r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Jun 26 '26

Society The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6
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u/goodsnpr Jun 26 '26

Modern heat pumps are silly efficient. I'm replacing our aged & neglected radiators with Mitsubishi units, because the price of natural gas has gone up so much it's not worth the repairs, doubly so once we get solar installed. Knowing my luck, we'll get solar installed and they'll announce feasible fusion power.

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u/TheDungeonCrawler Jun 26 '26

Install that Solar Panel, I want fusion reactors yesterday lol.

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u/MechanicalTurkish Jun 26 '26

Yeah, take one for the team, pls

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u/MarkNutt25 Jun 26 '26

We're just barely starting to see the first lab facilities reach scientific breakeven, but we're still probably at least a decade away from having a fusion reactor reach engineering breakeven. Probably at least another 5+ years after that to come up with a feasible power plant design. Then construction of the first generation fusion power plants will probably take at least another 10 years...

I think you're probably safe to go ahead and get that solar!

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u/Qwertycube10 Jun 26 '26

There are also serious technical challenges about maintenance given fusion reactors' tendency to transmute elements in their immediate vacinity.

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u/Big_P4U Jun 27 '26

Transmute you say?! Do you mean that if I had my own nuclear fusion device...I could be nuclear Jesus and transmute lead into gold? And wine into whiskey?

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u/millijuna Jun 26 '26

They’ve been saying that same thing for 40 years now. I’ll believe it when I see it.

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u/kindlypogmothoin Jun 27 '26

Even crappy old heat pumps work astonishingly well! But the new ones beat the tar off them and use just a fraction of the electricity.

The crappy old heat pumps, like the one I had in Virginia, were really good at cooling but not really very good at heating. So you never saw them up North. But now the new units are so good at both that a lot of people up North are installing mini-splits with a furnace as a backup for the super-cold days. And the energy consumption is kind of like going from incandescents to LEDs.

These would be perfect for Europe's needs, especially since they don't require ductwork or window installation. But well...

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u/uk2us2nz Jun 29 '26

Erm, we’re talking about cooling, not heating. Heat pumps are very efficient heaters, but refrigeration is always expensive.

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u/goodsnpr Jun 29 '26

Bro, what?