Believe it or not, it took me a month to edit this video 😭 normally I just press “start record” and “stop record”, hit upload and that’s it with these kinds of videos. BUT I figured I’d spend a bit more time researching, recording, and editing! Needless to say you guys are showing SO MUCH LOVE ❤️ and I really appreciate it! It makes that grind worth it! NEXT UP: my Deutsche Bahn rant…. Been working on that video for weeks now, and it’s gonna get pretty spicy 🌶️ 😂! Thanks again everyone!

@Hoadorfer

Ай бұрын

13:47 Shoes are stored at the entrance from the house we also don't want to walk through the whole House with dirty shoes

@christianklasen640

29 күн бұрын

Spicy, like hot curry souce from non existent board restaurant? 😂

@flyingholander4923

29 күн бұрын

bro all of the houses in germany have AC. just not the big old city buildings, because they are protected by law. + i got an extra full room as "closet" xD

@Hoadorfer

29 күн бұрын

@@flyingholander4923 sry but thats not true no one i know has AC

@Spielername

29 күн бұрын

This AC thing is really a problem. A few years before we had just a few hot weeks every year. But now we have sometimes a few month with extreme heat. But if you have windows on both sides of the house, you can usually live with it. My windows are opened literally the whole summer and it's not so bad if you have a fan running. But if the windows are on the same side of the house you're f'ed. The kitchen thing is out of practically. You're normally renting an apartment if you're living in the city and sometimes you have to move because of the high rents. So you take your kitchen and your closets normally with you for the new home. I know, it sucks to move all the stuff but you're normally either buy new stuff because it's old anyway or you are so comfortable with it that you just won't to get rid of it anyway. I do live in a house that was build before WWII and we do have thick walls, attics and usually a cellar as well. But I've never saw a window with 3 glasses in my life. I can open my window in two ways. One is on "Kipp" (this is where you was afraid that it would fall on you and kill you) or I can open it completely. This is standard in Germany. But the building quality is world's better than you have in America. But this means that you have to remove a lot of stuff if something is broken and you have to repair it. Thanks God it doesn't happen very often and most stuff you have to repair on a daily basis is installed in a way that you can reach it easily. But what I really hate is that many houses don't have carpets nowadays and if someone in the storage over you has children who like to run barefoot through their apartment, you can hear every step they make. I can even hear their cat if it jumps from the closet (or wherever cats like to jump from). I often dream of an AC but it would be silly to install one. These things aren't cheap and it's expensive enough to heat your house in the colder month. So, no AC for me man.

If a German company were to build German houses in the USA, it would be a billion-dollar business.

@WilhelmImperatorRex

Ай бұрын

Actally not. Most americans couldn't afford a house built this way at least not with the amount of square meters typical for "Mc Mansions". During the 20's there had been several companies that built solid "concrete" homes but none of them survived, cause prefabricated wood and plaster walls are far cheaper when mass produced. Second to that, the owning a house culture is way different in the US to the rest of the world. Especially in Germany, they built one home for live. In the US, you first build a "Starter Home" live there a few years , and than build a larger, new one as next step, even maybe a third one for retirement.

@MilowBrown

Ай бұрын

@@WilhelmImperatorRex Woooww okay I didn't know that, thanks :)

@jakobroth1476

Ай бұрын

A study says that Americans move 8-11 times in their lives while Germans moves just 2-5 times in their lives

@qobide

Ай бұрын

Also consider natural disasters like hurricans right now. German house would also get pretty damanged. Maybe not raised to the ground, but still uninhabitable. To costly to repair, to much more expensive to tear down that "just" to collect some "timber".

@MoniquaWilliams

Ай бұрын

It would not, because the home would be built one time as compared to the cheap way American companies build homes. They would go out of business because there would be nothing to rebuild 😂😂😂

To cool down the air by AC produces hot air on the exhaust end. The cooler the desired air, the more heat gets to the outside. Better to plant trees and add lakes to cool the environment, than heat it up even more by giant parking lots a hundreds of AC running.

@schlafsack

28 күн бұрын

Fuck ACs

@kai_plays_khomus

26 күн бұрын

The additional CO² caused by AC might be even worse - not to speak of the highly pollutant/toxic gases which makes fridges, ACs and stuff hazardous special waste by default and are highly detrimental for the atmosphere as well.

@germanmosca

26 күн бұрын

It doesnt produce as much hot air as most think. The majority is the energy taken out of the air. It's a simple heat transfer: Take the heat out of the air inside the building, and add it to the air outside. Or you do it in both ways, then you have a heat pump.

@germanmosca

26 күн бұрын

@@kai_plays_khomus Those highly pollutant/toxic gases arent used in new ACs in europe anymore. And are entirely banned in new Units from 2025 (effectively they dont exist anymore) We only use R32, unless its a very very old AC or heat pump.

@kai_plays_khomus

26 күн бұрын

@@germanmosca Thanks for the update - good to hear indeed. The point about the additional CO² output still stands. Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning AC as such - but as a default installation in most households it's impact is quite significant in sum. Maybe a lot of it could be avoided with well insulated homes because as you are certainly aware of (in contrast to Brad in this instance..) insulation doesn't only work to keep warmth in during winter but also to keep heat out in summer..

ACs also make the heat problem even greater as hot air from the inside is simply blown outside, making the neighborhoods even warmer and thus, propelling the need for A/Cs (and more global warming). In Germany, we are so used to letting down our impenetrable Rolladen/shields OUTSIDE of the window during sweltering sunshine and to let them back up at night, when it cools down. Mind you, our walls are made of stone and are thick. Not as much heat comes inside! The effect is that houses have a tolerable temperature during the day and even cool down at night. No big issue. Since I am in the process of renovating my parents’ house currently, I had all of the widows replaced with triple paned windows last year (including, for the largest part, mosquito shields) and have installed ceiling fans in the rooms I need them most in (my bedroom, office, living room, and craft room). Usually, a slight breeze (such as from a ceiling fan) will do the job nicely. No need to sit in freezing cold room and either blast out hot air or sit in constantly “recycled” air that lives in pipes full of spiders and dust most of the day…

@Hey.Joe.

