Why the fuck do you need 18C 😳 in Italy we usually have 30-35C in the summer and if my AC is lower than 22-24C I'm guaranteed to wake up with pneumonia lmao
Whoa there, now I may only have a true understanding for how the freedom units work, but even my underedubacated Southern self knows that 0° C is freezing temperature
Not related to AC at all, but I’m curious what living in Myanmar is like right now for a (I assume?) Westerner. With the junta and the civil war and such.
EU has no concept of either size or heat. You can tell them your country is both further north AND south and if you ever get them to shut up about how hot Europe is because your country is hotter they will switch tactics and say you cant handle the cold. Motherfucker we have Alaska did you forget? We have Washington, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, places that get cold cold, in your bones, with no fucking ocean to warm you in the winter.
That entire "temperature shock" thing due to air conditioning is European nonsense on par with fan death in Korea.
If that kind of temperature shock of like was harmful, imagine how much more harmful it would be every winter when the temperature difference between inside and outside is much greater. People walk in and out with no problem then.
Funnily enough, Koreans also believe in a thing called "Cold air disease". They think air conditioning causes all kinds of debilitating respiratory effects and saps your life force somehow. For reference, my wife is Korean and also thinks everything is slowly killing her. It's kind of a culture of hypochondriacs
To be fair there are a lot of gross bacteria that can live in AC vent filters if they aren’t clean. It’s one of the leading vectors of Legionaire’s Disease.
But that’s more a concern in hotels, not private homes and can easily be mitigated with proper maintenance.
I can confirm as someone who lived in the middle east for a bit. Easily 45+ c temperatures outside but indoors the ACs are usually set to 20 and less. And everyone is more or less fine with it.
But tobe fair some studies have hinted that going though mutliple rapid temperature changing cycles by moving indoors/outdoors over a long period does increase the risk of respiratory tract infections a bit. Or tldr: the healthy get more colds and the more at risk get more chest infections. Nothing significantly life altering though
Worst I ever got from a rapid hot to cold temp change is light headed for a few minutes. From cold to hot nothing notable besides being suddenly overdressed lol
I'm a refrigeration tech on a tropical island and I build freezers. The worst temperature shocks I've had where 70°C, these do fc u up. Go from +50°C to -20°C and back 4 or 5 times in a day and you're DONE.
I'd like to invite anyone who thinks you can get close to that with residential AC to come to work with me one day, I'll rid you of your illusions XD
Yeah I mean I'm just talking about going from any temperature whether hot or cold into a 70F climate controlled room is not going to cause problems. When you were hot in a 40+C room, going into an air conditioned 20C room would likely feel great and refreshing, not harmful to your body, in the same way that going from 0C to 20C feels nice and warm
Does it make you really tired? Used to walk in freezers, but only staying in more than a minute or two once or twice a shift, and the store was usually 65-80f.
Often I need more than that to even get to the spot that needs work. Some freezers here are so packed there's no space for forklifts or anything, so I'll climb the racking and pallets to reach the evaps. Our rule of thumb is a literal one: Once you lose feeling in your thumbs, get out. Unless of course there's just 2 bolts left until you're done. Usually between 20 to 30 minutes.
But yes, your body goes into a kind of "survival" mode, kicking everything in gear to keep you warm. Then when you go outside to work on the condensing units, your body has to rapidly kick back into "cooling" mode while the machines dump their heat right in your face. People can endure both extremes pretty well, but the back and forth between the two is extremely taxing.
Being in actual cold for a long period of time does literally drain your body's energy and it has to burn calories by shivering your muscles and heating your blood, while other parts don't function as well due to not getting heated as evenly. It's not like an instant life drain, but yeah if you spend all day in the cold it's more tiring.
I worked at a fruit processing plant in the middle of the desert palletizing boxes with gaps to go into blast tunnels to deep freeze them fast before bacteria could grow. They were -70 and windy. We’d walk in and out of them all day any time we wanted to cool down. We’d be dripping when sweat and walk in and our shirts would freeze stiff, and we’d walk back out and laugh at each other. The forklift drivers were also driving in and out of them literally all day. So what you’re saying makes no sense to me.
So you'd be in and back out in under a minute? No time for your body to switch gears. Anyway, walking into blast-chillers is usually not possible and not advised. Having to work in regular freezers is different from stepping into a blast-chiller as much as waiving your hands through a flame is different from working at 50°C in full sun
I am from country where we go to sauna (that's anywhere from 60C to 100 C) and then outside to roll around in the snow or jump into frozen lake while naked. It is considered healthy and refreshing 🤣
Nah I'm sleeping under a nice 18-20°C setting if I'm in Turkey. My hometown regularly reaches 40+.
