As the West swelters amid severe heatwaves, several media reports have lately been debating the use of air-conditioners (ACs) which was once not really a necessary item to be added in a household, especially in Europe. India, meanwhile, “is quickly adding AC units” with an additional “some 50m between 2019 and 2024, or half of the total for Europe. The India Energy and Climate Centre (IECC) at the University of California in Berkeley, expects the country to add another 130m-150m units over the coming decade.
The “mob” was desperate shoppers, trying to buy the last portable AC unit. In a similar outlet across town, two men came to blows for apparently the same reason. The Scienceinsights website explains that fewer European houses have air-conditioning than the United States because of historically mild summers, older building designs, high electricity costs, and environmental concerns. Europeans also feel heat more intensely than South Asians because their infrastructure, bodies, and daily routines are not adapted to extreme heat, and factors like longer summer days, humidity, and building design amplify discomfort.
Thus, the number of AC units in Europe has more than doubled since 1990, as the need for cooling buildings quadrupled, particularly in the north of the continent, said a report in Euronews three years ago. Additionally, many European homes were built before AC existed, with thick stone or brick walls providing natural cooling, while US homes, usually framed with wood, heated up quickly