Ай бұрын

Yes, but it's not the only reason. The next thing are the cost. For example because of energy consumption and costs nowadays to use a small mobile AC (only for one room or up to 65 m³) would cost me ~1,06€ per hour. After 30 Days that would be ~763,20€. So, no wonder that AC in appartments or houses where we live is not a big thing in Germany.

@Attirbful

Ай бұрын

@@Hey.Joe. true!

@qobide

Ай бұрын

@@Hey.Joe. This is where solar panels are handy. Usually there is lots of sun out when its warm and you have excess energy so its perfect to "waste" it on ac.

@Hey.Joe.

Ай бұрын

@@qobide I would like to have them, but as a renter I don't own the building, so I cannot put some on the roof and I don't even have balcony.

@vadimblin

29 күн бұрын

Also in Germany maintains ans maintains costs are a thing. Sooo if you install an American style A/C unit it hast to get checked from time to time like the chimneys. Cause we don't want our fortresses to spontaneously blaze in fire!

You do realize that insulation is not only keeping cold out. It works both ways. And it is not finacially efficient to have am AC for those 4-6 weeks a year you would use them.

@JackNapierDe

Ай бұрын

In addition, you also can keep the heat out be closing your 'Rolladen' during the day in case you're not at home (like working)

@MwKiller-ll2ch

29 күн бұрын

Tell that to the people that melt in the summer

@sirbowen4358

28 күн бұрын

Exactly, the double or triple layers of glass are not there to protect against bullets, but there is a thin layer of air between the layers of glass to insulate the entire window against cold and heat. The rest of the insulation is provided by the thick concrete and on really hot days the shutters and windows are closed before the heat can get into the room. The room is then ventilated during the night when it has cooled down. The windows and shutters are closed again before the sun rises.

@leDespicable

18 күн бұрын

@@MwKiller-ll2ch Which they only do for a few weeks a year, which hardly warrants the permanent installation of a very expensive piece of technology that will sit idle for probably 10 months out of the year. For the same reason ceiling fans aren't common in Germany either, they're ugly and bulky, and most Germans don't want to permanently have one in their living space when they're not gonna use it for more than a few weeks a year

@aphextwin5712

17 күн бұрын

One thing not mentioned here is that most homes in America are heated by a forced air system. It is much easier to integrate an AC unit into that than to retrofit that to system which uses radiators or underfloor heating. What is starting to happen in Germany and neighbouring countries is to add central cooling to districts heating systems (or build new district heating that includes cooling systems). Another aspect is the switch to heat pumps. As those relatively easily can be designed to also provide cooling in summer (works best with below ground heat pump systems).

Hot summer in Germany? Easy: 1.Put the shutters down to 90%. 2. Kipp the windows (sorry, can't find a fitting word in english). Still too warm? 4. Turn on the fan you bougth yesterday and sit in frint of it for the next few days. Just don't have it blowing over you while you sleep, you will catch a cold

@ExtremeTeddy

Ай бұрын

The word you are looking for is "tilt". Love our german windows. They're so versatile 🥰

@supsup335

Ай бұрын

@@ExtremeTeddy des is wahr. Ernsthaft jetzt mal, ich hab lieber nen stinkheißen sommer mit der wahl: kein schlaf dank hitze oder Erkältungsrisiko dank ventilator anstelle die stromrechnung für ne klima zu zahlen🤣

@asaris_

Ай бұрын

And then there's the weird little thing of taking a hot shower or bath before going to bed. If you raise your core temperature like that for just a bit, the outside heat isn't perceived just as bad by your body because the difference is lower. Taking a cold shower might give you a short relief but it'll just feel so much worse after the initial relief because you lowered the temperature and the gap is even bigger. 🤷‍♀️

@ExtremeTeddy

Ай бұрын

@@supsup335 Ich überlege tatsächlich für mein kleines Bürozimmer mir eine kleine mobile AC zu kaufen, denn von 11-16 Uhr ballert hier im Sommer die Sonne rein. Zwar hab ich Plisse, Vorhänge und Balkonmarkise in der Verwendung, doch an 2-3 Wochen im Jahr wird es hier echt ätzend heiß 😅 Im Schlafzimmer geht es dank lüften früh morgens eigentlich. Es ist halt wichtig in der gesamten Wohnung alle Fenster geschlossen zu halten und abzudunkeln, sodass sich die Luft im Raum durch die Sonneneinstrahlung nicht erwärmen kann.

@ExtremeTeddy

Ай бұрын

@@srccde Naja, bei ner Mietwohnung hat man die Möglichkeit nicht eine AC fest zu installieren. Für meine Zwecke sollte ein kleines mobiles Gerät genügen. Der Raum hat nur 7m².. Und in der Preisklasse >600€ findet sich bestimmt ein gutes Gerät. Da werde ich ausreichend recherchieren.

Dane here. No built in closets is the norm here too, and I personally prefer buying my own closets. Build in closets limits the ways that I can arrange my furniture.

@asaris_

Ай бұрын

And limit the possibilities of which room to use for what.

@Hey.Joe.

Ай бұрын

@@asaris_ Exactly. Everyone have own preferences.

@asaris_

Ай бұрын

@@Hey.Joe. And then there's weirdos like me who do "room rotation" every couple of years. 🫣😂 Don't ask me why, sometimes I just like having different views from my living room and computer room. Or... I don't know what people's reasons can be for switching rooms. Might be something simple like doing night shifts and wanting the bedroom on the quieter side of the house for that reason.

@Hey.Joe.

Ай бұрын

@@asaris_ Who knows? Maybe you get bored after a time and need variety or still figuring out the fulfilling setup for you or whatever. But it's just nice to have that flexibility.

There are 2 ways to minimize the heat problem in german houses. First step: you wake up a bit ealier in sommer and then its still not as hot. Then you let in a lot of that cool air inside by opening the windows. When you realise its getting hotter or you have to go to work, you just shut down the windows and the "Rolladen" who stop sunlight entering your house keeping the air inside cool. In the night when it cools down you can open the windows again. I think even tho its hot, most germans spend a lot of time outside in the summer. Having a basement is also a way to escape the heat for a moment.