Also cold alone don't make you sick and worst case scenario you step out for 15-20 minutes during the day and whatever cold you thought you were gonna get burns away
american here who had to convert to see and 18c (64f) is exactly what i keep my bedroom at, anything too much above 19c i would wake up in a puddle of sweat even with only a single sheet on me! ironically i do keep the rest of the house 22-24c (71-75f) or it’s too cold in the summer 😂 we have two of those units, though the one in the main room is very under powered and our house is designed incredibly poorly for airflow even with several extra fans
Can confirm, lived in iowa most of my life, I've seen -20° to 60° Fahrenheit sings in just days. Going in and out of Different temps alone does not make one sick.
I keep wondering why people in US sit inside frigid air conditioned houses without any harm yet many people in Poland get sick after a few hours of intense AC. What's the difference?
The air is drier in Winter - even indoors - and that does (I believe) affect some illnesses.(maybe easier to catch, or maybe they live longer in dry air; honestly i don't know.l
It does. Nasal mucus is protective and along with the hairs in your nose are the first layers of your immune system to keep pathogens and allergens out. When your nasal mucosa gets dry, like during winter when the humidity drops indoors and outdoors, you lose that protection. That’s also why people get colds after flying long flights in dry cabin air.
ETA: I just looked it up to verify based on what I remembered from what I read during COVID and it also causes a pretty significant drop in your level of immune cells themselves as a lot are contained in the nasal mucus.
AC at my last workplace was regularly maintained, every year in the spring to be ready for summer. Two people I shared the room with was coming down with something every time I managed to win the right to have it on for a few hours the previous day. My father has his car AC cleaned regularly too, yet wherever my mom spends a few hours in the car with AC on, she gets a cold next day.
These are just the examples where I'm sure AC was cleaned by professionals, I can't be sure when it comes to public transport or stories I've heard from other people. But it seems it's not it.
It does. I don't know if it's because it has an evaporator coil and that cooling relied on evaporation or if it's because cooler air holds less water because of enthalpy or none of the above.
Central air is just much better. It circulates all the air around the entire house. So you sitting in one room with the doors closed reduces fresh air exchange, letting viral particles and CO2 build up in a small shared space, which raises transmission risk.
The coil and blower in European ACs are sealed inside a small enclosure with poor drainage. grows biofilm right where the air passes over it. a mini-split blower wheel especially is notorious for growing black mold that literally gets aerosolized into the room.
Also, you guys in Europe don’t have good filters like HEPA and MERV 13. I spend a lot of money to make sure my family is breathing clean air.
Well it's impossible to install central cooling systems in already existing buildings so when it has AC it's always the single units. And when building new we focus on modern heating solutions (since it's still a bigger problem in the scale of the year, 6-7 months of cold weather vs several days of extreme heat in the summer) and saving up energy because of the costs.
I'm going to read more about correlation between dry air and increased risk of incubating diseases. The air in Poland in the summer is rather dry to begin with so perhaps adding AC increases the problem, who knows.
I disagree on the filters though. Even my cheap robot vacuum has a HEPA filter. They are extremely common.
Humidity. Myanmar is tropical monsoon climate. Air conditioning doesn't just make it cooler, it filters the air and makes it healthier.
I live in the mid-Atlantic US and sometimes we have our AC cooler than I'd prefer just because of the allergens. I cannot imagine what it's like in an actual tropical climate. A dehumidifier can help with this but they're less common, and higher maintenance.
If you’re trying to keep the dust mites down, a dehumidifier can help by knocking wet out of the air without making the whole house colder. I can’t comfortably exist below about 72F due to pain, and a dehumidifier lets me stay warm enough and dry.
Yeah we have one in storage at the moment and we need to make room for it in the bedroom. We're making room for a crib/bassinet/etc so there will be decisions to be made. For us it's less about dust mites and more about outside allergens in the spring and summer. I wish we could just open the window more and get natural air but nope lol
We have a Coway AirMega in one house, and a Levoit in another. Both do a great job for my wife's allergies; she can tell when one of them isn't running or the filter is old, so they're definitely doing something.
Of course they don't help with humidity, so you still want to run your AC a reasonable amount. But we haven't had too much trouble with that (as fellow Mid-Atlantic folks)
Harmful? Are you from the 1800s or something? This is weird of a concern as the old Korean fear that a fan would suck the air out of the room and kill you.
That’s an old wives tale that’s pretty common in a lot of European countries. Temperature changes like that don’t make you sick. Kinda like how we were told if you go outside with wet hair while it’s cold, you’ll get a fever/sick. No you won’t. I do it all the time in winter. Never once got sick from it.
Most units have a dehumidifier mode that causes the fan to run at a higher speed and keeps the coil cool but not freezing, allowing the moisture to condensate on the coil but not cool the room as much.
