• Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de
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    19 days ago

    To my knowledge a lot of ACs can’t even operate at those temperatures, or only in a degraded fashion. The optimal maximum outside temperature of mine apparently is 35°C. After that the radiator can’t get rid of the heat fast enough to have the inside unit work at full capacity.

    There are genius ways to build homes that get cooled down even without electricity. See the “earthship” design for example, routing fresh air through pipes in the ground where it cools down, going through the home as the hot air gets sucked out by a “thermal chimmey” (literally creates airflow by using the sun). If we combined that with good insulation to avoid the sun heating up walls and windows we’d have liveable temperatures inside even at 50°C outside. But western countries not even remotely progressive enough for such a radical but necessary structural shift, so even right now we keep building houses designed to trap heat.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      19 days ago

      Generic residential units are designed to move heat in the ranges they are operated under. Desert units exist that could work in much hotter conditions. Systems can be made to cool way up past 50°C.

      But cooling the inside of a house/car is way different than trying to farm crops/animals in that heat.