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Air conditioning guide: How to survive the heat

30-degree heat settles over Austria, and in the cities even the nights hardly bring any cooling. If this continues for a few days, it becomes uncomfortable indoors too. Cooling technology, from fans and DIY projects (instructions below) to air conditioning, promises a remedy. But not every appliance delivers.

Our author has painful experience with heat. Having viewed the old apartment on the third floor in the spring and moved into it in the fall, it took until the following summer for the thermal peculiarities of the domicile to become apparent. A room temperature of 31.5 degrees can be reached after several hot days, and it never drops below 26 degrees at night during heatwaves. Buying an expensive air conditioning system that consumes huge amounts of electricity? That was out of the question at first.