Use of air conditioning on the rise in Germany as summers become hotter

More and more households are turning to air conditioning to stay cool in Germany’s increasingly hot summers. The share of households using air conditioning has grown to 19 percent in 2024 compared to 13 percent the previous year, price comparison website Verivox has said. Another 19 percent said they would buy an AC unit, with global warming being given as the main reason by over half of the respondents. Fifty-three percent of potential buyers said they want to be better prepared for increasingly hot summer days. But the high cost of buying, installing and using an air conditioning system is the main reason (49%) people are put off, alongside the availability of other cooling methods, such as fans or sun shields.

Twenty-three percent said the negative environmental impact of air conditioning would stop them from buying one. Another 41 percent said they would buy an AC system if temperatures continue to increase, and 29 percent said they would do so if the devices were made more environmentally friendly. More than two thirds of air conditioning systems used in the country are mobile devices that cost less to install but have higher operating costs than those that are fixed to the wall. The annual costs for operating mobile ACs can reach up to 250 euros per year, Verivox added.

Confirming a trend towards higher temperatures across Europe, Germany's meteorological service marked 2023 as Germany's hottest recorded year, with an average temperature of 10.6 degrees Celsius, 1.3°C above the typical average. The following winter period into early 2024 was the third warmest since records began in 1881, bringing heating requirements in the country to the lowest level in twelve years.