If, as one of the quotes stated, they are worried about being “on a precipice”, maybe worry about the fact that you are doing tons of construction for games facilities, and athletes and staff are flying in from all over the world.
That massively dwarfs the ac the athletes want, I’m sure by several orders of magnitude.
If Paris wants to make an impact, They can ban Bitcoin and AI which is burning an incredible amount of energy. Otherwise let them have their air conditioners. This is stupid.
It’s one thing to have hotels in the city do this for the millions of tourists, but to force this on the highest performing athletes trying to achieve peak performance at the absolute most important competition of their life is kind of shitty. It’s a two week event for about 11,000 people. I’m pretty sure the AC from that doesn’t put a dent on the AC from the rest of the tourists from the event or the tourists throughout the year in freaking Paris.
The emissions from ACs for 2 weeks likely isn’t close to the emissions from all the construction they did just to host . The whole thing is ridiculous. The corrupt IOC officials watching from box seats and staying in 5 star hotels are all going to have AC.
This system of water pipes could have made for excellent, very low energy heat pumps. Imagine how efficient that could be with a ground source only 5-10° away from comfortable at all times!
Imagine training your whole life for one Olympics where you’re at peak performance, then having it fucked up because organisers decided to do this performative nonsense.
Yeah, but we’re talking about an underfloor cooling system here. They don’t really have a way to distribute the cold air like air-conditioning systems do. So in the Olympic village’s case, a fan should be needed.
It’s not exactly hot either though, after being in 35+c sun, it’s pretty chill.
For reference, my aircon is set to 27c in summer (still comfortable, but cost effective) and 18c in winter (WHO minimum recommended house temp, any less is a health hazard - also for cost effectiveness - electricity is expensive)
I hear you, but 79 is “hot” if you are used to be in 70 degree ac. They will get used to it of course but athletes don’t want to have to get used to it.
Hidalgo, who is against countries bringing their own units, stressed earlier this year that Paris organizers would not change course.
“I think we have to trust science on two counts,” she said. “The first is what scientists are telling us about the fact that we are on the brink of a precipice. And secondly, we have to trust the scientists when they help us to construct buildings in a sober way that allows us to make do without air conditioning.”
France has the highest percentage of nuclear power of any power grid in the world and its electricity is generated emitting a very low level of carbon dioxide.
According to this, France emits about a seventh the carbon dioxide per unit of power generated as the US does. We can use seven times as much electricity in Paris as back in the US and still have about the same carbon dioxide emissions.
Life has a carbon impact. Forcing this burden disproportionately on athletes while spectators (not to mention corrupt IOC officials) enjoy hotels with AC is ridiculous.
Don’t think that’s ever been a problem anywhere close to Paris climate. It’s not that humid and it’s not that hot. The difference between inside and outside climate is not that extreme.
And if humidity is a problem, you are dealing with mold, not actual wet floors. That is if the buildings are not well engineered and it would show in the long run, not during the gamee.
Condensation shouldn’t be an issue as long as you’re not cooling below the current dew point.
However, after experiencing one of these underfloor cooling systems once, I can say that the biggest issue is that cold air tends to be heavier and thus stay down. So in order to cool the entire room, not just the layer of air right above the floor, you need something to move the air, which is probably why they’re providing fans. Either that or you can just lie on the floor all the time…
Floor heating works because warm air rises. I never understood why ‘floor’ cooling wasn’t piped through the ceiling, instead. There are probably some engineering or heat transfer issues there, though.
Heating/cooling works better with a heat sink, such as concrete. Water is also heavy, so laying it on top of the floor is far easier than suspending it from the ceiling. Also, in many places you will want to both heat and cool, and running heating and cooling in different locations costs up to twice as much. The easiest solution is to move the air, so fans do just fine.
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