My brother (we both live in Germany) installed AC in his flat a couple of years ago. He also installed several solar panels. Basically during the summer month, the solar panels produce enough electricity for the AC and the rest of the year, the AC is off and he can sell the electricity from the solar panels. (Or rather his e.-bill gets reduced) This obviously only works, if own the place.

No walk in clausets, cause we don't have designated bedrooms. When busing a german house, you don't see: X-amount of baths Kitchen Y-amount of rooms And 3 bedrooms. No! You have: X-amount of baths Kitchen And Y-amount of rooms. Where you put your bed is up to you. Modularity Mate!

@asaris_

Ай бұрын

It's like the difference between a computer and a gaming console... 🤣

@geneviere199

Ай бұрын

Nobody tells you that you e.g. cannot build in closets into your bedroom. It is just noch prefabricated like this.

@CarryCherry92

Ай бұрын

Built in closets are pretty hideous too imo. 😂

@robertb8673

Ай бұрын

German bedrooms got two Sockets with space for a king size bed in between. Usualy.

@Lylantares

Ай бұрын

@@CarryCherry92 the best and most expensive thing you can do is building an Einbauschrank. But that thing doesn't only have one door, but compartments and drawers. maybe lighting etc.

Built-in closets take up space, so does our furniture. But, your needs my vary. We choose how we use our rooms, the sitting room might become a bedroom. You might want the cabinet in a different spot than the built-in closet... Yes, I get the convenience a built-in closet offers but it also limits my freedom to organize my home to my perceived needs.

Hey, James! According to the latest information from the Federal Statistical Office from 2021, the average construction costs per square meter in Germany were 2,034 euros. So if I want a 3sqm (32.29173 ft²) walk-in wardrobe, it will cost me around €6000. For three bedrooms, around €18,000. For this amount I get many, many, many cabinets. Greetings from Germany ✌️

I would rather live in a German house I think....

@staying_substantially6186

Ай бұрын

Strongly disagree. German houses are much smaller and uglier... but I suppose it is difficult to be objective about these things

@O5Councilor

Ай бұрын

@@staying_substantially6186 Depends where you live in Germany ofc

@Arch_Angelus

Ай бұрын

@@staying_substantially6186 Stupid statement and not even justified why. Apparently you only know it from cheap videos when some blogger thinks he's talking garbage again. It depends on whether you rent or build yourself. If you rent, you either have to take what is available or look for something bigger if you have the money for it. And even if you have the money, the landlord can still say no if he doesn't like your face. If you build, you can decide for yourself if you have the money. And with all due respect, to say that German houses are bad is a complete misnomer. Compared to the cheap paper houses from the USA, German houses are still standing after 200 years. There are houses that are older than the USA. And as I said, it depends on the money and how you finance it so that you are debt-free at some point, which is the opposite in American culture. Building up debt is a culturally anchored custom there. search for houses in germany on the internet with around 200 square meters and more plus land and compare them with the paper waste in the usa. I don't know what you imagine how big a house has to be. But I don't need a kitchen or living room where you can play soccer and heat yourself to death in winter for a lot of money.

@ericvmax49

Ай бұрын

@@staying_substantially6186 Well, talk to some US Soldiers that have been stationed in Germany, as long they lived OffBase most of them would love to stay after the get out of the Service

@staying_substantially6186

Ай бұрын

@@ericvmax49 sure buddy, keep lying to yourself, perhaps it makes your life in Germany a little bit more bearable

Our old town is nestled in the delta of two rivers with a hill and a castle on top in the back. Bad thing about that location is: the area it's built on is actually a little bit lower than the rivers. Which means: as soon as there's flooding, the entire town area fills up like a tub. There's medieval houses there, happily standing around for about a millennia which are getting partially flooded every year or two (not so much in recent years anymore due to modern flood management). The entire town and the houses were actually built to cater to that. It's always funny to walk through the side alleys and read flood marks carved into the stones from something like 500 years ago. 😂 (There's been a couple bad ones with something like up to 3m flooding 💀) Anyway, just wanted to add that to German house construction. Here's a bit more info if anyone's interested: First: they built the town there for protection, because attacking armies first had to somehow cross the rivers (you know, heavily armored knights on horseback and shit), which gave the townspeople enough time to evacuate up to the castle and just sit it out. Second: pretty much each house was built so the the first floor already was raised, because most floods don't exceed something like 20cm and like that there wouldn't be water on the first floor. The first floor traditionally was something like a secondary basement, not living space. For those occasions when the flood exceeded those 20cm. The entire town is also a network of basements with solid stone walls. They fill up first and stabilize each others foundations. Sure, it's messy to clean up, but the locals are used to it. Little anecdote about the importance of the last part: Once upon a time a couple of years back an outsider moved here and opened a restaurant by the river. First thing he did was install premium modern flood barriers to keep the water from getting into the basement. The entire town warned him not to do that. He didn't listen. Flood came, and the water in the adjacent basements to his forced the walls on two sides to cave in. But hey, his flood barriers worked 👍

Well, you can just buy an AC if u want one. Its just a personal decision of germans. Its not forbidden

the renting without kitchen is definitely blown out of proportion. It's usually only the case for new places . I've lived in 4 different rentals since moving out of my home and not a single one came without a kitchen. The no walk-in closets is just a space issue. instead of cutting of a part of the bedroom and making it a closet we'd rather have a room that is a little larger and we can individually fit a closet that fits our needs.

@lucabrust346

Ай бұрын

I moved 13 times and every rental had a kitchen, even the new buildings :D I never bought my own kitchen.

@Lylantares

Ай бұрын

you need to look for EBK (Einbauküche) in the rental. They come with built-in kitchens. Besides that, you simply move with your kitchen. Or parts of it, like the oven, fridge etc.

@leDespicable

18 күн бұрын

And even when moving into a place without a kitchen, German kitchens are a lot more modular and easy to install, so it's not nearly as much of a hassle as in countries like the US, where kitchens are much more permanently installed and part of the house.

The fact, that you don't have built-in closets, allows for much more flexibility. You can use the space of the rooms as you like. You can put your bedroom into your living room and your living room into floor, or whatever you like. In American homes, you are fixed by the floor plan.

