760 die in UK heat wave (mostly under 90°), because only 0.5% of them have AC

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DBT85 said:
The concern for me is the kids being taken in with severe burns. It's terrible for them at a young age and they don't know better. Their parents should be making sure they are properly protected.
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I'm paler than the average Brit, which basically makes me iridiscent. I got such sunburns when I was a kid (even using protection) that I basically stay all summers indoors. Fuck vitamin D.

It was such a miserable experience. My entire back, arms and legs would peel off and I would get the most painful blisters. I think it's the chief reason of why I hate the beach so much. It would utterly destroy me.


I am the shame of my nation.
 
No one dies because of the lack of air conditioning.

I remember it being really hot in Germany in the past, especially in 03, but our house stayed pretty cold due to having pretty thick stone walls and good isolation. There was never any need for an AC unit. Though my cousin who moved to Florida told me how they built their house and it doesn't surprise me at all that they'd need a good AC unit to keep that place cool. They don't even have a real basement. I would rather invest when building a home than having to pay every single time I want to cool down the place. Though I also live in Germany where it only gets really hot a couple of weeks a year.
 
mclem said:
We don't need it.

99% of the time.

Right now, all I'm using is a fan. And apparently there's a shortage of those in some regions.
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:lol yea I heard about the fan shortage.

Luckily I get a nice draft from my bedroom window and there's air con where I'm working at the minute. When it comes to night though... damn.
 
Bear said:
People never lived this long until the 20th century. The average age before was around 30, in rare cases as high as 40. Plenty of people still died from exposure, but drought and starvation were much bigger concerns during a heat wave. These numbers seem a lot bigger when the developed world has more or less eliminated many of the most common causes of premature death.

It also helps to be more accustomed to it. It was nearly 50 C here yesterday and people just get on with their day, since 45+ degree weather is expected this time of year. People in the UK are less prepared for that, similar to how things go to shit here when it rains heavily.
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People regularly lived past those ages, the high infant mortality rate skews the average.
 
Enco said:
:lol yea I heard about the fan shortage.

Luckily I get a nice draft from my bedroom window and there's air con where I'm working at the minute. When it comes to night though... damn.
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There was a fan shortage in 2003. I remember driving the best part of 30 miles around the various retail parks where I used to live to try and buy one at the time. Never did. Ended up buying two really good fans that winter - I'm using one at my place, my folks have the other one.

I wonder if this is the thread to answer us all asking why people keep rebuilding their cheaply made houses in the middle of tornado areas all the time.
 
I live in Vegas, and it got to 123 at a BBQ I attended a couple of weeks ago. You try cooking in that heat, with no shade in the back yard.
 
As a friend of mine pointed out last night, in the UK our houses are built primarily to keep heat inside... so during extended hot spells temperatures indoors remain elevated pretty much 24hrs of the day and can build up and up the longer it goes on.
 
My granddad would be in trouble if we weren't around to remind him to drink plenty of water. Heck we have to remind him to eat most days. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a family, so old people will always die in extreme (by UK standards) circumstances.
 
Gawge said:
We get the same complaints with snow, "we can't deal with it, other countries can". Look at Texas, they can deal with the heat. Look at Sweden, they can deal with the snow. Well, they are pretty much guaranteed that weather for long periods every year. We get these 'extreme conditions' once every few years - do you really expect the government and individuals to invest large amounts of money into infrastructure that is barely going to be used?
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Yes. And then I want to complain that the government wasted all that money on a fleet of snowploughs when they're cutting services in the other 50 weeks of the year.
 
DieH@rd said:
90F is ~32C. That's really not that hot.
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It is when you take away air conditioning both at home and most other places you will go, and when you live in insulated houses built of heavy brick with double-glazed windows. And you're not used to the heat.

Jesus, America, you spend as much energy on air conditioning as the continent of Africa does on everything and then fail to understand how punishing heat can be for people unused to it when that shit isn't cranked everywhere you go.
 
This topic is shit.

Most of the people who die in heat waves are people who can't sufficiently keep themselves cool and hydrated

Think about bed-bound elderly people in general who can't change their environment and keep cool during heat without carers, and others with co-morbidities that affect their thermoregulation.
 
Shaking my head at some of the ignorance in this thread.

"It's hotter in my country so lol UK, you aren't hot."

We're not used to these temperatures. And we don't have AC because 99% of the time it's wholly unnecessary in this country.

That's the reason people are dying. We don't get heat like this, people aren't prepared for it.
 
Vashetti said:
We're not used to these temperatures. And we don't have AC because 99% of the time it's wholly unnecessary in this country.
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Adding to that: I don't know how it is in the UK, but in Germany electricity is fucking expensive. About 20 cents per kWh, so an AC unit would be quite costly not only initially, but every time you're using it.
 
adamy said:
after reading the thread in OT titled something like "I have constant headaches and feel like crap, should I stop drinking so much soda?", I've seriously began to question whether people know water exists.
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GJS said:
This topic is shit.

