As Europe grapples with a scorching summer and skyrocketing energy prices, Spain has become the latest government to tell its citizens to turn down the AC.
A decree published on Tuesday morning in the official state gazette and scheduled to go into effect next week mandates that air conditioning in public places be set at or above 27 degrees Celsius (about 80 degrees Fahrenheit) and that doors of those buildings remain closed to save energy.
Those public places include offices, shops, bars, theaters, airports, and train stations. The decree is being extended as a recommendation to all Spanish households. The rules include maintaining heating at or below 19 degrees Celsius (about 66 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter and will remain in place at least through November 2023.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has stated publicly that the country urgently needs to save energy, even encouraging office workers to remove their ties to help stay cool without artificial assistance. “I’ve asked ministers and public and private sector bosses not to wear ties unless it’s necessary,” he said at a press conference last week.
Lighthearted suggestions aside, European countries are scrambling to untangle twin problems; scorching heat that’s driving up energy demand and political conflict that’s complicating energy supplies. Nations, including Spain, are facing increasing pressure not to rely on gas supplied by Russia amid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
According to a report in The Guardian, Greece and Italy announced measures last month to similarly restrict energy use when cooling public buildings, also requiring air conditioning to be set to 27 degrees Celsius or higher.
France has ordered public premises to set thermostats higher in the summer and lower in the winter and will fine air-conditioned businesses €750 if they leave their doors open. The city of Hanover, Germany, has banned the use of mobile air conditioning units and fan heaters everywhere other than in hospitals and schools.
But not everyone is on board with these new measures. The Madrid region president Isabel Díaz Ayuso tweeted, “Madrid isn’t going to switch off. This generates insecurity and scares away tourism and consumption.”
In Europe, where some countries enjoy a climate that has traditionally been milder than much of the US, fewer than 10 percent of households have air conditioning, compared to over 90 percent of American households. But as heatwaves increase in frequency, the International Energy Agency predicts Europe will almost triple its air conditioning stock to 275 million units by 2050.
Yes but with capitalism, you have the 90% of society making cuts to their quality of life, and that's by far the majority, just don't think of the rest.
our lords will soak up whatever we dont consume tho. they'll just get 3 more jets and fly them empty, non-stop.
Who let my wife enforce her aircon policy on an entire country?
- :grillman:
Let's go to war with our energy supplier while every year has been hotter than the previous one
Russia isn't Spain's (or Portugal's) main energy supplier. This has very little to do with the war and a lot to do with climate change.
No good then, that's unfortunate because it's just going to get worse
Honestly if they weren't so restrictive this would be a good policy. AC below 72 should be illegal everywhere tbh.
AC below 72 should be illegal everywhere tbh.
As should use of farenheit.
I will bookmark this comment and use it in future discussions about the necessity of post-revolution reeducation.
The measurements discussion or the reeducation discussion?
Ahh shit, it's both isn't it?
over 95% of the world population uses the metric system.
Americans:
Farenheit is a far better temperature scale than Celsius tbh
most of the world also uses capitalism. "most of the world does X" is never a good argument.
no one is saying ALL imperial measurements make sense. just Fahrenheit for temperature. because it does. In Fahrenheit, you can convey useful information with just one digit ("it's in the 50s today"), and very useful information with two. Celsius requires 2 digits in almost all cases, and sometimes requires 3 (e.g. 27.4). having an outdoor temperature scale from -2-4 (instead of 0-10) just to own the US is silly.
"most of the world does X” is never a good argument.
When the topic is standardization this is literally the strongest argument.
xkcd: don't invent new standards as an attempt to resolve competition between existing ones
metric: centuries old and fait accompli as the universally used system
it is. "how hot is it outside on a scale from 1-10?" is a good way to do temperature.
"how fast are the water molecules moving on a scale from 0-10?" is decidedly less useful for the average person in an average situation.
Celsius doesn't even have the distinction of being an SI unit, it's equally arbitrary but people don't want to hear that ig.
love to sweat and get dehydrated with the AC on
welcome to the cool zone babes(tm)
:big-cool:
Tbh I run my AC at 80 almost all the time.
Of course, I'm very skinny and it's just barely enough to tolerate for me (and not good enough right after being outside).
i spend all 9-12 hours a day in a 49F cooler with occasional forays into 0F. been doing it for so long my body's internal thermostat is fucked i can't imagine keeping my AC so high. at least i balance it out in the winter with my heater set really low.
When would wearing a tie ever be necessary?! It's just fucking dress up!
We should all be in loose flowing robes, or split skirts if we need to actually do physical activity
Love 2 have to stop taking my meds that make me a functional member of society because of some fucking oil ghouls who warm the planet up to death temperatires
Degrowth is wildly overrated compared to centralized organization and actual environmental policy.
Hmm, well I think speaking just in terms of electricity is kind of narrowing the question against you, though I guess it makes sense in context. Anyway, with the consolidation of industry where currently we have the redundancy of many competing companies, and also eliminating incidental costs like the energy used to operate branches and businesses that advertise for those companies, I'm pretty optimistic.
I'd probably frame things more broadly in terms of fuel consumption (since most electricity comes from fossil fuels anyway), and there are massive ways to fix that. The obvious one is public transit over cars, making cities more walkable and so on. There's also -- and I think this is critical for people with Malthusian anxieties -- the fact that there are already farming methods invented that are wildly more efficient, can be applied to many crops, and currently just aren't used. What stands out to me is vertical farming, with which plants many staple fruits and vegetables can be grown year round in most climates with somewhat less energy waste and an incredibly reduced amount of water wasted. Being able to grow them more locally also reduces fuel use from shipping.
Anyway, maybe I'm just some asshole who doesn't know what he's talking about, but whenever I see people talk about "degrowth", it always feels like they are taking certain vestiges of neoliberal society for granted that are absolutely not necessary.
I remember seeing a presentation about the energetics of vertical farming, and it used more energy than regular farming, but less water
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Yes.
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If we didn't have to suck off the rich all the time, we could build better houses that simply don't need as much energy to be comfortable, use renewable energy, and then we could all have the living standards of a well-off American with a fraction of the environmental degradation.
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nuclear + mix of other renewables + hopefully magic battery tech
I learned to keep really still to stay cool like I’m a guy in a kung fu flick channeling his chi.
I keep my place between 75-77 but when it’s 95+ outside the AC runs constantly. I know a guy who keeps his whole house at like 68. That just makes me angry.
Good tbh, 26 c is ideal temperature, 30 is fine with dry air. Coming from 35 into 22 room is shocking (and bad for health according to grandma, so 100 percent truth :soviet-huff: )
Any temperature higher than 40 Fareinheit (4.44repeating C) makes me a giant dickhead so essentially 95% of the time I am overheated, I love being alive, I fucking love living, I fuxking
EU Capitalists when the US fucks them over again:
:shocked-pikachu:
the EU is going to get fucking BAD over the winter
the EU is going to get fucking BAD over the winter
"Only turn on the heating when at least two of your fingertips are blue to own Putin."
If you're using the space heater alone... you're using the space heater with hitler!
But not everyone is on board with these new measures. The Madrid region president Isabel Díaz Ayuso tweeted, “Madrid isn’t going to switch off. This generates insecurity and scares away tourism and consumption.”
smdh
Different places have different climates? 80 F is fine so long as it's not muggy, even if I prefer it much cooler
how?
I have a wall AC and it really doesn't get the room air to below 75 F
