Air-Conditioning: Coming Soon to a German Near You

Well, it's shaping up to be a long, hot summer here in Germany, so I did what any self-respecting American would do: I bought an air-conditioner. And no, I'm not sheepishly admitting this, I am proudly acknowledging it! I haven't really needed an air-conditioner during the past several summers; really hot days were the exception to the rule. But long stretches of really hot days are most unpleasant here in Germany, for one simple reason: Germany is a woefully under-air-conditioned country. Just yesterday, dozens of schoolchildren had to be rushed to the hospital (g) after one of the the (notoriously underpowered) air-conditioning units in one of Germany's (otherwise-stellar) ICE trains crapped out, sending temperatures inside the sealed tubes to a hellish 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

I'll get to the reasons for Germany's reluctance to embrace climate control in a minute. First, let's acknowledge air conditioning for what it is: one of the greatest technological achievements of the twentieth century, as acknowledged by the National Academy of Engineering. Let's look at the benefits air-conditioning brings. First, as the graph above shows you (from this study (pdf)), your productivity and accuracy at intellectual tasks decreases once the temperature exceeds about 27 degrees. Thus, air-conditioning is a huge benefit for every single field of human endeavor, from banking to art restoration to musicology.

Widespread air-conditioning also has positive knock-on effects. In his classic article The End of the Long, Hot Summer, historian Raymond Arsenault documents how air-conditioning led to a vast improvement in living standards in the American South:

Climate control has not only brought new factories and businesses to the region. It has also brought improved working conditions, greater efficiency, and increased productivity. As numerous controlled studies have demonstrated, an air-conditioned workplace invariably means higher productivity and greater job satisfaction.

One of air conditioning's most telling effects has been its positive influence on southern economic growth. This economic growth has led in turn to a rising standard of living for many southern families. Real wages have increased substantially during the postwar era, and per capita income in the South has risen from 52 percent of the national average in 1930 to almost 90 percent today. Although this increased income has been unevenly distributed across the region -- Texas, Florida, and Virginia registered the biggest gains -- few areas have been left unaffected. Maldistribution of wealth remains a serious regional problem, but the proportion of southerners living in Tobacco Road-style poverty has declined significantly in recent decades. Thus, in an indirect way, air conditioning has helped to ameliorate one of the post-Civil War South's most distressing characteristics. The social and cultural implications of the decline in southern poverty are immense, because, as C. Vann Woodward noted in 1958, "Generations of scarcity and want constitute one of the distinctive historical experiences of the Southern people . . . . "

Further, air-conditioning has had positive health effects. Mosquito-borne diseases such as yellow fever and malaria became much easier to control once people had an comfortable alternative to open windows. Air-conditioning also improved health outcomes in hospitals:

In addition to making millions of hospital patients more comfortable, air conditioning has reduced fetal and infant mortality, prolonged the lives of thousands of patients suffering from heart disease and respiratory disorders, increased the reliability and sophistication of micro-surgery, facilitated the institutionalization of public health, and aided the production of modern drugs such as penicillin.

Look at the chart above: would you rather have a surgeon operating on your spine at 23 degrees Celsius or 33? Today, thanks to ingenious engineers, patients have this choice.

Now when I make these seemingly uncontroversial points, many Germans immediately bristle. For some reason, the very idea of air-conditioning often has a negative emotional valence for them. There's a vague sort of politically correct eco-Luddism that tells Germans air-conditioning is Suspect, and possibly downright Wrong. When I ask for specific arguments, they're often a bit hard-pressed to come up with any, probably because they've never met an apostle of air-conditioning before. Here are some of the anti-A/C arguments I've elicited, and my responses:

