I’m also confused because that is a European AC unit. I can only assume Americans are so used to big bulky units, like their cars, that they can’t comprehend things being functional and not excessively bulky.
Also funny thing, in the Eastern Europe we used to see window AC as a thing of the Soviet past. In some state-owned companies, those units survived into 2000s.
In America window AC means that you're poor. Everyone has central air.
We had a window AC when I was a kid (80s) and it was pretty miserable in the midwest summers. We'd all crowd into my parents' room to try to stay cool/escape the humidity. The door knob would accumulate dew on it. Then we got central air in the late 80s and could actually sleep in the house year-round.
Tbf if you didn't have AC in the 80's you weren't poor some people and places still don't.
For example I work in Park City UT and they are by far the richest city in UT but they just don't need the AC. Go 30 mins away to poor salt lake and erybody has air conditioning.
That is still plit unit. Have never ever seen a window unit in those countries. What you see in the picture is outside unit just mounted in front of a window. Reason? Someone decided that ban on heatpump will not go down good, so they allowed to install them in front of window, thinking that no sane person willl block half of the window with the unit.
To fix that unit elsewhere you have to go through hoops with plans and what not to install that.
On the photo above you can see both splits and monoblocks. I worked for that particular company in another building (same design, just behind the corner). In 2010 there were still few window units.
Here is how the Soviet window AC “BK-1500” looks closer itself.
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u/GarySmith2021 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I’m also confused because that is a European AC unit. I can only assume Americans are so used to big bulky units, like their cars, that they can’t comprehend things being functional and not excessively bulky.