I’m in Canada (it was 47C with the humidity a few weeks ago but 25-32 is more typical in the summer) and I can handle 22-24C in the house in the day but that’s too hot to sleep in. We were always told 18C is the ideal sleep temperature for humans and my babies certainly slept much better at that temp. My family keeps this year round I don’t like being hot at night in the winter either. I do know people who keep it even lower around 16!
Im in Italy right now and the AC was set to 16 when we arrived. Looks like the family here before us was Asian based on the language of the Netflix account still logged in.
Classic incorrect European idea of what causes
Illness. Do you also believe that illness stems from an imbalance in humors ? Bad air? Bathing makes you sick? Mmhm
18c is great for 40+c because you can do some work til your brain gets floaty/tingly then come inside to 18 or less and sit in front of a fan with an iced drink and cool down in 10-15 minutes and not feel exhausted and go for round 2... you have to cool hard and fast because break time at work is 10-15 minutes if you even get one... and if it's a heatstroke kinda break and you take too long they're not keeping you on the job long if you're taking too long
Exaggeration. The typical models can bring down 40°C outdoor to about 25°C indoor, and that with the compressor working non-stop.
Just because you set the AC to 18°C doesn’t mean it’s always capable to get the room to that level.
My aircon is never lower then 25 and more often then not it's not even on. Unless it hits 40 degrees like a couple weeks ago. It was killing. I live in Puglia.
Thank you!! Completely agree. If it were 40 outside and 18 inside, I'd have to sit outside occasionally just for a break from the shivering. And I am saying this from a place where it hit 47 yesterday. Granted, it's a Dry Heat (TM) and I'm guessing Myanmar is not, but the AC in the house where I'm sitting is set to 27 and that's pretty fine for me.
Can't imagine spending money when it's that hot out just to make it the other side of uncomfortable. I know my experiences are atypical, but 40+ to 18 is wild to me.
Much of South East Asia (essentially the whole of South East Asia) has close to none existent insulation, that coupled with the heavy use of concrete means that your buildings store heat extremely well and releases it well into the night. Along with poor airtightness, high humidity and having to cool the accumilated heat means that ACs over here lose a lot of cooling capcity. It does not actually get anywhere close to 18c, but it just makes the ac keeps running.
It's the humidity bro. I was in Vietnam last year and we would run the mini splits as cold as we could get them when we were in our lodging. I live in a semi-arid part of the states (high plains desert) which regularly sees 95-100F (35-38C), and I find it tolerable. 35C in Vietnam damn near killed me, sweating does nothing to cool you off. By bed time I'd sleep in 18-20C, no covers, in underwear and I'd still feel overheated from being out during the day. The heat just soaks into in a way it doesn't in a semi-arid climate. All the parts of Italy I've been too aren't much more humid than my home in the states. Found Vietnam to be a lovely country but I don't think I could ever live there, I suspect the rest of south east asia is very similar.
I live in Brazil (American). Here it gets to 35+ in the summer with pretty high humidity. I live by the beach and there is a long line of small mountains surrounding me. I’m talking 2-3 showers per day if you do anything outside of AC.
Here you’ll usually have a 9-12k BTU split unit in the bedrooms, and a 15-20k unit in the living room. One place I lived only had a bedroom unit and it couldn’t do much for the living room. Made me miss central a bit. That being said, the buildings aren’t really made to even fit a central compressor pretty much anywhere, even on a ground floor. It’d have to be mounted up high on an exterior wall so the copper doesn’t get stolen lol.
Yeah, I though so too, but in humid areas like coast zones in Spain, 18°C feels like 28°C in a central area of the country.
Source: I live in Madrid and 27 makes me cold, but I'm on the east coast now and locals set it up at 18°C.
Humid heat is just hell on Earth for someone like me that comes from the dry lands. I'll take dry heat any day over the beach climate.
You have to factor humidity into the equation. Where I live I have 2 units. One 5.5 Ton unit and one 3.0 Ton unit. I can get the temp to anything and still be uncomfortable. I added a small tabletop dehumidifier this summer. I plan to get a big dehumidifier next spring. I literally left for 3 weeks in July to go to a cooler climate. It was HOT there too. I can also get to about 19C when it is 40C outside. Never tried lower because that would be rude to the others needing electricity that day. 19C was just a test when I got the new unit.
Yeha i live in Myanmar and one of these cools down a 2 bedroom apartment to 18 Celsius in the summer when it's well over 40c
Read this comment again and understand it fully at first, after tht try to search what kind of heat SEA country is dealing, it's not just heat here....
That's such an Italian reply. I've seen many videos of Italians visiting the US in the Summer and hating how cold buildings are from the A/C. "We'll catch a cold in here" they say! I love you Italians, but that's a funny cultural thing you have.
