Makes sense, though still i'd set up a small A/C exclusively for the sleeping room if I suffer so much...

By the way I do not hate summer. I very much like being able to go out in a t-shirt and flip-flops only... And go splash in a warm water!

Nor do I hate winter, even at -30C. Winter has its own fun. I love snowboarding. Auroras at north. Like Norwegians used to say, there is no bad weather, there is unsuitable clothing

What I hate the most is a mid-season, +5C and incessant cold rain in the face.

It was a big culture shock when I went on vacation in Bavaria, Germany two summers ago, visiting distant family. Most people’s personal homes don’t have central A/C in Europe.

Germany gets hot too! It was 93F in Nuremberg one day, with almost no A/C in most buildings. I ended up sleeping with the windows wide open, praying for a cool breeze. Also learned the cold towel trick, freezing a damp washcloth and placing it across my chest. This trick cools your whole body off 
 
Next time I go to Europe, I hope to visit Scotland in summer 2026. It’s nice and cool there in June, with temperatures in the middle 60s and sunny most of the time  I would enjoy summer more if I lived in a cooler climate.

I agree central A/C is almost of no use in Europe (and Asia, and Russia too) for private homes or flats. More of American thing. I presume because of huge cost and complexity of installation. Also the service like cleaning the ducts looks complicated. And almost impossible to add it as a retrofit to an existing home, until one wants to go into some really serious construction. Simplified variants are practiced sometimes, like at my friend's flat, where indoor unit is placed under the false ceiling and connected with ducts but that is rare. Central A/C is often (but not always) practiced in some newly built commercial buildings though.

Overall, almost all A/C here is split systems with individual indoor units fit to the walls or in the ceiling. Most usually driven by own outdoor boxes, but sometimes in multi-split configuration. Window boxes type A/C is all gone out of style.

It is absolutely not true that A/C is overall rare in Europe.

 

In Canada, it depends on the province. Some provinces have fairly mild summers and so don't have a lot of homes and apartments equipped with AC while in other provinces with fairly hot summers, AC is pretty common. In my city, the summers are pretty hot and humid so AC is fairly prevalent.

To be honest, if I lived in a home or apartment without AC, I'd install one, even a small window unit that cools only the bedroom helps a lot in the summer.

Older homes and apartments were typically heated with hot water radiators or electric baseboard heaters. Those typically use window units or mini splits for AC retrofits. In newer homes with forced air ducts, central AC systems are what's mostly used.

For newer apartments, what's typically fitted is a system with a central chiller and boiler and a single fan-coil unit in every apartment feeding some ductwork to distribute the air throughout the apartment, similar to what's used in larger office buildings and malls. Mini-splits aren't that common in apartments.

Older apartments usually use window units, either retrofitted into the window or placed in a cutout under the window in older apartments that were built with AC. A similar setup is also used in hotels, although larger hotels might use fan-coils.

Smaller office buildings and warehouses typically use rooftop mounted AC units that are fed with ductwork into the building. AC in a warehouse or factory isn't that common unless required for the goods being stored or the production process due to costs.

Makes sense, though still i'd set up a small A/C exclusively for the sleeping room if I suffer so much...

By the way I do not hate summer. I very much like being able to go out in a t-shirt and flip-flops only... And go splash in a warm water!

Nor do I hate winter, even at -30C. Winter has its own fun. I love snowboarding. Auroras at north. Like Norwegians used to say, there is no bad weather, there is unsuitable clothing

What I hate the most is a mid-season, +5C and incessant cold rain in the face.

It’s nice here today after a punishing, sweltering weekend!, it’s 23 here at the moment, but with full cloud cover and a nice breeze 👍

Simply put: I love summer .. a few of the biggest reasons being:
The longer daylight hours, simply one of the best parts. The short daylight hours are one of my biggest dislikes about winter.

Thunderstorms (though we don't get very many here). If I have "one true love" in life, its thunderstorms - and in particular lightning.

Good warm days .. though its not uncommon to get into the 90's (and can on occasion get to just above 100). There are a couple factors that make  the heat not so bad: Its a semi-desert climate, so humidity is usually low when its hot - like %'s in the teens (and can drop into the single-digit %'s .. that though is pure desert, & brings up the wildfire-dangers issues) It also cools off at night (typically 60's or 50's for summer-night lows)

It’s lovely here this morning, but this may sound a bit crazy!, so bear with me!😎
I cycle to work, and this morning it’s 15 degrees C, and raining 🌧️, but I absolutely love the rain when cycling in summer!, it’s so refreshing! 🤪, (granted, it’s not so much fun in winter, but tolerable).
But after the stifling heat we’ve had at the weekend, the rain brings a much welcomed freshness to the air in Cheshire 🥳

It also brings that beautiful ‘rain smell’, as the parched dry and dusty ground is dampened, which brings its own fresh feeling to the morning!

Central AC is very expensive to install in many places in Europe. Houses here are mostly designed for hydronic central heating systems, not for forced air. Installing central AC requires ducting and since walls here are most often made from solid cinder block, gypsum block or brick, there simply is no place to put ducts.

Split multiple units are usually the solution and are becoming more popular because we want to get away from the dependency on natural gas. Heating with split unit heat pumps is very efficient. But it goes without saying that it's very expensive, because you'll still need non-trivial holes in walls for the refrigerant lines, a unit in every main area etc etc.

Now, portable ACs are getting incredibly popular. But it costs 23 cents per hour to run a small one (the average cost of power in the Netherlands is about €0,23 per kWh). Downside of those is that they're horribly inefficient compared to whole house units. The COP of mine is only 2,5.

Now we arrive at the final point. I can run my AC for free since i have 4 solar panels on my roof, which produce enough power (about 1200w) to power the 1000w input power portable AC. Great! However, there is a problem. The sun only hits the panels just right in the daytime. Exactly when i'm at work.
I cannot leave my window open for the AC hoses to get through because of the risk of burglary. The feed through panel in my window is absolutely not burglary proof and i have not yet found a way to do this without this issue.

All that said, i love summer. After the heat wave a few weeks back it's been consistently 20-25 degrees, with a few rain storms in between which feeds all the foliage everywhere. Everything is lush and green, i can walk outside in shorts and shirt, it cools down enough at night to avoid heat soak in the house and i can't imagine a better place to exist right now.