Air Conditioning or no Air Conditioning, that is the question

So we are in our last week in Germany and we have temperatures reaching up to 38°C (100°F). These temperatures always bring up the argument about air conditioning between my girlfriend and I.  Even though she has lived in Germany for several years now, she still does not understand why there are so few places in Germany with air conditioning. Particularly public transport, private houses and apartments are being debated during these arguments. And it is true, German houses and apartments rarely have air conditioning. Same goes for most public transport like busses and subways or streetcars. Even most of the older regional trains do not have air conditioning and those who have it (including the German bullet train ICE) sometimes can’t handle the temperature and you hear about air conditioning that collapsed on the train on the news.

However, most commercial buildings, like convenience stores and malls as well as a couple of public buildings like libraries and some offices in Germany do have air conditioning and I admit, that with temperatures above 30 to 35°C I am very happy that these places are keeping a cooler temperature. I will also say that sometimes I also wish for public transport to have air conditioning. It is just a much more pleasant ride when you are not sitting in a metal box which heats up like an oven in addition to your and the other peoples body odor which I would gladly like to spare myself from. But for myself, I can say that below temperatures of 30°C I do not see the benefit of an air conditioning unit. When your apartment is warm, just close the windows and curtains during the day and let some fresh air in as soon as the sun goes down (this is the German way). That normally should keep your apartment at a nice temperature. Even when it gets really hot for one or two days, this method generally works just fine. If it stays hot however, the whole building will just heat up and even the cooler temperatures at night won’t help. In these cases I would not be opposed to having air conditioning and I am always happy to be in places which have it.

However, according to the German Weather Service (http://www.dwd.de) the general average of days which have been over 30°C from 1981 to 2010 is 6,5 days per year. So my main question in all these arguments is: “Is it worth buying expensive air conditioning units and using huge amounts of energy for just about one or two weeks of convenience?” Of course it is hard to just argue with the average for all of Germany when there are so many different places which count into that number. Germanys highest mountain (the Zugspitze) and its 0 days of 30°C and above in 30 years is just as much a part of this average as two places with over 20 days of such high temperature per year. In the region we currently live, for example, the records show 12 days per year as the average for temperatures reaching above 30°C. So we have to handle this number with caution and be aware that it does not necessarily display the actual situation in Germany. Especially this year 6.9 days or even 12 days above 30°C seems like a joke. We had at least three weeks until now which were constantly above this temperature and will most likely see a fourth or fifth in the future.

There are of course places where I would wish for a proper air conditioning. The university my girlfriend and I studied at is the first place that comes to my mind. Sitting in a room with 80 people for 2 or even 4 hours straight is too much for just opening the windows really quick during the break and in between classes. Especially in the summer, and I am not just talking about the really hot temperatures, it is almost unbearable to stay in such a room for a long time and pay attention throughout. Same goes for most restaurants in Germany (yes most of them do not have air conditioning). It would be just so much more enjoyable even during warm temperatures to have your meal in an acclimatized room and not sweat so profusely (in addition to all the other people in there) that you have no appetite anymore after five minutes.

So how can you, based on actual facts and not just preference, decide if it is worth having an air conditioning or not? How can you justify buying a unit and spending a lot of energy and therefore money on it? From my perspective the answer seems to be: You can’t.  You cannot base your decision for or against an air conditioning on the number of hot days per year. This is because everybody defines “hot” differently and the number of days varies from region to region and year to year. It is all just a question of preference and convenience.  This statement is setting aside of course places like universities, where air conditioning would be more then beneficial to increase productivity thought the year. Some people might say now that this is also the case for your own house or apartment where you want to be productive as well when the temperatures rise. But are two or three weeks of decreased productivity a year at home so much that you have to have air conditioning? I guess when we ask this way, we are back at your own personal preference. Some people might not care about these weeks while others do.

When you are used to having constant air conditioning and a steady temperature in your apartment throughout the year, I can understand how not having air conditioning might be annoying or plain unacceptable (I don’t want to go into too much detail on those convenience stores in the US which cool down a large building in the middle of summer so that you have to wear a sweater inside, which is just a waste of energy in my opinion). However, when you are used to not having air conditioning in your house or apartment at all, you don’t miss it, except of course those few really hot days a year. But from my perspective it is not worth spending money on a unit and use a lot of energy in the process just for your personal convenience for three weeks a year (maximum).

