this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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I'm not in Europe, but I understand that it's fairly common in some southern areas, but overall much less common then the US. Air conditioning is apparently more common for offices and stores than for residences.
Rolling out more air conditioning in Europe may not be a terrible thing from the standpoint of electricity providers. As things stand, unlike the US, where peak electricity demand is in the summer (due to air conditioning), Europe's peak electricity demand is in winter, due to electricity-driven heating. Having more-even seasonal demand probably makes life easier for the grid.
All that being said, I believe that the article is talking about unseasonably warm temperatures for October -- which is not that hot -- not so much extremely hot summer temperatures. This may not be a "roll out air conditioning" sort of thing.
30 planned today in the north of France, it was already 25 at 12h, I dare you to say it's not that hot, especially for freaking October. Those aren't so bad in rural areas but in cities it tends to be quickly suffocating.
That's 86°F. That's certainly warm, but I do 86°F without an air conditioner, though I'll probably have a fan on. I could see someone using an air conditioner then, sure, but that's not an extreme "I must have an air conditioner" temperature, either.
That's my point. It's warm for the season, but being warm for the season isn't what drives air conditioner use, but being warm in absolute terms.
Go back to summer a couple years ago, and that's the kind of thing that will drive air conditioner rollouts:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/europe/france-temperature-record-heatwave-intl/index.html
That's 108°F. That's the kind of thing that'll make air conditioners important, rather than a warm fall.
Never had 30 in a city have you ? In a full office without air conditioner ? Or a train ?
I live in a city, and where I live it gets up to around 40°C in summer.
Then we somehow aren't experiencing the same kind of summer if you think 30 isn't worthy of air conditioning, unlike most people here.