Europe really knows how to build homes that stand the test of time, or at least they did until the plague decided to play real estate developer. I swapped the US for the UK, and let's just say the houses here are built like medieval fortresses. Thick brick walls? Check. Brick on brick action? Double check. Roofs that could double as a pottery class project? Absolutely. These homes are basically giant thermal flasks, designed to keep the heat in. But after experiencing the British summers lately, I'm ready to trade my cozy brick igloo for a less... baked living situation. Haha. Thank you for the fun commentary!

@mrHello420__

Ай бұрын

Insulation works also for keeping something cold my guy.

@micheleosullivan4430

Ай бұрын

@@mrHello420__ We have insulation too. :D No AC. I do miss AC during those few weeks that are super-hot. 🔥

@ANNA-bq9yy

Ай бұрын

New Houses in UK are build much cheaper and less thick in brick. People hate it.

American construction ignores the specific heat capacity, especially for summer heat protection. The following applies here: the higher the capacity of the building material, the more heat can be stored. This in turn means that the rooms remain cool even in summer, as the heat from outside initially remains in the building material. The Building reacts more like a cave as an attic.

Why is it so cold in Germany? Well, if you move Germany lateral to the American continent, most of Germany is in Canada, with Flensburg being actually north of Quebec. Hamburg is on the same latitude as Edmonton; Karlsruhe would be in the US just a little bit south of the border to Canada.

@Dadadin

Ай бұрын

i dare to say that this was a bit exaggerated :D today we had 23°C which is quite nice, tshirt weather... also, he mentioned 26°C when it was hot... nobody here would even use a fan for 26...

@McGhinch

Ай бұрын

@@Dadadin 26°C is not hot, one might perceive it as hot when it was cold in the morning or yesterday. The point is more general: we are way northern than most of the USA. More north is usually colder. James lives in South Korea which is somewhere around the latitude of North-Africa. Compared to this, Germany is cold.

@Dadadin

Ай бұрын

@@McGhinch yeah, but he complained that he had no AC at 26°C?

The problem about the ac is that it makes your carbon footprint bigger by around 1300kg of carbon monoxide if its on for 21 months a year. Additionally as you mentioned its colder in Germany and the timeframe where it actually would make sense is much smaller than in f.e. the southern USA. Its therefore not really a plus point for their houses…

In Europe there are not many houses with walk-in closets because they take more space. You probably noticed that houses here are smaller and usually very old, 70/100 years ago people didn't have that much stuff to store anyways. In Italy, where i live in most houses there is one small storage room and that's it. No pantry. But old houses do have a cantina, like a basement storage traditionally used to store wine and salame, but you can use it for anything. If you buy a large new house, built today, it will probably have walk-in closets, more storage rooms and AC as well. There are just not that many new houses in old cities.

I look at it this way: you guys pay for the fridge, stove and all that, so if you do not like what you get, you will have to rip it out and replace it, so in the end you pay for it twice.

@cabuton3443

Ай бұрын

Yeah but you get most of the time a 100% moneyback for something like a fridge for like a year so if you don’t like it you just can get a different one

My parents built their house in 1977. The idea to install an AC didn't even came to their mind. And though there are a few days in summer, I whish I had an AC, I wouldn't considerate one while building my own house, I would just forget it. And, tbh, if I had one, I would use it only the first year, untill the electricity bill comes.

@winterlinde5395

Ай бұрын

Same with my parents. On very hot summer days dad put a water hose with holes on the roof top. It actually worked 😅. We then could access our rooms upstairs and were able to sleep.

Your Video Moderation Skill doubled Over the past 2 years. GG

Enough comments about a/c so mine is about furnituring the house: I am always astonished to see the cheap- and all same looking kitchens in the US. I love that we have so many opportunities. It’s not just “you don’t like brown kitchen cabinets, let’s paint them white”. Here everyone chooses the kitchen he wants, not just the fronts, also the size and segmentation you want/need for your issues. Same with wardrobes, washing machines and and and. If you move you either take the kitchen with you or you sell it to the next tenant.

Nein! Wir brauchen hier kein AC. Wenn es (ausnahmsweise) mal zu heiß ist, machen wir nachts (wenn es deutlich kühler ist) die Fenster "auf Kippe". Wenn es dann irgendwann noch wärmer wird, machen wir zusätzlich tagsüber die Rollläden runter. Damit bleibt es normalerweise halbwegs kühl. Weil... unsere Wände sind nicht aus Papier... unsere Häuser sind Wärme- als auch Kälte-Speicher! ... wie man es gerade braucht. Einfach perfekt. Braucht halt echt dicke Steine ... nicht Papier. Die Steine machen den Job. Aber wenn das alles nix nutzt, machen wir uns nackig, setzen uns auf die Terrasse und trinken solange kaltes Bier, bis wir uns wieder wohlfühlen. 🙂Ergo: Keiner hier braucht AC!

@GruseligerZigeuner

29 күн бұрын

Wir machen nicht die Fenster „auf Kippe“ (was für eine bescheuerte Beschreibung). Wir kippen einfach die Fenster.

@dedeegal

29 күн бұрын

@@GruseligerZigeuner Jaaaa... gruselige Zigeuner mögen das so machen.... aber hier in Norddeutschland stellen wir die Fenster "auf Kippe" 🙂 Würden wir die "Fenster kippen", wäre das was anderes... was komisches.... was keiner will.

