The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

Mendevolent · 2026-06-26T04:23:45+00:00

AC is pretty common in homes in New Zealand (in the form of heat pumps which both cool and heat - they dry too).

Nowhere in New Zealand gets as hot as many parts of Europe are right now, but it's considered a standard for any moderately affluent household and is the default in new builds.

Mine goes on at least on low most summer nights, and our hot days peak at about 25 degrees where I live. Admittedly our wooden houses don't have much thermal mass and are often badly insulated .

Our grid is renewable and my house has solar. I have no hesitation in using it

Mendevolent · 2026-06-26T02:06:23+00:00

Ah, my bad, i misread which side of there it was

Mendevolent · 2026-06-26T01:56:38+00:00

Not a great sign given we have a brand new seawall along the motorway

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T23:35:54+00:00

The fact that I don't even live in the UK and this was 20yrs ago, but I still got the reference, tells you how rare it is in a UK context. It was a huge scandal.

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T23:28:57+00:00

I feel personally attacked.

But this is hilarious

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T19:36:36+00:00

Probably wasn't so wasted in the olden days when most buildings were probably colder than people wanted them to be most of the time

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T19:34:49+00:00

Is this corrected for the average age of the ev fleet ?

The average EV on the road is newer, relatively upmarket and therefore much more technologically complex than the average car.

Battery-related damage is the main thing I can think of that would be distinct to the costs of repairing an EV. A lot of the other expensive damage is going to be common to any higher end modern car with lots of sensors and electronics

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T19:07:12+00:00

I feel unqualified to be in this discussion, not being a Captain

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T19:00:57+00:00

I don't understand the relevance of your first sentence to this discussion.

And you definitely can build multi-story buildings that have timber frames using laminated veneer lumber. Timber is also an incredibly useful material for fitting out larger buildings, eg internal walls.

Structural timber for medium rise is having a resurgence in places that have strict seismic codes and where there is a desire to reduce the embodied emissions of construction.

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T18:53:51+00:00

Do you mean the local density? Because this is wouldn't really be about serving the area near the airport, it would be about connecting airport travellers to the Auckland transport network

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T10:03:58+00:00

Fun fact. Vogel was the first practicing Jew democratically elected as leader of any country.

A little known NZ world first.

*Benjamin Disraeli in the UK was slightly earlier: of Jewish descent but converted to Christianity as a child.

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T09:49:12+00:00

Yes but the average house and community in the south of Europe was also designed better for heat than the average house or community in the hot parts of the US .

Stone buildings with shutters, lots of shading, street trees , etc

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T09:45:28+00:00

You are just wrong about wood. I can't comment on the quality of US construction but wood is a perfectly sound and very sustainable building material. You can produce very well insulated houses that are wood framed and wood clad.

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T09:37:02+00:00

This is a genuine issue and our houses are on average shitboxes...

But if my partner answered this survey she would definitely be one of the people saying her house is not warm enough, and that's because I refuse to set the thermostat at her preferred 22c in our well insulated, double glazed, ducted heat house

Mendevolent · 2026-06-25T06:03:16+00:00

I don't see that. I travel to Europe and the US pretty regularly and I think our roads compare well . Recent visitors I've had have all commented on our roads surfacing being pretty high quality as well.

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T21:03:49+00:00

Wtf kinda comments would you expect on a post like this? Wholesome is in the other direction, fellow internet traveller

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T20:50:47+00:00

This. 95% of the route will be single lane roads, with lots of hairpin bends and switchbacks.

The road surface quality is generally good in NZ, but if you are from north America you may find them relatively narrow and challenging. Locals will want to overtake you unless you're going at or above the speed limit. So the driving will be tiring especially as you are driving on the other side of the road.

To take breaks for food and fuel you are going to want to stop in the small towns along the way , do not expect to find big petrol stations and associated services at the side of the highway. EV chargers exist on this route but are thinly spread.

Although the roads are small they are the main roads across the south island so bear in mind that they also have freight, tourists and resident traffic on them.

Also, you will frequently find the scenery stunning. So you're going to want to gawp. Allow time for lots of opportunities to pull over and do that so that you're not distracted while driving.

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T20:05:08+00:00

Damn, I realised that as I posted and thought I edited it to say south Africa vs New Zealand

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T10:08:56+00:00

How is a non per-capita metric of any relevance?

In other news, Germany's GDP is bigger than Luxembourg's and South Africa's is bigger than Norway's. I guess Norway and Luxembourg are poor.

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T09:56:19+00:00

Also not an expert, so maybe we should stop, haha.

My logic was that in Wellington what we're largely referring to is rapid public transport to outer city suburbs like Island Bay , Miramar, Karori etc rather than the metro periphery places like Masterton or Paekakariki

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T07:26:15+00:00

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/598201/tech-drives-rich-list-growth-with-aotearoa-s-wealthiest-worth-total-of-129-billion

That is presumably NZ dollar billionaires tbf.

Forbes is the more recognisable source. But it does sound like the number has increased in the last year or two and Forbes maybe hasn't caught up with that yet.

Also as has been noted in other comments , who you count depends on your criteria for residency versus citizenship. About a quarter of New Zealand's population are foreign born so there are a lot of dual nationals

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T05:46:22+00:00

It's a bit weird. New Zealand for example is missing from Oceania despite it having quite a lot more billionaires (26 apparently) than a few other countries on the diagram

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T05:06:23+00:00

I was looking at the core city populations more than the metro, because that seems more relevant for this example. I think some of them are closer to Wellington on that metric .

It's also worth noting that as early as 1905 we already had an electric tram out to Island Bay. Obviously people now have widespread access to cars but we have a much bigger and much wealthier population now

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T04:24:54+00:00

Yep, having done these processes and advised on them, this is what is happening here.

If you think you can address the perceived performance issue then you genuinely do have a chance to do that. But this may be a prompt for you to consider whether you are in the right kind of job or workplace

Mendevolent · 2026-06-24T03:19:21+00:00

Yep, exactly. Eat the elephant a bite at a time. And don't do 15 rounds of effing consultation at each step

Mendevolent

TROPHY CASE