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‘Do not buy these flats’: residents warn about unbearable heat inside London new-builds (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/london@feddit.uk
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[–] 20 points 1 year ago (11 children)

We should no longer allow any residential tower block to be built in this country without modern air conditioning.

The token ventilation fan they've been installing in flats with sealed windows was woefully insufficient 10 years ago, let alone now. Even the ones that do let you crack the window generally only do so on one side, so there's no through draft occurring

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    Air conditioning is terrible for the planet and increases temperature in the local area

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    We need much more medium and high density housing, exclusively low density is unsustainable.

    That housing needs to be habitable, part of that is keeping it between 15 & 25 degrees indoors.

    Unfortunately once average temperatures exceed 25, there is no way to make this happen without moving the hot air back out of the building, via a heat pump (which is what AC is).

    Energy wise, it can be powered by solar quite effectively as typically solar output scales somewhat linearly with air conditioning demand. Also, particularly in this country, a heat pump would also replace the gas or electric boiler used in winter, which with panels would be dramatically better for the environment.

    The heating-the-local-area-thing only really applies in a meaningful way to industrial air conditioning where there's a lot of equipment inside the building creating heat. In most residential situations you're effectively just stopping new heat from coming in.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Along side this, I can't believe that collectively we don't heat buildings. What's the point of 100 apartments each maintaining an inefficient little boiler rather than a single big efficient boiler for the whole building (or maybe 2 so that there's then contingency)

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    And give the ability to collectively bargain on energy prices, boiler insurance, and repairs?

    Not a chance! There's too much money to be made making sure everybody is isolated and alone.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I have some buddies in a Discord server that always bring up AC whenever we say there is an unusual (the new norm) heatwave in Europe.

    Get an AC they say.

    OK, cool... but also contribute to the planet heating up?

    I'd rather suffer the heat for a few weeks out of the entire year.

    Currently 29.5C in my flat.

    I keep the windows and blinds/curtains closed on the side of the flat that is currently receiving sunlight to try and limit the heating coming in. A lot of people say keep all windows and curtains closed... but at some point it is hotter inside than outside, so why not get some fresh air in on the cooler side of the building.

    I'd rather have warm circulating air than warm still air.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    Firstly, this is about tower blocks that cannot get adequate ventilation. Also, we get 80-90% of our country's electricity from renewables on days like this, so with panels on the building too, it really shouldn't cause any additional carbon to be released.

    Secondly, look up "wet bulb temperature" and what that means in terms of your body's thermal regulation. There's a point where your body is no longer able to cool off, and this is when hyperthermia happens and then, pretty rapidly, death.

    "Just suffer the heat" is increasingly dangerous advice with the trajectory we're on, particularly with these buildings. They're going to be the first places people start dying

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Maybe we should use heat pumps instead?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    AC and Heat Pumps are the same thing. They both operate by compressing a gas to raise its temperature, condensing it into a liquid to expel its heat, then re-expanding it (in a different location) to absorb heat.

    The difference is one of nomenclature, not functionality.

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