@leDespicable

18 күн бұрын

@@GruseligerZigeuner Fenster auf Kipp sagt man in bestimmten Regionen, unter anderem im Ruhrgebiet. Nur weil das bei dir nicht gesagt wird, ist es nicht gleich falsch. @dedeegal Ich stimme dir zwar größtenteils zu, aber ich finde schon, dass es durchaus Sommer gab, in denen wir eine Klimaanlage gut gebrauchen konnten. Es kommt nicht immer vor, aber ich habe schon oft mit dem Gedanken gespielt, eine mobile Klimaanlage zu kaufen, weil es in unsrer Dachwohnung einfach nicht mehr auszuhalten war. Es hat leider nicht jeder den Luxus einer gut isolierten Wohnung mit Rollläden. Der Großteil unserer Wohnung hat Dachfenster nach Süden ohne Außenrollos, wir können die Sonne also leider gar nicht draußen halten, dementsprechend wird die Wohnung im Sommer zum Backofen.

when i rented an apparment in hamburg, it had oven and fridge preinstalled. but it is more customary to move in with an oven you bought yourself because you actuallyt actually like that particular model, instead putting up with something the landlord found on a dumpster.

yeah the heat is truly unbearable, the weather is pretty weird in germany, summers can get up to 40celsius or more, its crazy

Closets: It's much easier (and cheaper) to build a solid wall straight. A closet would make the design much more complicated. And the closet would take away space from the room on the other side of the wall and break up its clean, rectangular room design. A/C: I bought and installed an A/C 20+ years ago for one room. I only use it when it's really hot. Screens: I installed screens on several windows.

With the introduction of heat pumps for heating and replacing the old radiators with large surface radiators, this is a good opportunity to also add a cooling effect. Not all heat pumps are designed to work both ways, but the one that do could also pump cold water through the radiators. And the operation of an AC is way cheaper when having a good insulation. But the best example on how to work with heat in solid houses, I'd suggest to look at Spain or Italy. The houses there often have those pretty shutters. That's actually my next addition to my house. I won't install those roll shutters, but rather pretty ones made from wood. But the effect of stopping the heat before hitting the windows is amazing. I really like not having a fixed closet. Houses around here are massively smaller than the ones in the US. That leaves less space to spare. In my last house, by opting for a different solution I was able to gain some square feet of room in the otherwise pretty tiny bedroom.

Now, regarding the walls: You want solid, well insulated walls on the outside of your house and maybe some counterfort walls. But within the majority of the interior walls hollow walls have an advantage for laying pipes or wires. On bedrooms on the other hand, heavy walls will give you some more privacy

"Livable ovens" I had such a good laugh, becaue I'm living in one. You should visit me in late summer, when my flat's lowest temperature will be at night at about 36°C, well over 44°C over the day, and when you go out into the sun having extreme sunburns - just to cool you off...

Austrian here. I don´t think AC is against the green move. It is an an air to air heat pump anyways. I have AC in my house (8 peaces) and i do my heating and my cooling with it. It is way cheaper than any other solution for my old house (i have got new 3 glass windows and stuff anyway, but safed on using an other heating system like oil or gas), so it was the way 2 go. Now i have cheap heating in winter and cost free cooling in summer (PV) in one single system. It saved me a few 10k to build it this way. PV is here too to help me with costs mostly in summer.

Insulation works both ways - it can keep the inside cool in summer just as it keeps it warm in winter. The trick is closing all your windows and closing your courtains/jalousies during the day while letting in fresh air at night or during summer rains. Insulating ice with a blanket or whatever doesn't make it melt quicker but to the opposite waaay slower - back in the day ice was harvested on lakes during winter and stored in basements additionally insulated with straw so it would be available in summer with only marginal losses, just to illustrate why a good insulation makes sense precisely in times of increasingly high temperatures.

Built--in closets mean that there's a specific amount of room dedicated to nothing but your clothes. If you have fewer clothes than that area could hold, you've essentially wasted a certain amount of space. If you've got more clothes, you need to buy an extra closet to place within the rest of your home anyway. Why not just leave out the dedicated space as part of a room and the owner can choose how much space they want to dedicate to their clothes by buying a closet that fits their specific needs? Ok, edit for the sake of the AC conversation: You'll be happy to learn that newer homes in germany nowadays often get build with ACs. However, they tend to be a bit different than the ACs most american homes have. There are a few different designs for them, but one of the more common ones is to have an underground area for the AC to work with and exchange heat and cold with. In winter the sub-surface temperature tends to be higher than above ground and in summer the air down below is cooler than above, and the heat pumps transfer the heat from the one respective area to the respective other, which is why you sometimes see metal chute or pipe like structures on the outside of modern homes in germany. Those ACs tend to be not as powerful as the better ones in america, but they are way less energy intensive and calculated to be more environmentally friendly. And with the heat insulated homes we have in germany (in my home we have a temperature difference of about 3 or 4 degrees between outside and the coolest room inside if we keep the windows closed and block out the sun with our shutters in the summer) those AC units generally tend to work perfectly fine.

Regarding the closet: One argument could be flexibilty of how to design the interior of the room. If you have a built in closet you can not put anything in front of it because then you can not use it anymore. But with a clothing closet you can move it to a different place in the room. And the you can choose the size of this closet as well. A built in closet takes the space of a tiny room. Without this built in closet you have more space for the actual room. You can then put a clothing closet there or anything else, you have the choice. You are more flexible in your design choices of the actual room.

We build houses that last. That's why we don't build closets in the house. Because everyone who moves into the house can divide the rooms however they want its more flexible that way

Some newer types of floor heating system can be switched to cooling in the warmer months. Still needs energy, but it's far more efficient than a separate AC and the "coolness-distribution" is more even throughout the house.

German houses: good walls, good foundations, good basements, very smart windows, crazy good blast shields for said windows, good insulation

You absolutely get the point for air conditioning. I live right under the roof of my house. I wish 26 degrees would be the highest. In summer we have a lot of days around 30-34 degrees so my appartment will be heated up over 40 degrees... Its fckn terrible.

modern heat pumps can pump cool water through pipes and cool down the house in hot summers (heat pumps work like ac units but uses water to deliver the desired temperature) and the main difference no matter what kind of heating system are used in germany, you can adjust the temperature of every room individual for more efficiency not like in typical american homes were only one temperure regulation for the whole house is normal.

@leDespicable

18 күн бұрын

Slight correction, heat pumps don't all use water, they're nothing more than an AC unit that can run both ways, so they can both heat and cool a house. The medium that they use is not relevant, they can use forced air just as well as radiators or floor heating.

I was working in NY for one week some years ago and we were in a small room without windows in the basement (which is btw illegal in Germany). After an hour I felt sick.. and thought I caught a cold or something.. but as soon as I walked out on the street, everything was fine again. Turns out, I just cannot take the air from air conditioning. Might be something you can get used to.. but to answer your question: no I don't want the A/C.

