• Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I asked a builder why this was, and he said that the lateral forces created by a slightly tilted window has just enough force to rip the entire side of a house clean off due to houses having the structural integrity of wet newspaper, which is the preferred construction method in the States

    • LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      can’t tell if this is a troll or not. youre telling me people outside the states think we live in wet newspaper?

      • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Well not wet newspaper exactly but I heard you have walls so thin the neighbours can hear your cell division

        • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          Depends on where you live. The US is huge and has a wide variety of building codes. I personally never hear my neighbors

        • LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I mean it exists for sure, but not something people expect when moving in places. usually correlates to the cost and age. decibels wise, it’s not too different than Europe imo. I lived in France and mother fuckers be yelling from their windows all day. I also lived in Germany and the walls are thick as shit, but mother fuckers have their windows open all day and yodelling. if you live near people, you’ll hear them some way or another. renting in the US is also much simpler. fuck Germany’s renting culture shit.

          • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            You’ve… you’ve never been out of your state, have you? 😂

            People don’t…shout at eachother out of windows! What sort of savage would do that?

            Oh, the ones in the movies you watched about Yurp. 😂

      • M137@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Hitting a wall and having any chance of the wall breaking isn’t really a thing outside the US. Everyone elsewhere notices that a lot in movies and videos. It’s not uncommon for children outside America to ask adults why Americans have paper walls. People being mad and punching a wall and putting a fist-sized hole in it, falling and breaking the wall or throwing anything and the thing getting stuck in the wall. In most of the world it’s you or the thing hitting the wall that’ll break, not the wall itself.

        • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          To clarify, the paper (and rock underneath it) are not the structural part of the house, they just cover the actual structural parts (the studs) and provide a pocket to fill with insulation.

        • Fal@yiffit.net
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          10 months ago

          The wall isn’t the structural integrity part of the house. And that’s for interior walls. You’re getting your opinions from the questions that children ask in other countries?

      • Kilgore Trout@feddit.it
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        10 months ago

        It’s an intentional exaggeration, but it’s true that houses in the US are usually built without a proper foundation and with thin walls.

        • Misconduct@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          They’re built differently depending on where you live in the states and your environment. I know y’all love staying ignorant to feel superior but this one is still pretty dumb. People in Japan practically have paper walls and I don’t see you guys all up your snobby butts about that. Xenophobic turds. It would take people 10 seconds to learn why some of our houses are built the way they are but they won’t bother if they haven’t by now because they prefer the ignorance.

          • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            You’re taking this a bit too seriously, man. It’s like when we joke about the British having fucked up teeth. Just ribbing each other.

      • pascal@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        You know that tool called stud finder that you use in America if you ever think about hanging a picture on the wall, or a TV, otherwise you risk your wall falling down with anything attached to it?

        Never seen a stud finder in Europe.

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      It’s preferred because it’s cheap.

      Nobody wants to pay a stone mason to put brick on the exterior of their homes. They used timber for a long time, but now all the new houses I’ve seen use the metal studs, which sounds great on paper until you realize it’s basically sheet metal stamped into a U kind of shape that’s the same size as a 2x4. It’s enough to hold up the drywall and maybe some pictures/paintings on the wall plus the occasional wall-mounted TV, but give it a couple hundred pounds of weight and it’s going to crumple into itself like aluminum foil.

      Honestly, most of the strength in the wall is now because of the drywall. The “studs” just keep them from falling over.

      Not saying timber was all that much better, but it could at least support someone standing on the top plate of a wall without folding in on itself.

      Can I get my house built from concrete board instead?

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I wish I could have a stone masonry building. My friend’s family used to own a hotel built by a stone mason. He invited us out to watch the company who bought it try to demolish it. Apparently they weren’t expecting proper brick and mortar to be so strong.

        • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Yep, and a lot of modern brickwork isn’t designed to be structural, so many of the components used are basically poor substitutes for the “real deal” so to speak.

          Stonework can be the strongest part of the building, or just little more than a facade.

          In a nearby town, the second story brickwork of a building came off of the structure and fell into the sidewalk and road. I don’t believe anyone was hurt, but the point is, sometimes, the brickwork is little more than just a wall. Other times, it’s basically keeping the building upright. In that case, the building didn’t go anywhere after losing the brickwork.

          I’m sure in your example, the brickwork was providing the primary support structure for the building, and it was built far better than what fell off of the building in my example.

      • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Lol imagine reading this as a true statement. Fiction books must fuck you right up 😂

        • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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          10 months ago

          Can you please explain to me exactly why and how it was objectively obvious that OP’s comment was meant to be taken as some kind of joke or satire?

          Because if you can’t, I have to think that you are little more than an arbitrarily condescending piece of shit.

          • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Ok, I’ll walk you through it. I am OP btw

            I believe the basic structure is called a “bait and switch”, a fairly common writing trick

            I asked a builder why this was, and he said that the lateral forces created by a slightly tilted window

            This is the “bait” bit. It sounds like a real comment so far

            has just enough force to rip the entire side of a house clean off

            This is the part where, if you didn’t have the reading comprehension of a six month old duck, you’d start to realise that, perhaps this wasn’t a serious comment. There’s no way a slightly tilted window is ripping the entire side of a house off, surely? That’s the “switch”

            due to houses having the structural integrity of wet newspaper,

            This line is pretty much only there as a setup to the next line. Houses, I’m sorry to inform you, do not have the structural integrity of wet newspaper. That would be as dangerous as it is impractical

            which is the preferred construction method in the States

            This bit, unsurprisingly, isn’t exactly true either

            I hope, now that I’ve broken the comment into its constituant parts, that you’re rolling on the floor, clutching your aching ribs and laughing tears of joy.

            Explaining jokes always makes them far funnier

            • Alk@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              In this case it’s true, I am laughing more at this than the actual joke (which I also laughed at). This back and forth was the setup and the explanation is the punchline.

          • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            It’s like when Americans say British people have fucked up teeth. I don’t actually believe that, I just say it to make British people mad.

            Mocking our construction is a European joke that they love because it makes Americans mad. Simple as

  • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I work in a hotel.

    One day, a family comes to the reception to tell me that their window is broken, asking me to change their room. I ask if I can take a look.

    It turns out, they didn’t know the existence of tilt & turn windows and were scared that the window was going to fall down lol

    • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      How dare you. Just for one second think of someone other than yourself. How do you think the pharmaceutical companies are gonna feel about that? Or their poor shareholders? Pfizer’s CEO only made $33 million last year. How the hell do you expect him to feed his kids when he’s not making that much because your precious healthcare system ate into his meager earnings. The medical corporations are barely scraping by!!

    • Marcbmann@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I’m in the US and have these windows. They have screens. They’re also not that special. I prefer the regular windows

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I was starting to wonder if Europe didn’t have insects, because the hotels I’ve stayed in (in Europe) that had them didn’t have screens for them.

        • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          We have civilized insects, they respect our privacy and don’t enter unless they must.

          • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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            10 months ago

            You’re joking but that’s basically it, it’s just not an issue in most places.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        I have these windows in Moscow, Russia since recently (had old windows with separate wooden frames with thick glass made somewhere about 70s, they looked nice though) and like that I can use the sill as a table with laptop and tea and some stuff now, and tilt it instead of moving the laptop aside.

        • Aganim@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Ah yes, the good old Russian defenestration windows. I assume you have the FSB-mandated variant that is capable of both tilting and swinging, for… ease of access?

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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            10 months ago

            My brain had a segfault reading your comment, because the approved ones would obviously not be “anti-defenestration”, but yeah, swinging is nice

            • Aganim@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Yeah, sorry, my dark sense of humour didn’t combine very well with typing it out before my first cup of coffee.

        • Ataraxia@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          We had them in Italy. But we also didn’t have these weird windows. Also stop acting like Europe is a small town on an island.

          • Retrograde@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I honestly don’t think of Europe as a small town, I promise- I’m just saying I’ve been in many brilliant countries across Europe and I swear to you that I’ve never seen a screen. Where is the spider protection, I ask you?!

            This should be particularly important, I think, in the Scottish Highlands, land of midges, who want nothing more than to feast on your flesh. Still, not a screen in sight, although I must admit you certifiably need a very fine screen to prohibit those pesky wee bastards. There seems to be a sort of gentlemen’s alliance though because it seems that the midge rarely enters a human dwelling, maybe out of fear of pure Scottish fury, but mark my words … they sit and wait.

            I will digress also that in our defense, Scots do use midge nets when camping unless we’re on our 10th Tennant’s, in which case it’s really no bother

        • HopFlop@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 months ago

          Its not like the few mosquitoes we have would be smart enough to enter my room through the sides of a lightly tilted window.

      • Aux@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        There are no mosquitoes in the UK. And moths are rare. Would be lucky to see a fly.

  • GluWu@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    In America we have to keep our windows closed to keep out the fent smoke and bullets.

    • Loki@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      Correct me if I’m wrong, but that style of window doesn’t allow you to open it fully, right?

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 months ago

        it’s inherently superior because you can have the window slam onto the fingers of a person trying to crawl in through the window

          • lud@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            You can have them on residential buildings‽

            I live in Europe and I have only seen them in commercial settings to protect store and stuff.

              • lud@lemm.ee
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                10 months ago

                Here, integrated window blinders are very common. But if you don’t have them you will probably use some sort of curtains (either normal or roll down).

            • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Those metal shutters, that black out the whole room? They have those in Portugal, Spain, most of the mid-southwest Mediterranean. France also. But they’re basically ubiquitous in Portugal. Pretty nifty actually.

              Edit: This was driving me nuts, sorry, but I couldn’t find a single good image of what I mean. Here’s the best I could make the robot monkey do (YMMV):

              It sounds like you’re describing “Persianas” – a term used in Portugal (and other Spanish or Portuguese-speaking countries) for a specific type of heavy-duty indoor blinds or shutters. These are not the thin metal or fabric blinds but rather thick, often horizontal slats that can be rolled down to cover windows or doors completely, providing excellent light blockage and insulation.

              Why? Because they’re amazing.

              • lud@lemm.ee
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                10 months ago

                Funnily enough we call the small thin ones in the picture I posted “Persienner”.

                They don’t provide any significant insulation but they can also cover the whole window and block light pretty well. Not perfectly, but good enough for most applications.

                If they aren’t enough for you, you can have specific black out curtains that either roll down or slide in front of the window. I suspect black out curtains exist literally everywhere. I am just mentioning it for completeness sake.

                I suspect black out curtains are especially common where they get sun 24/7 during the summer.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The worse part is now they’re built cheaply so the screen is only the bottom half. You can still open the top, or from both top and bottom for convection, but now you get bugs

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Windows are the kind of thing that are generally built locally for multiple reasons. So your experience will vary greatly based on what the window factory in your area is doing.

          Where I live, single hung windows (only one sash) are most common, so only one screen is needed. Double hung windows are less common because people don’t want to pay for the expense of the additional sash (a lot of springs and mechanisms needed for a sash). A screen is an expense too, but nowhere near the expense of an additional shaft. Possibly the intent was to allow for opening the top to making cleaning easier, but that’s usually accomplished by having the top “fixed” portion of the single hung window be able to tilt out because putting all the springs and mechanisms for an additional sash for a feature to make it easier to clean isn’t necessary.

          Yeah… I worked at a window factory before. The calculations needed to figure out the tension needed on the springs so that it will counter the weight of the sash was fun.

        • Boop2133@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It entirely depends on who installed the windows and what brand. Our windows are amazing and high quality.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          At least you get screens. Where I live mosquitoes are common and yet screens are very rare.

    • noobnarski@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      That window design looks like it would never seal properly. Here in Germany any window from the last 30 years or more will not let any air in when its fully closed.

        • noobnarski@feddit.de
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          9 months ago

          Because its not possible to pull the window into the seal when the window also needs to move up and down.

            • noobnarski@feddit.de
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              9 months ago

              And how is it sealed on the sides and the top? European casement windows actually get pulled into the frame (and seals) all around the frame by rollers which move sideways along sloped ridges when you move the hinge to the closed position.

              • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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                9 months ago

                The window stays sealed on all other sides. It just slides up and down. Windows in Europe sound needlessly complicated

                • noobnarski@feddit.de
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                  9 months ago

                  But will there still be air coming through when there is wind pushing on that side of the house?

                  I guess they are kind of complicated, but energy efficient windows make it possible to increase the window area and size without losing too much heat. Energy is also more expensive over here, which probably helps in that decision, as the cost of these windows can be easily recouped in a few years just by needing less energy to heat the house.

      • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It seals. There’s a small recess underneath the window lined with weather stripping that when pressure is applied from closing the window and even locking it, it becomes air tight.

      • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        We actually have the opposite issue. Windows here seal so well that indoor air quality slowly drops if you don’t run the central fan all day.

      • Gumby@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Double hung windows don’t seal quite as well as casement windows, but honestly, unless you’re going to the absolute best energy efficiency possible, like a net-zero house, then it’s really not a big difference. Any halfway decent quality, properly installed window won’t have any noticeable drafts. Plus, as others have mentioned, double hung windows are far cheaper than casement.

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    While I agree that our windows are generally superior from a functional perspective, the Americans have us beat in the fact that you can’t install a window AC unit in our windows.

    Hence we get to just die in the increasingly common heat waves. Not great - we’ve got to figure this one out.

    Before portable ACs are mentioned - I’ll point out that they have terrible efficiency, and connecting the tube to blow out the hot air is still terrible with European windows.

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Mini split heat pumps.

      All you need is a 3cm hole in the wall to run a refrigerant line from the outside heat pump unit to the wall unit.

      Window AC units are pretty poor efficiency too, IIRC

        • TCB13@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I’m sure if you pay the AC unit yourself nobody will oppose lol

        • realitista@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          There are the freestanding air conditioners. They have a hose you put in the window. There are plastic seals you can buy that fit in the windows to seal off the exhaust. They aren’t perfect but they are better than nothing.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        This is likely going to be the answer, yeah, but I believe we need to see some improvements in installability for the average person - a window AC unit does afaik not require a specialist to install, while a mini split, while possible to tackle for a handy person, is a lot harder, leaving the average person to have to pay for someone to install the unit.