• We don't need it, because our country doesn't get really hot. Oh yes it does. Not for months at a time, thank God, but there are routinely 40-50 days per year in Germany which are not just warm, but uncomfortably hot.
• We don't need it, because our buildings have thick walls. That's fine for people who actually live in such buildings, but most people don't. Especially few are the people who work in buildings with thick walls. And once you get above the 2nd or 3rd floor of any modern building on a hot day, you will feel the need for air-conditioning.
• It's expensive and wasteful. That's by far the best counter-argument. Air-conditioning uses plenty of energy. Yet nobody is suggesting running the air-conditioner every time the temperature gets above 26 degrees. Whenever there's a breeze, my apartment is quite comfortable up to 27 degrees or so, and I will have no need for an air-conditioner. But on those occasional days where the mercury rises much higher, why not have the option? Merely having air-conditioning available doesn't mean you must overuse it, as so many people in India or the American South do. In any event, air conditioners don't use fossil fuels. Like electric cars, they're run by power from the electrical grid. The cleaner and greener that power gets, the less environmental damage air-conditioning will do.
• We've lived without it for the last 50/500/5,000 years, ergo we can live without it for the next 50/500/5,000 years. No, it's not a joke -- you will hear this argument from many a German.In fact, it epitomizes the German's attitude toward many aspects of social life. Of course, it pretty much refutes itself: after all, Germans lived without dental care, anesthetics, and football for millennia, yet today...you get the idea.
• Cold/circulating air is unhealthy. This hoary old wives' tale, it seems, will never die. Illnesses are caused by viruses and bacteria, not by cold air. The modern era's most severe pandemic spread most quickly during the summer. And don't forget that modern air-conditioning systems have filters, which means that air coming from a properly-maintained air conditioner is actually cleaner than it would otherwise be.
• Sweating is healthy. Being able to sweat is obviously healthy, but sweating is neither healthy nor unhealthy. It's the body's reaction to temperatures outside its comfort zone. Like shivering. Perhaps I'm just an oddball, but I find life most comfortable when I'm neither sweating nor shivering. And thanks to modern technology, that can be arranged!
• Air conditioning will interrupt Europe's natural life patterns, such as taking holidays in August. First of all, there's plenty not to like about these 'natural' patterns, such as mass deaths of abandoned seniors, gigantic traffic jams, and cram-packed beaches and airliners. Yet if you really fancy joining the lowing herds for the mandatory August trip, nothing's stopping you. Unless you spring for a really fancy unit, your air-conditioner will not emit secret mind-control rays forcing you to vegetate in front of it all summer long. You can just switch it off and hop in the bus!
• Air conditioning will turn is into overweight, car-dependent loners with no connection to nature, like Americans in the South. This is something to worry about. For all the benefits air-conditioning has conferred on the American South, there are huge drawbacks in the areas of community life, urban planning, energy use, and the like. Yet there are two counter-arguments. First, it's hard to trace all of these unpleasant aspects of life in the South only to air-conditioning. Television, poor urban design, and certain aspects of Southern culture also probably played a role. Second, it's important to realize that in most areas of the South, the outside is like a horrifyingly intense, humid sauna from April to October, and it doesn't cool down at night. The reason air-conditioning has changed the face of the south is that, earlier, the South's unique climate helped determined its culture and history. Once air-conditioning became possible in the south, it became mandatory. There are very few places in Europe that have a climate as oppressively hot, windless, and humid as the American South. Thus, the widespread introduction of air-conditioning is unlikely to have a massive cultural impact.
• Everyone in China and India will want air-conditioning, and that will mean a massive ecological crisis. This train has left the station: everyone in India and China already wants air-conditioning, just as they want cheap cars. Anyone who's visited India can testify that air-conditioners are one of the most powerful status symbols of striving middle-class families. Nothing like being able to get together at the end of a hot, frustrating day at the office and enjoy some cool air. I'm not denying that this is an environmental problem -- it most certainly is. But here's the interesting news: if you fail to buy an air-conditioner in Germany, not a single Indian will notice or care! They don't want air-conditioning because they've seen it on TV, or experienced it on a trip to Berlin (where it's depressingly rare anyway). They want it because, quite understandably, they hate sweating all the time. The increasing affluence of the Chinese and Indian middle classes will pose significant environmental problems, but declining to cool down with A/C for a couple of weeks per year in Germany will not help solve them.