AC is coming sooner or later. The Heat pump is changing it slowly because the newest of them can cool also beneath heating. Second thing is, if you are having the windows opened at night it is cool on day also. Clever cooling with nature.

Built in closets take more space, so your own closet is space-safing. Also it’s part of the furniture and you can choose the design and place by yourself

The old wood framing houses aren't limited to Hessia - it had been common place all over Germany, but more of this architecture survived further south because these regions had been out of reach for allied bomber squadrons in WW2.. Many old town districts fell victim to bombing raids with Berlin, Dresden, Cologne and Hamburg to just name the most obvious examples.

You recently asked where you could go if you came back to Germany this year... 1. East Friesland the best place to go is the Friesenhaus museum and the surrounding villages where you can see reed roofs, for example 2 Black Forest These houses are also “regionally optimized” 3. "to the East" 4. in the "POTT" for example in the "Krupp settlement" 5. in Augsburg in the “FUGGEREI” settlement There you can see how "Our Houses" are adapted to the surroundings or financial situation....! I'm just talking about the topic of "house" here. In my area in Düsseldorf there are the “Glashütte” houses, whose specialty?! Bedroom without windows! Why? The workers at the glass factory had to work 24/7 and so that they could sleep during the day, the company built these houses so that they could sleep in the dark, for example In America, in the country of "Unbridled Capitalism", the cheapest thing is always built because of "corporate greed". That's why these housing estates in the USA all look the same, just like in the old Communist Russia That reminds me of the saying fromold times: When two KGB commissar inspect a "new socialist building," one says, "Go into the other room!" he asks, "Can you see me? the other answers "NO!" then he knocks on the wall “Can you hear me?” the other “YES!!!” .......THESE ARE GOOD WALLS!!!

Crazy entertaining, great video James :D!

6:35 the thermal insulation we have on our houses, keept the cold out in the winter, but in the summer they keep the heat out. So its not like in a oven and we dont need any energy to cool down the house

We have a Natural AC, its Called a Fenster/Window. You open it during the Night and let the Cold air in, then once you wake up you close the Windows and Close the Shutters or put them on slit mode to let in some Light. Like this you have it cold for long periods of the day. And even if you need Cooling you can use a Fan or some Ice Cream. Or drink a Ton of Water. So sorry the AC point Dont Works here.

We have an air cooler (Not a build in, its simply plugged in and a air hose pumps the hot aur out) and we need to run it like 2 or 3 times a year (30 minutes before the room is cool enough for the rest of the day), some years it doesnt run at all, beccause an open window in the morning is enough.

James, I have never laughed so much in your videos than this 😂. Great humor and good facts combined. Well done🎉

Actually our rooms are just nearly completely darkened to keep the heat outside and during nighttime we open all windows hoping for temperatures under 20°C, if that doesn't happen we're COOKED😂🔥

regarding air conditioning, there is this funny situation, that they can be operated as heating units. they obviously release the heat in the wrong spot of the room (on the ceiling), but it's better than nothing. and during spring and fall, they can reach a conversion factor of 6, up to 10. meaning, for every KWh electrical power you get at least 6KWh thermal, or more. depending on the outside temperature and the inside. suddenly, AC is pretty interesting. summer = cool, spring and fall = warm, winter = well, you need another mode to heat, they're too expensive.

Air conditioning or combined cooling/heating systems are increasingly being viewed as alternatives in Germany, especially in combination with your own photovoltaic system, so that electricity prices play less of a role. They can replace classic heating systems (oil or gas) where e.g. A heat pump cannot be approved due to distance requirements to the neighboring property (noise nuisance). This is particularly the case with smaller terraced houses.

@srccde

Ай бұрын

You do realize that an AC *IS* a heat pump, right? Same thing, just working in reverse. In fact, my AC can work as a heating unit too in the winter.

@DerJarl1024

Ай бұрын

I am well aware that an air conditioner uses the same process as a heat pump or a refrigerator. However, for Germans, air conditioning is primarily remembered as a cooling system and a heat pump as heating. The fact that there are combination devices here is less known. Since other Germans are also reading here, I chose this type of differentiation to make them aware of it. As a real estate agent in Germany, I am simply more familiar with this than the average German population.

You were freezing in Hamburg Bro. When we travelled from south Germany to Hamburg we wondered why everyone was wearing winter jackets. It was freezing cold and we had to buy 2 jackets at H&M. Which we returned after at our H&M ^^

An AC is not somehow attached to the house or anything like that. You can install or uninstall one at any time without any problems. That's why I don't understand the statement "German houses don't have air conditioning"! It is a choice not to have air conditioning and not a problem!!!

A simple argument against built in clsoets is: I can arrange my bedroom etc the way I want... you would not put you bed next to the door of a built in closet right? That's the main reason

The reason why most german homes dont have build in closets and build in AC-Units is because both is seen as a novelty for the rich in germany. It is much more common to find both of these in the houses of upper-class people but the middle class in germany mostly doesnt thing that these things are necessary and not worth buying.

For me it's not rare to endure above 30°C at home in summers. Highest I measured in my bedroom was 38°C 😂. I often sleep outside in my garden when it's above 30°C indoors

If you have a well insulated house in Germany, it needs a real hot period for turning your house into an oven. You may feel different because you are used to AC.

I live in rural Baden-Württemberg and studied in the Black Forest and I must say the Fachwerkhäuser and older farmhouses here dont need any AC because they tend to be really really cool inside, even at 30 celcius. They sort of act like a cellar because they´re thick af.

very good video! i can see a lot of efford went into it. was worth it!

