.

[Lily_Grace]

That sounds lovely!

 

It really is very nice. :) I thought Portugal was the best until I came here, and now they both have places in my heart.

 

We do get quite a bit of humidity, and the heat outside gets to 90-100 during the summer, but it's such a slow way of life that it hardly matters.

[Mrs Mungo]

Once when we went to Germany it was insanely hot. It helps that the buildings are made better so they do stay somewhat cooler. But even despite that it was HOT! I took a lot of showers.

 

It really depends upon the year. My middle dd was born in 1998 and there was a massive heatwave that year. It was great for the grapes (we lived in the wine region), but people actually died from the heat. Other years that we were in Germany it wasn't so bad.

[Mrs Mungo]

Yeah I'd say that kind of heat was an exception. It isn't normally that hot. It didn't help that I was very pregnant.

 

Yeah, my dd was born in July of 1998. The hospital didn't even have a/c throughout and there were four women and their babies (and visiting dads, etc) besides me and dd in a relatively small room. Bleh.

[Mrs Mungo]

That must have been tough! I'm so thankful for private rooms here.

 

DS was born in a different town and different hospital in Germany (we have lived in 2 different places in Germany). I did have a private room that time around. Eldest was born in California and that hospital had a mother/baby ward that all of the moms and babies shared.

[regentrude]

I'm so thankful for private rooms here.

 

Private rooms in the maternity ward do exist in Germany, too.

[Lucy the Valiant]

On the flip side of the coin, the colonial Americans built their churches in New England with no HEAT . . . and regularly worshipped 3+ hours.

 

They were afraid to build fireplaces in the meetinghouses because if the largest building in town ever caught fire, it was probable doom to the entire village.

[Mom2Es]

Others have already said it, but there are a lot of places in Europe where it rarely gets dangerously hot AND often (but not always), their houses are designed differently. I lived in an apartment building, and, while it was not air conditioned, it did have some kind of ventilation system to keep air circulating. I made it halfway through the summer before I realized what those "speaker-looking things" were on the ceiling and opened them up!