        Window ACs are not the best from an efficiency perspective, but they do beat portable units by a large margin.

        EDIT: looks like it might actually not even be legal in the EU to install a mini split yourself - you need to be certified to handle the refrigerants.

        Installation is also more than 50% of the total cost of acquisition, so we’re hitting upon an affordability issue here as well.

        • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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          10 months ago

          I’ve just been looking into this in the UK (so Europe, but not EU).

          You can now get split units that come pre-filled with a safer refrigerants that a DIYer is allowed to do themselves.

          I would still get an electrician to do the electrical side though. 1KW constant load should definitely be on its own circuit.

        • 9point6@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Yeah that’s a good point about affordability. I guess I’d hope for government subsidies or at least supply & demand market forces to address that before it becomes an essential thing, especially if they replace gas boilers too as a move to reduce carbon emissions.

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            In the world of theoretical wild policies, there’s a really good argument for subsidizing heat pump installation for places heating with fossil fuels or direct electricity at more than 100% of the cost of installation. I’d love to see that kind of project. One can mostly just dream, though.

    • ExLisper@linux.community
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      10 months ago

      Window mounted units are still terrible for comfort. External AC unit is like 300 euro + 300 euro for installation. It’s not a big investment and you get totally silent unit. In Europe people will use portable units if it’s short term and install external one if it’s permanent.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        The quoted prices I saw for installation were a lot higher, more like 700 euro, but that probably depends on the cost of labour where you are.

        There are also non-monetary aspects to this issue - I’m not allowed to make any modifications to my facade on account of it being made out of asbestos, for example. I’d have to get a specialist to cut the hole to make that work. It’s also a bit tricky to fit in an outside unit - or inside unit for that matter - on my walls.

        I’m in complete agreement that mini splits are superior, but the downsides do exist and need to be acknowledged.

        • ExLisper@linux.community
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          10 months ago

          Yep, I’m just saying that 90% of people in Europe will simply go with external AC. Where I live most new apartments simply come with central AC installed and roof top units. But that’s in southern Spain, AC is a must.

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            Absolutely. I’m speaking mostly from a Swedish apartment-perspective, where ACs have been optional basically forever, but the climate crisis is quickly making them more and more mandatory each year.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    10 months ago

    I admit I’m an American and my windows don’t open that way, but I’m not sure why whoever made that meme thinks that means a light breeze can’t come through them. Because… a light breeze can come through them.

  • RobertOwnageJunior@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I get it’s all memes and fun, but I am so tired of this constant ‘Europe does this better’, ‘USA is supreme for that’.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          10 months ago

          He says, while being the cause of global warming with 24/7 AC.

          • Surp@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Lol what a tool. If I have 100% renewable energy at my house how’s that contributing?

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              10 months ago

              Energy is only a part of the equation.

              “Much of the existing cooling equipment uses hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, which are potent greenhouse gases, and use a lot of energy, making them a double burden for climate change. Even with the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons required by the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, business as usual means emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning are expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050, rising from 7 per cent of global GHG emissions today. Right now, the more we cool, the more we heat the planet. If we are serious about reversing current trends, we cannot go about cooling our planet with a business-as-usual approach.”

              https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/air-conditioners-fuel-climate-crisis-can-nature-help

        • flathead@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Yes, temperature difference inside to out is amazing with solid masonry and ceiling insulation. No AC required.

          • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            Disagree. I’ve found stone brick houses to be unbearably hot in the southern US. They turn into an oven.

            • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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              10 months ago

              I’ve never seen actual stone houses in north America, only those fake panels on the outside. Bricks are different and require additional insulation, usually you get 2 layers with insulation in between.

                • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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                  10 months ago

                  Looked it up, didn’t find much but did find this, these look like made of stone indeed but maybe it’s because they’re thinner? When I think of stone houses I think of things like this with very thick walls, we have these in all the really hot countries like Italy, Spain, southern France etc and I can confirm they stay cool inside even when it’s 40°c outside.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Or you live in Minnesota, where half the year it used to be unbearably cold so you needed central heat. Then half the year it was so goddamn humid and hot we needed central AC, or at least a window unit.

        We do get the benefit of having homes with a basement implied to protect both the pipes from freezing and our necks from tornadoes in December now

        • elephantium@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I live in Minnesota. It’s not quite as bad as you say. Opening windows overnight and closing them in the morning works pretty well to keep the house comfortable for most of the summer…well, except when we’re inundated with smoke from the wildfires.

    • pascal@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      The amount of energy wasted in America for all the houses with AC they have, could have propelled an entire society to Mars.