@JamesBray3

29 күн бұрын

Thank you so much ❤

15:00: It is not to easy to really redesign old houses. I live in a house build 1901. The walls are 80 cm thick (!!!) and you can‘t remove them. And if you have an old house it is protected as an monument. You are not able (by law) to install an AC, remove walls, use every color to paint it and so on. The government is very strict with this. And in new houses you find separate rooms for cloth here in Germany.

if you open the windows only at night in the summer, the house will stay at about 22°c even if its 30-40°c outdoor, that means that you dont even need an ac if you are patient enough to not open the windows at day time 😅

My family's home for five generations wouldn't possibly have survived the allied phosphor canisters dropped in WW2 if it wasn't as solidly made as it was. My teen grandpa managed to scrape the burning phosphor off the walls with a shovel and bury it on spot - decades later while working with a shovel in the garden he accidentally dug out a lumb of the phosphorous mass and now having contact with oxygen it caught fire again instantly.. 😅

In the kitchen you will find either a more or less complete kitchen or nothing at all. Counters and cabinets without appliances is unusual.

Shouldn't global warming be an argument for better insulation instead of the use of more ACs?

@Nico_83

27 күн бұрын

Logical thinking. Not really the strength of most Mericans 😂

@aphextwin5712

17 күн бұрын

Global warming is an argument for both. Up to a point insulation can be sufficient and it does reduce the cost of AC when you do add it. But from a certain point onwards better insulation won’t be enough.

You know that Isolation works the other way around too, right? Even if it's 40°C outside, I'll be perfectly fine inside even without AC... And even if it were to get too warm inside (which has never happened in my entire life) I'd just open the windows at night and everything would be fine by tomorrow. AC is a complete waste of energy and money... just build good houses!

I love our sturdy, well insulated houses but when it gets hot during summer (we talkin 40°C +) it's just a nightmare. 2019 we had to endure 49°C and those are the times were I fill up my bathtub with cold water and won't come out till it's bedtime

So, about the pantries and the closet, not a lot of modern german houses even have a pantry. We had whole storage cellars and literal "shoe cellars" including clothing racks in now ancient german houses, but there was a period where germany was completely broke and nobody had the money for a large collection of clothing, so the clothes-related storage rooms just went away completely. And the storage rooms for food became what we now use as "the cellar" in general, which often is just one or two rooms, for anything, in the basement. We had a lot of financial booms since then, but those extra storage spaces never came back and now modern homes are starting to be built in a scandinavian way or straight up American, so the German character and design is slowly fading away anyway.

Ok, german here. AC has it's advantages. I lived at the equator for over 8 years from 8 to 16 years old and it was a help at night when I went to sleep, but not more. During the day the AC was off. My mother, a nurse, was of the opinion that using the AC any other way was bad for our health, as changing from cold to hot so often during the day is a schock to the body each time. But here in Germany i think it is mostly not necessary as there is still a difference most of the times between night and day so that the opening of all windows for a time in the morning is sufficient for cooling the house. And keeping it cool by using the shutters and not opening any window a long as it isen't way in the afternoon. Another way to cool down a house is using the draft efficiently (open windows so that the air moves from the sunny side to the shadow side). My combany installed an AC in many workspaces because of the heatwaves, so that people will keep on working and there will be no "Hitzefrei" letting people go home because it is too hot to work and it is a danger for your health. Because if they collapse at work because of it being to hot and not letting them go home it can have consequences as it wil be counted as a work accident, which costs the company more, since the sick person will still get paid and the work afterwards still needs to be done. I don't need a closet, it would be 2/3 empty since I do not have so many clothes and shoes. So a home with a closet would not be used as a closet but as an extra storage space for other things or made into a small room (like a PC-Room for example or a Home-Office space), which is more efficient.

in winter I have to heat a little bit and get 20°C, in summer I open the windows at night and shut the windows over the day and get 20°C. (25°C top floor directly under the roof)😁 3 years ago I lived for rent in a new build appartment and had around 18°C with this strategy.

A German home is completely self-furnished. Do you want a gas oven? Then put in your own. If you want to decide where you want to sleep, you put your own closet there. If the closet is already built in somewhere, it has to be a bedroom and you have to organize yourself around it.

Consider a grow box in your room, it can drop the temperature up to 3 C°

There is a scientist in Germany who also has a KZread Channel (Andreas Schmitz or Akkudoktor) and he is using AC's for all his heating and cooling requirements in his house. And he is spending less money than most of us in Germany. Which you is interesting.

Open your windows in the morning and late evening, and voila, with proper insulation your house stays cool during summer.

Air it out early in the morning, pull down the shutters and the apartment is pleasantly cool. ✌

Fun fact Instead of a new Wärmepumpe, they invented very efficient air conditions that could be used to heat in winter too,cheaper as a normal heating system with petrol

@JamesBray3

Ай бұрын

See, now THAT sounds like the solution we’ve all been looking for 👌🏽🥳😎

I use an AC here in Leipzig, because without i will shrivel and die. Without AC it gets 35+°C on a regular basis.

The fundament is in the cellar and above that the german brick/concrete or even wood-house is built.

While electricity for private households cost an average of 13.97 cents per kilowatt hour in 2000, in May 2024 it is an average of 38.82 cents per kilowatt hour with an annual consumption of 5,000 kilowatt hours. So do I want air conditioning? Even if the installation was free??? Hell no.

The answer regarding built-in wardrobes is relatively simple: capitalism. In Germany, too, they build cheaply for maximum profit. Built-in wardrobes are usually found as a historical remnant in pre-war apartments. After the war, the aim was to have rooms to live in at all and most of these cheap and simply built post-war houses from the 1950s are still standing today, although they were actually planned as a temporary solution. In my apartment, which was built in 1926 before the war, many built-in wardrobes were also torn out, as this meant that more square meters of living space could be used for rent. In addition, my apartment was divided into two separate apartments after the war and was only reunited into a three-room apartment in the 2000s.

AC is part of a vicious cycle, they emit more warm air then they can cool down on their other (inner) side. Still I bought one for emergency (being in Germany) If you can plant a tree to shade your place, do that before investing in an AC. But with more extrem summers we will need and have more ACs.

i love our windows in germany, the way they open, the varyeties,etc.

