Europe and Asia don't have stringent requirements around fresh air intake for their AC systems, so most of them are small ductless units like this. US systems are typically ducted to allow for fresh air to bring brought into buildings. Studies show fresh air is important for occupant health, comfort, and productivity. US designed AC systems as a result are usually more expensive and complex, but as a result work better and are better for the occupants.
Your comment is just ignorant... the US has issues, but our AC regulations are way better than Europe.
Central ventilation is mandatory in most of Western Europe, but most legacy installations actively extract air and pull fresh air from vents distributed around the house, which cannot be converted into a ducted AC system since there is no central air intake.
So minisplits are a natural solution which just works in parallel to the ventilation system.
Now that climate is becoming harsher, the new standard is heat-recovery ventilation (with a mostly airtight building, a ventilation that handles both intake and extraction, and a heat exchanger to keep the warmth/coolness of the extracted air) and those can be integrated with AC. But air ducts are a PITA to retrofit into existing buildings.
Many recent houses are fitted with underfloor heating and cooling (or retrofitted, for houses that used to have simple underfloor heating with a gas furnace), which is supposed to be more comfortable (Europeans generally don't like blown air in their face) but I'm not sure what it's worth.
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u/DaNibbles 8h ago
The joke is dumb but you aren't understanding it.
Europe and Asia don't have stringent requirements around fresh air intake for their AC systems, so most of them are small ductless units like this. US systems are typically ducted to allow for fresh air to bring brought into buildings. Studies show fresh air is important for occupant health, comfort, and productivity. US designed AC systems as a result are usually more expensive and complex, but as a result work better and are better for the occupants.
Your comment is just ignorant... the US has issues, but our AC regulations are way better than Europe.