In the next few years, air-conditioning is gradually going to become common all over Germany, just like deodorant, cable television, and even the newfangled intertubes all eventually came. Air conditioning units are getting quieter, cheaper, and more efficient all the time, and, to judge by conversations overheard in my local air-conditioned REWE supermarket yesterday, Germans who encounter (moderate, well-maintained) air-conditioning on hot days are deeply grateful. In fact, when I went to my local store to buy an A/C unit on sale for 50% off, it was completely sold out, and I had to back-order it. Change is coming, Germany, as usual from the United States, and as usual, over the snippy whining of your insular elites. Believe me -- you'll love it!

Comments

[Mike]

This summer our air conditioning broke. My mom wouldn't get it fixed. Needless to say it was tough but thankfully she finally craved and got it fixed. It's getting so hot around the world that your crazy not to have it.

[Guy Vaccaro]

The link to the study in the second paragraph is no longer valid. Can Andrew supply the full name of the study? Thank you.

[Austin O'Riley]

I can't follow your argument, Andrew. You're a victim of your US American bias, setting the wrong priorities.

- Even the hottest German summers don't see more than 10 hot days tops. What's "hot" for you? I don't call 25C hot. Please show me a statistic proving you theory of 40-50 hot days in Germany. If you feel so hot all the time, it must be obesity playing a trick on your body. Better use up the energy in your body, slim down, than waste energy (It might come as a surprise, Electricity is made out of Fossil fuels, even more so in post-nuclear Germany after 2020).

- German summers are very dry. Which makes temperatures around 30C actually feel a little cooler than they are. If Germany was as humid as Japan or parts of the US, you might have a point (but still I'd advise you lose weight first before burning fossils to cool your fat ass down).

- For those 10 hot days that Germany gets, the investment in an AC isn't worthwhile. Even more so as the nights of those few hot days are regularly 10C lower, and sleeping shouldn't be a problem for an able bodied person.

[Energy]

There's nothing arbitrary with making something cost closer to their real costs. The government picks up the tab and the people lose a lot of resources for the sake of fossil fuels. You think cities breathing in soot costs nothing? It's energy that's dug out of the ground that got trapped for various reasons, the idea that we deserve that energy is absurd. Or that it's artificial inflating the price to make the dirtiness of the energy reflect in the pricetag. If energy were to cost what it would need to cost to be sustainable, carbon would not be competitive.
(Tom desuiza) http://www.entouchcontrols.com/

[Gail Connick]

You have good points. But as years pass, there are disadvantages found in using air conditioners. But, let us also consider that EVERY invention has great benefits, too. I think it would be best if every household or establishments that rely on air conditioners would use appliances more responsibly to avoid problems. Like in our apartment, we have this Minneapolis HVAC services who checks up our system once a month. It is a fact that an appliance or machine with less maintenance has high energy consumption - new or old.

[Gail Connick]

You have good points. But as years pass, there are disadvantages found in using air conditioners. But, let us also consider that EVERY invention has great benefits, too. I think it would be best if every household or establishments that rely on air conditioners would use appliances more responsibly to avoid problems. Like in our apartment, we have this Minneapolis HVAC services who checks up our system once a month. It is a fact that an appliance or machine with less maintenance has high energy consumption - new or old.

[NYC Air Conditioning & Vent Cleaning]

The refreshing air that comes out of an air-conditioning system has an evil twin.

[HCM]

I also find the attitude in Germany quite amazing. Just the other day I was sitting in a train with no air-cond and it was probably 35 degrees C or more in the train. I opened the window and someone asked to have it shut because "es zieht."

Many even newly built buildings have windows that don't open are are not opened, and everyone just sits around in stifling still humidity.

Germans are terrified of fresh and/or cool air (and fresh fruit). Much more attractive to sit inside with the windows shut, eating bread, meat and cheese.

[Meke]

I'm admitting it now. As a German who moved to the United States three years ago I came with many of the stereotypes I'd been raised on in Germany. One of these stereotypes is about air conditioning and its evils.

I live in Colorado now and recently it has been very hot. My house here has air conditioning but the first year I didn't use it at all. Last summer I began to use it on the really hot days and now I'm a born-again apologist for the use of air conditioning.

Upon learning more about life in the States I see that many of my old ideas were simply wrong. American schools, at least in Colorado, could compete with the best from Germany. Colorado is the fittest state and I noticed immediately that there were fewer fat people than in the Frankfurt area.

