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Comment by dgacmu | Hacker News Reader

Some quick checking:

Average (well, median) US house size: 2000 ft^2

Average UK house size: 68 m^2 = 740 ft^2

That makes for a very, very different HVAC bill.

Numbers vary a lot by source but the relationship (2x+ larger in the US) holds. For example: https://www.zigguratrealestate.ph/post/how-big-is-a-house-av...

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From my anecdotal experience, residential HVAC is fairly uncommon in EU. Lived in northern Spain and Netherlands for many years.

The H of HVAC stands for Heating. I presume almost all houses in Europe have heating?

A lot of heating in the UK is gas (so wouldn't drive electricity consumption) and a lot of homes in the UK do not have AC (recent news reports suggest it is under 5% of the homes have it)

Yes but is the heating in HVAC through temperature controlled air flow like for cooling?

Over here it is mostly using radiators with water heated with natural gas (same gas that was used for cooking when fire stoves were common).

> Yes but is the heating in HVAC through temperature controlled air flow like for cooling?

In the US and Canada it is very common to have a furnace that delivers heated air in residential houses.

Yeah, that does not surprise me. The apartment I stayed at in York was absolutely tiny. It was decent, and big enough for one person, and it was pretty cheap, so I'm not complaining really, but I've never seen an apartment that small in the US.

Also there was just no HVAC there to begin with, so I guess even less of an HVAC bill.

That’s ironic, because a lot of the apartments in New York are also very small.

It's kind of mad that the US houses are an average of 2000 square feet, yet if you watch some of the "New York apartment tour" videos on YouTube they are often far smaller than even what you'd find in London. The kitchens are often absolutely pitiful little spaces, especially considering the multi-thousand-dollar rents.

If you’re in downtown or midtown they’re small. I lived in Washington Heights (north Manhattan) for a few years and my apartment was two bedrooms with a relatively big living area, and I was able to afford that with an academic’s salary. I don’t remember the exact square footage but my wife and I lived there and it didn’t feel cramped at all. I own a house in Brooklyn now and if you count the basement it’s about 1600sqft.

Though York is a fairly rural town, and houses/apartments that small in rural America, as far as I am aware, are basically unheard of.

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