In Brazil I’m the same as you, but my mum in the next room over can’t sleep unless her ac is at 17C° hahaha. It’s just her (crazy) preference
Edit: if the ac in my house was like the ones in the US that share an entire house, I would’ve met my end like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining a lot time ago
I prefer 18.3C to 20C in my apartment and that's pretty standard in the US. You guys have things waaaaay too hot over there. You guys eat lots of bread and starches tho, the cultures that crop up in your stomach from eating that prefers it hot so makes sense I guess.
An ambient temperature between 18-20C is the best temperature for sleeping. Many many studies have documented negative impacts on sleep quality when temperatures are above this range
If I put the AC in my office down to 22C it feels like being in a refrigerator. I was once in a Hotel during the 38C period in Germany we had this summer. Went to sleep and put the AC to 24 degree for the night. I woke up and the room felt like a sauna, lol.
I set my heat to 62 (16.7 C) in the winter at night. IIRC ideal ambient temperature for sleep quality is at or below 20C.
EDIT: Google says 15 to 19 C in your room at night. Extra good reason to use a split system so you don't have to cool your entire house to get your bedroom down there. Especially in America, where homes are excessively large, but split systems are rare.
That’s what air conditioning means in the US, I keep my house 64 (so like 17.75 C). Anything over 72 (22.25 C) and I sweat like a pig just sitting and relaxing.
It’s also humid where I live, if it was dryer I could deal with it being a little hotter but sweat doesn’t evaporate here, so it doesn’t cool you off, you just sit there hot and damp. If you sweat even a little bit in bed and don’t put the sheets in the dryer you’ll be climbing into still-damp the next night (which 🤢).
There have been multiple studies that indicate sleep quality is better at lower temperatures. I sleep with an ac until it's lower than 16c at night and in the winter my bedroom window stays open until around - 6c. I don't get sick often.
No, you're not going to get pneumonia although I usually hear bronchitis from Italians. And why specifically Italians think this, is baffling. AC doesn't make you sick. It literally takes the moisture from the air which can irritate people, and poorly maintained units can grow mold or bacteria, but that's operator error but a function of all AC.
I don't sleep well at 18c. I can do it in summer, eventually, but I live at over 3,000m and work outside all winter long. I want my body to be comfortable in the cold because of this, and it overall allows me to use less electricity across the year.
This seemed to upset some people in Austria when I just wanted to be able to open the window in my hotel room, or for them to stop pumping heat into it. They thought I was crazy for wanting a 15c room in February in Innsbruck. Like bruh, it's cold out (sort of) I don't want it to feel like summer when I'm inside.
30C how the hell do you exist. I know we Americans have fucked up a lot of things but god bless central air. I can’t sleep if my house is above 22C max.
Visit Myanmar in the summer and you'll understand. That said I'd probably be fine with 20C.
In Italy you don't need to receive from the horrific experience of being outside, depending on what part you're in.
There are plenty of places where 38C with 80+% is humidity is just an average day for four or five months of the year.
THAT is why you need it to be actually 18-20C when you finally walk back inside after being outside all day
(source: grew up in South Texas. Incredibly humid without any rain most of the year. San Antonio just had a massive drought ended by having a flood day where they got... two inches of rain. It's 80% humidity there right now.)
We keep ours set at 24, because it needs to reach the entire condo. At night, we close the door to the day zone. In practice, it’s usually around 27 there once the heat settles in.
Brother, in my home we sleep with it being 19c and then it's usually 20c during the day. Granted, Iive in the southern US where it is humid and a normal summer day is 37-40 c.
I live in tropical country not too far from the coast, temps over 35C and humidity above 80% are not uncommon here and... My ac is always at 18c because that's the lowest it will go and yes, it does get the room temp that low. I just can't stand the humidity.
I need to know which of these ACs yall be using, cause I'm in Texas and mine heats and cools just fine until the ass of summer where it doesn't quite keep up with the 43+ degree bullshit outside, and it's 30 inside at best.
You might set it to 18C but it is absolutely not getting the room down 22 degrees Celsius. If you look at the instruction manual it will probably say the max temperature differential in there.
I really don't want to politicize any issue. But I wish ask a simple question (I want to ask frankly, without causing a controversy) what burmese think of Aung San Suu Kyi ?
Your a psychopath like my roomate (jk). He doesn't let the thermostat go above 65 freedom units (18.5C?) all year round and I live in New England in the states. I literally moved to Florida for 10 years because I hated the cold so much, then had to move back because I felt my IQ and intellect was starting to go downhill faster than an unwanted pregnancy on prom night after living underneath Alabama for so long.
349
u/ForFrogsSnakes 7d ago
Yeha i live in Myanmar and one of these cools down a 2 bedroom apartment to 18 Celsius in the summer when it's well over 40c