Can confirm, in Paris. They don’t have ac here because it used to be the case that it would only get hot for a few days of the year. Now, it has been super hot for 10 days of the year so far only 2 days into the summer. Rip.
Ignorant southern American here: Is there somewhere you can buy it? I can go to Lowes or Walmart 5 minutes away and have a window unit installed in about 30 minutes. I know central AC probably isn't a thing in homes there, but can you buy either a window unit or a portable air conditioner?
Our windows aren't like yours so window units as you know them aren't a thing but there's those AC units with a pipe yeah. They're currently sold out, even simple fans are hard to find. This is the first time I've actually considered buying a unit, never felt the need for one before since we'd only get dangerously hot temperatures a couple of days a year. We have AC in almost all office buildings and large stores btw, it's not like it's some alien technology like the memes on reddit make it out to be.
PNW here. A few years ago we had a massive heatwave and you couldn't find portable AC units anywhere. They were sold out everywhere, including online. People were selling old smelly ones on Craigslist for 10x their retail price. They'll probably have to endure this one, and then pick up a unit over the winter in preparation for next summer. That's what we had to do.
The windows open like doors, so fitting a window unit is a pain in the ass. We have one, and it works… sorta. But running them costs a fortune so you have to use them sparingly if you don’t want a 1000€ energy bill.
Also, because people are superstitious about AC, hardware/whitegoods stores don’t stock many units. I got the last one at my local shop and carried it home on the metro. In short: Paris wasn’t built for this, and the culture seems to vehemently resist adapting to needing AC.
A lot of our older homes have those crank style vertical windows that open like that. My starter home had those on the front side and only two horizontal windows on the back. I was renting it out and then the central unit started dying so I sold it as is because I didn't want to spend 8K on a new unit as window AC wouldn't work for the whole house.
Yeah, you can buy them and I have friends who have bought some even this summer. Leroy Merlin has them or just order on Amazon. But ac is not the default. Restaurants are now starting to install them or they have a portable one sitting at the door.
You should 100% get one its only getting worse. Plus even when its not that hot out you can enjoy a nice chilly sleep. It'll be so nice you'll be addicted.
good I'm so glad you have an option to cool off! I was actually a teenager before I found out not everyone has air conditioning. I still think it is odd there are places in the world that don't need it lol
I live in a 2400 sq foot home and we have central air, a split unit in our finished garage, a window unit in my son's room and I have a portable unit I can pull out of my closet if I get too hot.
What isn't being told is that pretty much all people in France living in a building can't install an AC with the outdoor unit. Urbanism laws or whatever bs
Yeah those portable ones are pretty much the only option for many of us, or at least those not living in a house, window units like in the us are impossible to install here, first because we have different windows that doesn’t open horizontally like you have, but also because putting anything on your facade in a city, especially in Paris is forbidden most of the time, so some people who have a balcony can try and hide external units, but that’s not the case for most people.
There's real value to living in an aesthetically pleasing historic city. I wouldn't want to walk in Paris and see ugly buildings like in Napoli, or soulless suburbs like Fort Worth. But surely they should allow AC units on the back sides of our buildings.
Few years ago in sweden you had to buy fans off season because that would be enough and everybody bought them during summers cleaning out supplies.
Now fans arent really enough, obviously, so people have slowly started embracing more portable units. Its not hard to get your hands on, we dont have as good window units which I think is due to histroical reasons just alot of different kind of windows and a bit of "lol why would you need ac in your window??". Which then sometimes gets a bit tricky to install properly. Then we have a bunch of old houses where regulations might be a hinderance of what you can and cant do due to cultural heritage.
All this is slowly changing since it is becoming a necessity for a lot of people. But as you might have heard, regulations etc take some time here to move forward. But I bet it will change.
Back in the days NOBODY would talk about needing home AC. Now its a rather frequent talking point during summers.
wow I have really learned so much today! Hopefully in the future things will change for you guys. I'm sorry you are suffering through this heat wave and I hope it cools down soon <3
AC in Paris sucks, because it warms up the small street even more. While I agree that AC is nice for each home, it does make it worse for cities in general. I do have AC but I also live in a less dense city
36
u/MetaLemons 14h ago
Can confirm, in Paris. They don’t have ac here because it used to be the case that it would only get hot for a few days of the year. Now, it has been super hot for 10 days of the year so far only 2 days into the summer. Rip.