Most of the people who die in heat waves are people who can't sufficiently keep themselves cool and hydrated

Think about bed-bound elderly people in general who can't change their environment and keep cool during heat without carers, and others with co-morbidities that affect their thermoregulation.
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Yep, it's not like healthy people are dropping like flies. I spent a year living in a run-down seaside town full of retirement homes, and whenever there was a cold snap or a heatwave you'd see lots of ambulances outside them first thing in the morning. It's too much for people who are already very frail and ill. It just speeds up the inevitable.
 
Irminsul said:
Adding to that: I don't know how it is in the UK, but in Germany electricity is fucking expensive. About 20 cents per kWh, so an AC unit would be quite costly not only initially, but every time you're using it.
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I have AC and I strut around half naked for this very reason. A good fan (read: big and silent) is almost an investment in comparison.

Right now I only use the AC when people come over or I need to cook.
 
The insulation in houses makes it much worse, but I use floor fans so its okay to a extent. Travelling underground is the worst though, absolutely humid and sometimes the train windows fog up, when it's really busy.

Also it's Ramadan as well. Going to be a struggle.
 
A/C heaters are good if you leave your house for several days in the winter and you need to heat it out FAST while the radiators do their thing.

Other than that, it's worthless.
 
I've had a chuckle reading through this thread. "Temperature don't bother me, what the fuck is wrong with those people?!"

The majority of people dying are not going to be in the average gaffer's age group. They are going to be very old or very young, at which point a lot of people are not physiologically capable of regulating temperature fully or properly. Old people will wear full on track suits in the summer because they don't perceive temperature properly. So even if they had AC, they probably wouldn't use it.

This is not about AC, it is about people not checking their old people.
 
Damn, that sucks. It's part of the reason I don't look forward to moving to the Pacific Northwest either, they don't believe in AC up there. I just paid this year to get my mom's house AC fixed out of my own pocket, now everyone feels much better and much more sane because the humidity and temps aren't skullfucking them every day of the summer.

Even hydration a lot doesn't help if it's so damn humid you have trouble actually eliminating heat via sweating.

B-Dex said:
This is like Vancouver. Even new condos don't have central air, just heat. Yet the hallways will be airconditioned.... Boggles my mind. In reality we don't usually need it here but sometimes in the summer it hovers around 30C (~90f) and you just swelter and die in the heat hoping your fan will help.
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I lived in Vancouver for quite a while last year. My building was like that too. AC'd hallways, but not the apartments. What was freaking annoying is they'd run it in the winter.. our apartment heat had to fight against the cold air creeping in from the hallways..
 
Fergie said:
The insulation in houses makes it much worse,
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Insulation helps actually, it keeps the heat outside. As longs as you are smart and keep the windows and curtains closed when it hotter outside than in, and only open them during the night when it's cool.
 
I live in a fairly new flat and its designed to keep the heat in unfortunately it gets unbearably very often (even in winter it can often be 30 degrees in here) with the current heatwave though its just vile in here every evening, every year I beg the housing association to fit air con but I get ignored :(
 
fastford58 said:
I've had a chuckle reading through this thread. "Temperature don't bother me, what the fuck is wrong with those people?!"

The majority of people dying are not going to be in the average gaffer's age group. They are going to be very old or very young, at which point a lot of people are not physiologically capable of regulating temperature fully or properly. Old people will wear full on track suits in the summer because they don't perceive temperature properly. So even if they had AC, they probably wouldn't use it.

This is not about AC, it is about people not checking their old people.
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It is damn right annoy, but they are totally big head tool with tiny penis or boobs.

I saw a old man waiting for a bus, wore full clothes, long coat and flat cap on Friday mid afternoon. :/
 
SpoonyBard said:
Insulation helps actually, it keeps the heat outside. As longs as you are smart and keep the windows and curtains closed when it hotter outside than in, and only open them during the night when it's cool.
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Seriously. I live somewhere with brutal summers and fairly harsh winters and new houses are better insulated than some labs. Your home is never going to get hotter than the outside, so you keep everything shut by day and open your windows at night.
 
mclem said:
We don't need it.

99% of the time.

Right now, all I'm using is a fan. And apparently there's a shortage of those in some regions.
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Yeah there are shortages.

Most of the desk fans at my hospital have been taken from the office spaces to try and keep patients cool as well.
 
Going out to a party in a black polo today because ALL my bright clothes need to be washed. Basically pray for me, STICKING TO THE SHADE AND ALL THAT. I don't have many bright clothes because it hasn't been this unpleasant since 2003!
 
I can't believe this thread has turned into a 'our country was hotter than yours in X year' pissing contest.
 
Funky Papa said:
A/C heaters are good if you leave your house for several days in the winter and you need to heat it out FAST while the radiators do their thing.

Other than that, it's worthless.
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Is AC heater same as heat pump? If you get a heat pump that is optimized for the temperature range where you live in, you can save about 50% in heating, compared to direct electric radiators. Of course depending how long the cold season is, and how much heating you need.
 
ITT: ignorant Americans.

The young and able among us are just fine, especially those of us who travel (look it up) to places like Australia. I drink about 3 litres of water a day, more if it's hot.

These people dying are old, in places with no aircon and insulation designed to keep them warm in the winter. Neglected elderly is the issue, which every country has (outside Japan?).
 
Air con is pointless for UK for the 2 weeks of hot weather we get

These deaths are all caused by stupidity and lack of common sense
 
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