I enjoy the fresh smoke-free air and the delicious food here but I still contend that American drivers are among the world's worst. I'm still German after all and as such still need an anti-American view of something to maintain my identity.

[Dyson sphere]

Regarding why only very few buildings in Germany are air-conditioned, my guess is that it has much less to do with attitude and much more with the fact that previous to Global Warming there really were only a handful of hellishly hot days in the year. Their number has increased in the last few years and now we are left behind in acquiring A/C. Personally I never met anyone who was ideologically against it. It was just too expensive a couple of years ago and as has been said, most houses are not easily upgraded to air-conditioning. Most people live in apartment buildings.

[Hepkat]

Apart from the car, air conditioning is most responsible for the disgrace that is the American urban environment, and suburban environment, and, for that matter, countryside. The double-wide would not be, but for the AC, nor 50 floor glass monstrosities arising from formerly fruited plains,nor Walmarts, nor two story sheetrock homes, that profusely sprout in denuded landscapes (such as Pearland, Texas, or as my brother calls it, Pearhenge) that rightly belong to the invertebrates. Socially, it has eliminated an incontestable excuse for lassitude and, concomitantly, allowed the bane of modern (and mediaeval and ancient) life, namely, the work-ethic, to pervade all times and space. That is, of course, the insidious message beneath your productivity graph.

Exactly like I said, air-conditioning is "bad" because it is perceived as an American phenomenon. Just as with any other anti-American themes, something is hated precisely because it is associated with America.

James Rytting, thanks for so elegantly proving my case.

[Harvey Morrell]

While you're at it, can you do something about getting screens put in most windows in Germany for those times air conditioners aren't needed? It would certainly cut down on the indoor fly population during the summer. :)

[James Rytting]

Apart from the car, air conditioning is most responsible for the disgrace that is the American urban environment, and suburban environment, and, for that matter, countryside. The double-wide would not be, but for the AC, nor 50 floor glass monstrosities arising from formerly fruited plains,nor Walmarts, nor two story sheetrock homes, that profusely sprout in denuded landscapes (such as Pearland, Texas, or as my brother calls it, Pearhenge) that rightly belong to the invertebrates. Socially, it has eliminated an incontestable excuse for lassitude and, concomitantly, allowed the bane of modern (and mediaeval and ancient) life, namely, the work-ethic, to pervade all times and space. That is, of course, the insidious message beneath your productivity graph.

[Hepkat]

Andrew, I think you might be on to something. Would there be this much resistance to air-conditioning if it were an Indian invention?

The root of such strong local resistance to air-conditioners seems to be the widespread perception of it being an American phenomenon. I'll leave the analysis of this to more capable minds.

[noribori]

Interested in numbers? David JC MacKay does a good job comparing the energy cost of cooling with the cost of other electrical devices:

"An economical way to get air-conditioning is an air-source heat pump. A window-mounted electric air-conditioning unit for a single room uses 0.6 kW of electricity and (by heat-exchanger) delivers 2.6 kW of cooling. To estimate how much energy someone might use in the UK, I assumed they might switch such an air-conditioning unit on for about 12 hours per day on 30 days of the year. On the days when it’s on, the air-conditioner uses 7.2 kWh. The average consumption over the whole year is 0.6 kWh/d."

On page 51 you find his table of energy costs of cooking, cleaning and cooling devices.

The costs are less than I expected and I was surprised to read that an air-conditioner can deliver 2.6 kW of cooling but uses only 0.6 kW of electricity – because it also uses the energy of the hot air by heat-exchanger (that's how I understand it).
Can't they invent devices which don't need additional energy at all?

[Andrew]

@Cohu: Actually, Cohu, I don't need to convince anybody -- the European adoption of air conditioning is well underway without my help. It's a slow process, but once started, it's irreversible.

Take the example of banning smoking in public places:

First, it was heartily mocked by Europeans as a ridiculous outgrowth of American puritanism. This phase lasted about 10 years or so.

Second, some Europeans actually began imagining that it might not be such a horrible idea, even though Americans came up with it.

Third, comes the backlash: We've been smoking indoors for the last 500 years, why stop now? This is the European argument from Blind Adherence to Tradition (BAT), which, as we all know, wields incredible power.

