Air Conditioning Myths & European Stereotypes

American misunderstandings about "Europe"...

It’s summer here in Europe.

And – surprise! – it’s hot.

I mean, I guess we’re supposed to be surprised by this.

Because the news has been working for years to sensationalize every weather event.

A warm day or a stiff breeze is now a life-threatening natural disaster.

It’s all part of the legacy media’s “monetization of inane clickbait” strategy, without which all information (we are told) would cease to exist.

So heat, in summer, is now something that deserves panicky 24/7 coverage.

In any case, I’m doing fine. It’s 31 degrees Celsius here in Barcelona. That’s 87 in Fahrenheit. And I’m sitting under the A/C at home, writing.

What’s up with Europeans and air conditioning?

The last few weeks there’s been a lot of discussion online about Europeans and their air conditioning – or, more accurately, their lack of air conditioning.

Incidentally, this is something I know a bit about.

Me, out in my homeland in the Arizona desert.

But first, I live in Barcelona, Spain – a hot place in Southern Europe – and I have issues with the huge generalizations that Americans tend to make.

Keeping in mind that I’m both European (Spanish by nationality) and American (by nationality and birth) I actually feel bad when my two home countries start fighting.

It’s like two sides to my identity are in conflict – and I don’t like it.

So… what’s up with Europeans and aircon?

Depends on what you mean by “Europe”

The main wrong assumption that Americans have about Europe that “Europe” is just one thing.

As if everyone from Lisbon to Moscow were living similar lives: “European” ones.

In fact, Europe is an undefined area, mostly consisting of several peninsulas jutting off the western part of Asia.

Scandinavian, Adriatic, Italian and Iberian: Europe is a “peninsula of peninsulas”, surrounded by islands both large and small.

Also, depending on what you’re counting, you’ll find that there are between 44 and 51 European countries.

Why the range?

Because if you count UN-recognized sovereign nations fully within Europe, you get 44. However, you get 51 if you also count “transcontinental” countries like Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Georgia, which are partially in Europe and partially in Asia.

(The European Union, these days, has 27 countries. That number varies as countries are added – or decide to leave, as the UK did about 10 years ago.)

Micro-states, massive generalizations

If 44 to 51 countries sounds like a lot, keep in mind that some of them are very small.

Six European countries are micro-states: Andorra (up on the Spanish - French border) Liechtenstein, San Marino, The Vatican, Monaco, and Malta.

The tiny nation of Luxembourg is bigger than all the microstates combined, so it’s considered to be a regular state. It’s also a part of the EU, along with Malta.

The rest of the micro-states are not EU members, but they tend to have special arrangements of some kind.

Anyway, there’s quite a bit of diversity in Europe: dozens of languages, countries, peoples who claim to be separate but who officially belong to one country or another.

All this to say, when Americans make sweeping statements such as “Europeans don’t have A/C at home because they’re a bunch of whiny tree-huggers”, they’re stereotyping hundreds of millions of people based on the expressed opinions of a few weirdos up in Germany.

But before we get to aircon and European stereotypes, a brief aside.

Because “Europe” isn’t even a continent

Like I said, Europe is a collection of peninsulas and islands hanging off one side of Asia.

You might call it a continent, but that in itself is debatable.

As I wrote on my blog a couple of years ago, Spanish people will tell you there are only 5 continents in the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and America.

The assumption that there’s an invisible line dividing Europe from Asia bothers me for several reasons – especially if you follow it up with the assertion that North and South America are obviously “all one continent” called America.

But these continents are better understood as cultural conventions. There’s not some objective criteria for what’s a continent and what’s not.

The “continent” of Europe currently has between 451 and 744 million people, depending on who you’re counting. That’s less than 10 percent of the world’s total population either way.

But it’s still a big place: that’s another reason why I take most blanket statements about “Europe” with a grain of salt.

Do the Spanish use air conditioning?

Yes and no. I’ve lived in all sorts of A/C situations here in Spain – first in Madrid and now in Barcelona.

There are flats with no A/C. Flats with broken A/C that the landlord refuses to fix.

Flats with A/C, but you have roommates who won’t use it because they’re terrified of getting a giant electric bill. Flats with A/C that works just fine.

The fact is, aircon is expensive to install. And a lot of Europeans (generalizing here) grew up with the idea that it would make you sick.

I used to have this conversation with one of my exes all the time: every time we’d get on a plane or a bus to head off on our summer vacation, she’d start complaining:

“Oh no, air conditioning! And I forgot to bring a scarf again… Well, I guess I’m going to be sick now!”

I always thought that was stupid. I grew up in Arizona. I know more about heat than any of these soft, weak Europeans. And nobody in Arizona thinks that aircon is going to make you sick.

Out there, it’s what’s saving you from heatstroke for several months a year.

