Post

Faine Greenwood
@faineg.com

People didn’t “used to be fine” without air conditioning during heat waves in the U.S. - a lot more people *just died*. According to this study, air conditioning has cut heat deaths in the U.S. by around 80% since 1960. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.comAdapting to Climate Change: The Remarkable Decline in the U.S. Temperature-Mortality Relationship Over the 20th CenturyThis paper examines the temperature-mortality relationship over the course of the 20th century US both for its own interest and to identify potentially useful a
Alasdair
@lumsden.uk

Meanwhile the UK is trying to prevent uptake of A/C. The government provides incentives for heat pumps for heating but not if they cool as well. New build flats have insulation standards that turn them into ovens, yet don’t come with A/C, and freeholders won’t allow A/C units to be installed 🔥

14 reposts64 likes

Alasdair
@lumsden.uk

Not that it’s a competition but 30C all week in mine, and a few years ago it was up at 34C during one of the intense heatwaves. Only going to get worse from here 🫠

The Sandbag
@thesandbag.bsky.social

And they are fundamentally the same technology, in fact for the vast majority of our existing housing stock a/c is a cheaper install than a heat pump as it doesn't need any replacement pipe work and will be more efficient.