"Ian" wrote in message
...

Been hearing of the unusually hot weather in britain, and mainland
Europe lately (southern Germany 102 F!), and of course thought,
Oh dear, and they don't have air conditioning!
But, is this altogether true? Is it known what proportion of
domestic and commercial buildings now have air conditioning in Britain,
and/or
Europe generally, I wonder?

Well the so called portable aircon systems seems the most popular for
domestic use, the D-I-Y sheds are churing them out at resonable prices and
they are probably a good buy for the 2 weeks of hot weather we get. I have
one myself and it does a good job cooling and will no doubt be made use of
today.

Lots of commercial / office buildings have had aircon compressor units
bolted to the outside walls recently so I would imagine its a growing
industry, but the vast majority of workplaces in the UK are not
air-conditioned and the term sweatshop will apply over the next few days if
it didn't already.

BTW I was amazed at the price of window aircon units while browsing online
at www.homedepot.com something like $85 for a basic one. The cheapest
equivelent price in the UK was about £400.

Regards