So in conclusion, I think that neither the overly excessive use of air conditioning in the US is the way to go, nor the German way of having almost none at all. If we could find a way which takes both countries to a similar level of air conditioning use, we could save quite a bit of money and a lot of energy on one end, have a more pleasant summer on the other and less arguments in cross-national relationships

Let’s start this off

Hello everyone,

I would like to welcome you to this webpage and give you a short overview of why I created this site and what you can expect from it in the future.

We (my girlfriend and I) are currently preparing to relocate from Germany to Boston, Massachusetts.  As this will be my first time living abroad (she is from the US originally) for an extended period of time, I thought it would be a great way to keep family and friends at home updated on our life on the other side of the big pond. In addition, I wanted to share my experiences of relocating and living in the US, so people who might also want to relocate or are just generally interested in these kind of experiences would get some impressions of what it is like and what you need to consider.

This being said, I will try to create a section of the page which just deals with these little advice or tips I would give, based on my experiences so you can learn from them and maybe not make the same mistakes.

So here is Tip No 1:

Be aware of where you are going.

As most of you know, the US is quiet a big and diverse country. This means that depending on where you are going to relocate to, the circumstances and general environment can be vastly different. This includes everything from property and rental prices, climate and weather to the overall feeling and atmosphere of a place.

When we planned to relocate, we had the option between a couple of different cities. The first thing that I wanted to know is: “How much is the costs of living in each of those cities”. Just as Germany, the US has cheaper and more expensive areas for living. Of course, the bigger cities are more likely to be more expensive than smaller rural towns, but the gap in between was quite shocking.

Comparing cities like Seattle, Washington D.C., Norfolk and Boston, it was very clear that Boston would be much more expensive than any other of these cities. While a nice two-bedroom apartment (would be a three room apartment in Germany as the living room is counted as well) in a good location in Norfolk would cost maybe around $1000 to $1500 per month, such an Apartment would not be available in any of the other cities (considering similar location and distance to the city center as well as size) below $2000 to $2500. For someone who lived in an 80 m² two-bedroom apartment for about $800 this was quite a shock. Even bigger and much more expensive cities like Berlin or Munich, do rarely reach over $2000 for a normal apartment without any luxurious features. Now, moving to Boston, our one-bedroom 65m² apartment on the outskirts of the city will cost us $1800 per month.

So be aware of the very different costs of living in the US and take it into consideration when you have options on where to live. Webpages like www.trulia.com or www.rent.com helped us to get a first overview of what price ranges to expect and to see what we could afford.

Concerning the climate and weather in the US there is really no general guideline. The country is so big, that you can find areas with every from dry and hot climate to very humid and colder conditions. Coming from central Europe I am used to changing seasons and all kinds of temperature. The main difference that I can see from my previous visits to the US (and I might be completely wrong) is that the weather is more consistent. Where in the German summer you can have two really hot days, followed by three days of rain and a drop in temperature of up to 20°C, followed by another two days of hot weather conditions, the weather in the US lasts longer and does not change as quickly. Of course you will also have cold days in summer and warm days in the winter in areas with all four seasons in the US, but the weather at least lasts longer as in Germany. Here you might have a pretty hot phase of one or two weeks of hot weather with slight changes in temperature followed by a colder phase in which the temperatures drop again. However, I have not experienced such fast changes in weather conditions as in Europe.

Now, the last thing I would like to talk about in this tip is the importance of the environment and atmosphere of places and cities in the US. I have experienced a couple of bigger cities, but also smaller towns and there are of course huge differences in the feeling you will experience from all of them. The differences between bigger cities and rural towns and areas are pretty similar to Europe and Germany in terms of variety of recreational activities, job opportunities, diversity of people, infrastructure and so on. And just like everywhere else in the world, every city or town has its own unique feel to it. Boston, for example, differs a lot from cities like Chicago or Miami and smaller towns in Massachusetts differ quite a bit from their counterparts in the Mid-West and other parts of the US.

Overall you can say that before you move, be aware of where you move to. There is no living in THE US. Every state, region, city and town is different and you need to know in what in what kind of area you would feel comfortable to make an educated decision on your future home.