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Comment by maxxxxx | Hacker News Reader

Just insulate the houses in the US. I am always shocked how badly built US houses that cost 600k are.

Good insulation is pretty standard here in the US for everything built in the last two decades or so.

That said, fiberglass insulation mostly only helps against convection cooling/heating. I.e. through the movement of air. Summertime heat is mostly conductive and radiative i.e. near infrared. Insulation doesn't do much to stop that.

Shade trees however help this big time. A large tree placed in the right spot to shade a house in the afternoon can replace as many as seven window air conditioner units.

If anything they're over-insulated which can create other problems like a lack of fresh air, mold and fungus problems, and poor air quality in general.

The more you insulate the more you need to ensure you have proper ventilation, which is a sort of paradox.

You can insulate properly and still have air flow. It's not that hard.

Maybe it's getting a little better but in the apartment buildings I have seen the wind pretty much blows straight through the windows and the walls are paper thin. Even on the East Coast where they have real winters.

+1 to this statement. Just had extra insulation sprayed into the walls of our 1973 house, and replaced the windows with triple layer thermo glass. The difference it made during summer is remarkable, since the added insulation keeps the house from heating up excessively, while retaining heat during nighttime.

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