Fourth, as more and more people (especially celebrities and those in power) begin to embrace the idea, even the mighty BAT begins to crumble. Further, the fact that many Germans are now advocating the practice means it becomes to seem less like copying America, which is something Germans do all the time, but are extremely reluctant to seem to be doing all the time.

Fifth, BAT is finally overcome, and now smoking is banned indoors almost everywhere in Germany.

I'd say air-conditioning is now at about Stage Three. Four and Five are on their way, have no doubt about it. In about fifteen years, air-conditioning will probably be standard in many places in Germany.

[Hepkat]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I simply don't understand the widespread suspicion of and resistance to air-conditioning one finds here. It's really very simple, you don't have to turn the temperature so far low that you actually freeze. And, we have so many modern appliances that make life more comfortable, convenient and healthy, why not air-conditioning as well? No one thinks twice about flying across the Atlantic anymore or buying a new car - as convenient and practical as these technologies are, they still consume huge amounts of fossil fuel. The best we can do is try to make these things more efficient while coming up with alternative sources of energy. But in the meantime, it would be foolish to completely deprive ourselves of all modern conveniences and go back to living in the stone age!

Today it was well over 35 degrees in Vienna. The first thing everyone complained about today at the slightest opportunity was how unbearably hot and muggy it was. At work some people were complaining about circulation problems, lack of sleep, problems with blood pressure - it seems the heat is responsible for all manner of sicknesses in Vienna, both real and imagined. Yet these same people would rather complain all day than make a small investment that alleviates their suffering. I'll never understand this mentality!

While everyone was busy complaining, I went home to a nicely cooled (at 26 degrees) and comfortably humidity-free apartment. Even the cat loves it! Yes, I have to pay something like 30 Euros more this summer for electricity, but it's just one of those things you do for your health and sanity. I have less stress (which is a BIG plus!), am more relaxed after work and sleep like a baby at night (another BIG plus!). Why should I deprive myself of all these health benefits because of fear and unfounded superstition?

And on a very timely note, here's an article on air-conditioners from the latest issue of Time magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2003081,00.html

[cohu]

OK Andrew, I just got spent an afternoon in the Trambahn (which did have an A/C - turned off! Gnnnnah!) and a store that was about 40°C. Which they tried to remedy by using countless floor fans. It felt like being stuck in a hairdrier. I will admit now that 1) I need a shower and 2) of course you're completely right. I just had this strong irrational urge to defend our sweaty, backwards, unproductive European way of life.
I guess this is the perfect occasion for you to reeducate all those inveterate Old Europeans you know: invite them to your shady, AC-cooled home one of these days, show them some American Football on your American-sized TV (no infuriating referee errors, remember!) and people will agree that this is the way it has to be. (Just don't offer them American beer, that could backfire...)

[CN Heidelberg]

Your Rewe is nice and cold? I think there is something wrong at ours...it's wicked hot in sections. All the chocolate is melty.

[stella]

In the US, you shiver in cold rooms, when the temperature is comfortable, around 27° outside. Horrible! I asked around why they do this, and the answer was that overweighted persons prefer it a bit cool. Well, since obesity is also coming to Europe (as usual from the United States, as you put it) most Europeans will buy AC and it will be a pest, as it is now in the US.
Public places are air-conditioned (for instances trains and buses), but luckily, you still can live without these regular assaults of coldness that you are confronted with in India, US, China, India and other hot countries when you go to a restaurant and to the theatre.
I really hope the better quality of life that we have in Europe will remain for a while.

[Andrew]

@Tom D: -- My point exactly. Air conditioners aren't 'uniquely' environmentally bad anymore, since CFC's have been phased out. They're simply high-drain appliances like any others.

@Cohu: Of course, nobody defends ultra-freezing AC, which is wasteful and unpleasant. And it wouldn't be advisable to use AC when it's 27 degrees out, because that's pretty pleasant. But these are all straw men. I'm not arguing that it's a good thing to run AC all the time even when the temperature is mild; I'm arguing that it's senseless to deprive yourself of the possibility of bringing comfort to yourself on the days when it's 33 degrees, not 27. The difference between 27 and 33 degrees is like night and day -- especially indoors, without a natural breeze.