Thanks! I completely agree about the window screens and screen doors. I don't need them, because in the specific location I live, (western part of Vienna, Austria), there are hardly any bugs. Three miles farther to the west, outside the built up part of the city, my parents do have window and door screens and really need them, too. Construction work cost is also a major factor. Just having the cladding on the weather side of my house redone cost about €40k. In the nineties. You could buy an o.k. house in BC, Canada at the time for about C$250k. And yes, brick houses do benefit from cladding. My house has two feet solid brick outside walls. None of that newfangled hollow brick nonsense they've been using since the 1900's. But bricks only stand up to being waterlogged for a couple of decades. After that, they need a chance to air out :-)

More and more get AC here in G. I have one in my Livingroom since 4 years. I just need one splitsystem in my House, It's enough to cool the whole house. My photovoltaic brings the electricity. Since it gets warmer and warmer in the summer, more and more people are installing an AC. 30-40 degrees Celsius over weeks can otherwise be quite torture

Warmer summers in Germany: keep the windows closed during the day (and don't let sunlight heat up the rooms too much. creating shade is important) and open them during night to cool down the brick walls, which will then store the cold and stay cool during most of the day. I usually manage to keep my apartment up to 8-10°C below the outside, hot summer temperatures this way. And if it still gets too unbearably hot, I occasionally us a fan and / or a towel from the freezer in my neck or on the head.

Even when we (rarely in north Germany) have like 33 degrees Celsius or stuff like that it’s comparable cool in the night so keeping a few windows open during the night and than keep them closed during the day will almost guarantee a comfortable temperature and that without any electricity involved

@qobide

Ай бұрын

Shade is much more important than closed windows. Close windows raise the humidity inside the home and make it much more unbearable inside instead of warmer but dryer outside air that flows through the house.

we probably have a many houses with AC as you have houses with basements which i think are suuuuper underrated

1 thing bout all the AC talk. IF you know how to air out your house, apartment,flat, condo or what ever you live in, YOU DON'T NEED a FRIGGIN AC! ;)

@JamesBray3

Ай бұрын

Global warming makes it a little trickier tho 😢(depending on the house and location 😭)

@kathischmiddldiddl4201

Ай бұрын

@@JamesBray3 maybe in certain areas more than others. I have a Balcony to the south, I keep my windows closed and shut out the sun with blinders. Then open up the windows to the north and have cool air during day time. When the sun reaches west I change the open sides and keep my cool air in my home. Given not everyone has that opertunity. But it's possible to not over heat during summer without AC. Done it for 40 years now ;)

@reinhard8053

Ай бұрын

If it's really hot and still warm at night it gets difficult to cool down the house. After some time all the stone walls will be hot even with insulation. And then the wall inside is just like a heating element in summer. My house has an AC to the hallway where the sleeping room is, which helps for the nights in summer when it's really too hot. Some hours a night for some days a year is no problem for the bill. A centralized AC is difficult with our houses. We don't have the air ducts throughout the house. In older houses they are nearly impossible to add and new houses are normally not planned like that unless they are Zero Energy houses with heat reclaimer.

I lived in Heidelberg and in one day we had a tornado 120 kmh and in one moment the center of the tornado was around the building I was used to live so the building shook a bit but nothing really happened to it. I had one appointment when the tornado has also faded out. While going there I saw many trees that have fallen into the houses, cars, in walls and so on. Large trees that had fallen into the house did not do lot of damages to the house. If a tree in USA falls into the house the half of the house is gone in instant.

The place where I live now has been renewed some ten years ago, and they've redone all the insulation with thick layers of styrofoam, new triple windows and all, and when it's 40° C outside, I barely have 16 - 18° C inside. In the evenings I have to wear a sweater because I'm freezing otherwise, and when I walk out the door during the day, I feel like I'm stepping into an oven. There are natural disasters sometimes, like floodings, and even though we can have hurricanes or tornadoes in some locations, they don't get as strong as those in the USA and stay tiny in comparison. We sometimes have very strong winds, like 200 km/h fast, that blow the roofs off of houses and uproot trees, but it's not that often. I guess the hurricanes you have in the USA would also destroy stone houses, and maybe having paper and wooden walls flying around is a bit safer (are there statistics about people killed by flying debris?). We barely have earthquakes, and they haven't been very strong, although there have been cracked walls in some places, especially in places where there have been coal mines in the past (which also caused some of the "earthquakes"). In France, there are houses that are thousand years old, and they're built in a way that you don't even need to buy a fridge, they have naturally cool rooms to store food, they never get warmer than 8 or so degrees C in Summer (they knew how to built houses like that back then, it has to do with orientation as well, it's always cooler on the north side, and the walls are 1 meter thick). Also, to avoid getting hot air in, we leave windows and blinds closed during the day, and only open the windows to "lüft" when it's dark and not so hot anymore. :)

I could list 20 arguments contra closets here but only one pro closet argument: You don't have to buy/transport a cabinet and can put your stuff away immediately. But I hate the idea of "build-in" stuff so much. If you like closets, just buy a drywall and a door. Selfmade is even better.

Old german houses are a trip - constant horror game ambience, room sizes made for giants (like RE8's Lady Dimitrescue), impossible to heat in winter without going broke during it, all sorts of historical protections preventing you from modifying or fixing any design flaw. The Dark Souls of real estate.

We do Not have closets build in our WALLS so that the design is more customizable for the renting person😊

I know a few friends and co-workers that either got portable ACs or had ACs installed. I could see that becoming more popular, particular in old buildings. If you want to build a new house in Germany these days (or modernize an existing one), you can get a lot of financial support if you adhere to certain building codes, building "Niedrigenergiehäuser" and "Passivhäuser" that have particularly low energy needs. They can hold their temperature really well, and need less heating in winters, but also don't get as warm in the summer, due to strong insulation and a ventilation system to get fresh air without losing or gaining too much heat from the outside. I think walk-in-closests might be less popular because this means the use of a room is predetermined, making it less flexibile. You can put an Ikea wardrobe, bed or office table anywhere in an empty room, but turning your walk-in-closet into a children's bedroom or home office is less easy.

AC is not a part of the house in Europe. You can choose it if you want, and remember isolation also works against heat.

I prefer natural hot air over the weird dry air from air conditioner. I lived in Venezuela for a few years and almost never used the ac

More and more houses in german and austria are installing heat pump for heating here houses. This heater can also used for air conditioner. The baltic states also use them for a long time. The house owner often also install photovoltaic system on the roof of here houses.