Doing an unscientific looking-up-at-people’s-balconies study today, I’d say that more than half of the flats in my neighborhood have air conditioning.

Maybe as many as 75%. Although that probably varies by region in Spain. There are plenty of places up on the Atlantic coast (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, etc) where it doesn’t get too hot in summer. I doubt it’s prevalent there.

But here’s the main thing: a lot of people just can’t afford it.

Getting aircon installed in Barcelona

Three years ago my wife Morena and I bought a flat here in Barcelona. (This was after many years of renting, for both of us.)

The appliances, when we bought the place, were some sort of old-Spanish-lady minimalism. So, for example, the water heater had capacity for 10 liters – that’s less than two minutes of showering.

Also, there was no heating, and no air conditioning.

We replaced the water heater right away.

But we decided we could get through a year without A/C. We bought a little electric radiator for heat. It was a cold winter.

However, the down payment plus taxes to move into the flat was a lot of money, and we’d had to buy new furniture and kitchen appliances as well.

That summer without A/C was tough. I’d spend a couple of hours (10PM to midnight, let’s say) lying in a pool of sweat, trying to sleep. Then I’d wake up with the sun at 5AM, ready to drag myself through another day.

The next winter was milder. And in spring we talked to a couple of installers. They took a look at the wiring in our flat and said it would all need to be replaced.

Our building is from 1970, and the wiring was no longer up to spec. So we needed two days and a couple thousand euros in rewiring before we could install anything.

After that, the A/C and heating unit cost a couple thousand more, plus installation. Total: almost 6000€.

In a country where the most common salary is about 16,500€ a year, that’s mucho dinero. So I can see why people would prefer to suffer through a few months of heat before they drop 6K on a “luxury” like air conditioning.

Further A/C concerns in Spain and Europe

I occasionally read that aircon is illegal or strongly discouraged in some European cities. And that might be true.

As far as I can tell, air conditioning here in Barcelona is regulated by municipal ordinance. I would assume that there are as many laws about aircon as there are cities in Europe.

One thing I do know is that Barcelona has a large number of modernist buildings that are protected by special laws, which prevent people from altering the façade.

One of Morena’s coworkers lives in one, over in the Eixample neighborhood.

It’s a nice-looking building – but she can’t install A/C without running the tubes from a unit up on the roof, several stories above. City Hall wants to protect the aesthetic, and so putting in A/C is insanely expensive – and probably, in some cases, impossible.

Other cities with a historic vibe they want to protect have similar laws.

And (final note here) in most of Europe it’s just not that hot in summer. The British complain about a 95-degree day now and then, but the fact is that most of the year it’s hovering in the 50s or 60s. Speaking in Fahrenheit, of course.

Even here in hot southern Europe, it’s sweatshirt weather for 8 months a year. It makes more sense to prepare buildings for cold, rather than heat.

European Stereotypes, again

There are a few different kinds of European stereotypes you hear from Americans.

One is that Europeans are all a bunch of environmentalists, because out here, people “really care” about the planet.

Somewhere in Salamanca province, Spain.

Despite living in Spain for more than 20 years, I have no indication that this one’s true. At least not here.

Maybe people in the Nordics, or in Germany, care a bit more.

Or maybe they’re just following the herd – saying the polite thing – and also, their governments will fine them for not correctly sorting their recycling.

What is true is that my “small flat and public transport” lifestyle is probably more eco-friendly than what I’d have back in the USA.

High-brow European lifestyles?

Another stereotype is that Europeans are all high-brow, well-read, sophisticated gourmands, with opinions about the theatre (British spelling) and classical music.

That one’s also not true – although I guess a few people matching that description do exist, somewhere.

There are plenty of European who have gone to university and graduate school at European prices (you know, around 500€ a year) and who would love to think they’re better than Americans.

But in reality, they passed with a D average, and they’re just repeating a few slogans they’ve heard. Mostly, they don’t know any more about the US than the average American knows about Europe: basically nothing, in other words.

So when I hear that Europeans are a bunch of serious environmentalists who won’t install A/C on moral grounds, even when people are dying, I guess it’s maybe 10% true.

But mostly, it’s more complicated than that.

Yours,

Daniel AKA Mr Chorizo.

P.S. I guess the basic dynamic here is that people will gladly pretend that their lifestyle is a result of superior morals rather than something else. I was a vegetarian for a few years there, but I wouldn’t have told you it was because I couldn’t afford meat. Anyway, thanks for reading. And check out my blog for more European stereotypes, as well as an article about that persistent rumor of American ignorance. Enjoy!

P.P.S. Someone much smarter than me named Maarten Boudry wrote an article called “How Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths” in which he confirms my suspicion that moralizing about the evils of aircon is more popular in the wealthy northern European countries. So not in Spain. Because (as I keep saying) Europe is rather more diverse than Americans like to believe.