As to a performance drop-off during non-working hours, the solution is simple: air-condition your home as well! This, of course, shouldn't mean that you never go outside to enjoy the warm weather. Instead, you spend an appropriate amount of time outside, then come in to enjoy the relief of cool air. Kind of like a ski chalet in reverse. Unless you're advocating, after a hard day on the slopes, returning to an unheated ski chalet to shiver in the dark while drinking frigid tap water...

[Tom D]

"air conditioners don't use fossil fuels. Like electric cars, they're run by power from the electrical grid."

Where does this power come from? In the US it comes mainly from Coal, a fossil fuel. In Germany nearly 50% of electricity is produced by coal fired power plants. Nuclear power nearly 30%.

[cohu]

Your analysis is short-sighted. Air-conditioned offices may make you more productive during work hours, but at what price! Your body gets used to cold air and is useless without it. Once you leave your office, the hot air will hit you like a brick wall, even if it cools off to, say, 27-28 degrees in the evenings. This will lead to a performance decline during non-office hours! This is not acceptable to Europeans. Our bodies have to adapt to summer temperatures, so we can spend our afternoons walking around in our pretty, safe city centers, visit the abundance of public swimming pools available in our countries (many of us "oben ohne"), and of course violently protesting our cruel governments who want us to work past the age of 60.

(Can we make a deal? Germany will get air conditioning once the US East Coast learns how to deal with 50cm of snow...just get some snowplows, guys!)

[simon]

I believe the reason most germans dislike air conditioning is that
a) they are relatively rare, and
b) the places where you *do* notice them they are running way too cold

Most will undoubtedly recall sitting in a cafe or someplace with aircon, shivering in their summer clothing while it's nice and warm outside.

[Cuneiform]

One disadvantage of air conditioning is missing: The units are ugly. Maybe not the portable units for indoor use. But the units mounted to the outside of the houses as is common in the United States are making the facades ugly.

[noribori]

Five points for bashing nonsensical, yet thoughtful arguments. Zero points for ignoring the technical details. AFAIK (from many movies) the houses in America are downright built around air-conditioning: you pull up the horizontal shaped lower window frame, place your air-conditioning box in the middle of the window sill and pull the window frame back as far as possible to keep the hot air out.
It's only too bad the window frames in Germany are always vertical shaped – there goes air-conditioning.

Sometimes Germans invent houses built around air-conditioning, too. They call it Erdwaermetauscher (g).

[Lars]

Chapeau!

[Hepkat]

What a great article! I've been having the same discussion with people here in Vienna for years.

When I first came here, I was more than a bit surprised that almost no building in Austria was air-conditioned, not one single bus, no train, no offices, etc. Like living in the stone-age, I thought.

As many people have doubtless realized however, the summers here are getting hotter and hotter and so one of the first investments I made when I had saved up enough money was to buy an air-conditioner. I've yet to regret it since!

I remember one particularly savage summer a few years ago when the temperature would routinely climb to 35-38 degrees. I was sitting there at work, literally stewing in my own juices, when I noticed that all the doors and all the windows were closed. My immediate reaction of course was to open the door and a few windows in the hopes of attracting a pleasant breeze when all of sudden I heard a loud cry coming from the other people in the room. What's wrong, I asked. "Es zieht, es zieht!" Yes, I know, I said proudly, "es ist angenehm, oder?" Nein, nein, close the windows, close the door, es zieht!

What?!? It's 38 degrees outside and we're sitting in here like chickens roasting in the oven and you want me to close the windows? Aber es zieht! Sorry, I'm making an executive decision - the doors and windows will remain open. And would you believe it, the next day one or two people did actually call in sick, some severe "neck flu" or something of that wierd nature.

But you've managed to hit the nail on the head Andrew, I have to constantly explain to people that colds are caused by viruses and not by air-conditioners. On a more optimistic note, I recently upgraded to a "split-unit" at home and the technician informed me that since the past few years, all of their top models have been selling like hotcakes and there's not a free appointment to be had. I guess that means Austrians are finally getting over their fear of air-conditioners, thank god! Now if they'd only start installing them in buses, trains and other public spaces...