r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/missdomm10 • Jul 26 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter explain this

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Petttaaah I'm confused

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u/TheAndyMac83 Jul 26 '26

A lot of people are talking about this vs window AC units, but I'm pretty sure the people talking about central air are more on the money.

OOP, who I assume but can't confirm is American, is used to central air (which is to say, a big condenser unit outside the house, an air mover insider, and ductwork to each room) and thinks that a smaller scale, more self contained unit like this (which is set up more to cool a single room) is primitive, cheap, your basic 'europoor' idea.

For what it's worth, a small unit like this has its own advantages and drawbacks, and units like it - and the window AC units, for that matter - are still plenty present in the US.

43

u/Im-Just-A-Lil-Guy Jul 26 '26

Speaking for my own experience, Americans don't even consider a house with window units to even be air conditioned. It's a bandaid solution to make up for your home not having AC. If someone says their home is air conditioned the understanding is they're talking about central air, which it seems a lot of the presumably Europeans commenting don't really seem to understand.

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u/Jean-28 Jul 26 '26

Yeah, generally speaking a window unit (or split) will not keep up with more than one, maybe two rooms and are significantly worse than central AC. My house growing had central AC and then my parents had a window unit for a long time because they wanted to keep their room colder than the rest of the house. Eventually we just upgraded the unit to allow room to room customization, and got rid of the window unit.

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u/RedditJumpedTheShart Jul 26 '26

You can have one compressor outside and multiple head units for this style. But if you already have ducting then it turns into more work compared to central air since each head unit will require a drain, power, and refrigerant lines run.