Straight talk about air conditioning in France
Whether you rent or own, getting A/C needn't be a big deal
The topic of air conditioning—or the absence of it—is common among expatriate social media commentators in France when temperatures rise. And the recent prolonged heatwave in France has also opened the subject for national debate as never before. Perhaps the tide is turning toward greater acceptance of A/C in France?
There is something of a stereotype of French culture rejecting air conditioning in favour of other approaches to coping with (or simply tolerating) intense heat. Indeed, there appears to be a solid basis to this perception. A national survey undertaken by OpinionWay on behalf of France Énergie in 2021 revealed that 58 percent of respondents “prefer to suffer from the heat rather than install air conditioning.”1 More specifically, 75 percent responded that they have no intention of installing air conditioning, citing expense (66 percent) and concern for the environment (41 percent). But these are not the only issues. For example, public health and the transmission of disease in closed spaces is also a common concern—something that was manifest particularly during the Covid-19 emergency.2
Might change be afoot?
As the first lengthy canicule (heat wave) of 2025 hit the country and associated power failures affected bureaucratic offices that serve l’Assemblée (the national parliament), some politicians began to speak out in support of air conditioning. Two high-profile political leaders—Marine Le Pen (leader of the right-wing Rassemblement National, or National Rally) and Eric Ciotti (former president of Les Républicains, now affiliated with the rightist L'Union des droites pour la République) have called for a “national plan” for air conditioning, focusing on schools, hospitals and retirement homes.3 They have found seemingly strange bed-fellows on this topic with the ecologist party, Les Verts (the Greens). And members of the party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) have presented their own propositions de loi (legislative proposals) offering protections for outdoor workers, guaranteed access for vulnerable people to public and private facilities with air conditioning, and echoing the objectives of Le Pen’s proposal.4
My home city of Nice has a longer-term strategy for addressing rising temperatures and more frequent canicules. It includes a dramatic expansion of green zones and planting of trees in the city centre, reducing automobile traffic through the extension of tram lines and expansion of the network of cycle paths, and installing ceiling fans and limited air conditioning in schools.
In the wake of these declarations, spirited discussions of the practical, ethical and cultural issues associated with air conditioning have exploded in the media, with commentators lining up on both sides of the debate, pro and con. Concerns include—in addition to the above-mentioned health issues—the potential release of harmful refrigerants, heightened consumption of electrical power, and the expulsion of heated air which contributes in urban areas to the “urban heat island” effect. In one television debate, a commentator even raised the spectre of potential derailments in the Paris Métro due to warping of the steel rails. Others speak of lost productivity and threats to the health of vulnerable members of society.
Popular opinion might be changing in some quarters, too, in response to the suffering the canicule brings to French homes and businesses—after all, Le Pen’s statement targets popular sentiment in at least part of the population. Writing in the newspaper Le Figaro, Alix Lavoue also reports that the recent heat has caused “a surge in the sale of cooling equipment”—fans and portable air conditioners—with some retail outlets selling out their entire stock.5
It might be difficult to say unreservedly that attitudes of the French population at large are shifting toward acceptance of A/C. But the reality is that people in France sweat and suffer with the heat as much as people do anywhere—and there is wide public awareness that climate change will assure ever more frequent and more intense heat waves. Indeed, statistics show that there can be a high cost in human lives due to exposure to prolonged heat-wave conditions.
Apart from the arguments that arise in the public debate over A/C, there can be some practical obstacles to installing A/C in France, just as in any other place, among which are
Older electrical systems without the capacity to support new levels of electrical current;
Rules in a cooperative building against it, for whatever reason;
Civic regulations that prohibit installation of exterior A/C units on the street-facing façades of buildings (though so-called “cache-clim” cages for external units are available to disguise them); and
Financial constraints of a private owner, a lessor, or a landlord.
But if such impediments do not apply, there are real possibilities for surviving the heat by installing some form of air conditioning. American emigrés, averse to cooling off with a fan or two and who long for the ubiquitous air conditioning of their home country, can take note.
Suggestions to property owners and renters
There are different considerations for property owners versus renters—but what I’ve written below specifically for owners is useful for those who rent as well. The better you understand what’s involved, the better positioned a renter will be to negotiate with a landlord to install A/C.
If you own your own premises, you’re possibly the master of your own air-conditioning fate, particularly if you own your house. If you have an apartment in a cooperative where installation of A/C is allowed, even if subject to approval of the work, contact three vendors to get quotes. They’ll visit the premises and you can outline what you’d like to see. At minimum they’ll have questions whether you intend to use the A/C system for both heating and cooling; about the electrical supply and your electrical panel; about the room(s) you want to have cooled; and they’ll have other questions related to mounting the hardware and how to appropriately route water produced through condensation.
The question about whether you want to use the unit(s) for heat in addition to cooling is pertinent even if, in the heat of summer, it seems beside the point. Living in France it’s likely that your costs for electricity are less than costs for gas or other carbon-based fuels; if you can heat with a reversible A/C system or heat pump rather than with a gas chaudière and radiators, you might mitigate the annual costs of using the system. (My annual energy costs actually decreased after installing A/C because we now rely somewhat less on gas for heat, and because we studied the pricing plans from our energy provider at the time and chose a more optimal forfait, or pricing plan.)
The quotes you receive might be wildly different from each other. Some might propose installing external split systems, others might propose installing hardware within your dwelling with a pump and conduits to expel condensation water; some might propose a heat pump. There are a number of possible solutions, depending on the property and the preferences of the vendors you contact. Don’t forget to ask about the levels of noise generated if it’s an internal system. Ask about cleanup and make sure its included in the quote.
When you get the quotes evaluate them carefully. Take note if the A/C hardware requires an upgrade of your electrical supply—not the physical equipment in your home, but the level of power in kilovolts you subscribe to (la puissance du compteur), which is likely to be 2KVA, 4KVA, etc. (If an upgrade is required, contact your energy provider and make sure the upgrade is complete before work begins.) Check out the equipment proposed—look it up separately and make sure you’re satisfied that it will do the job. Ask for references and follow-up with them. Make sure the terms of payment meet your requirements—and do not pay the full cost up front.
So, what if it’s not possible to install an A/C system in your dwelling? Then you still have options, but they might be less satisfying, effective or efficient than having a permanently installed solution.
The two most likely choices are portable A/C units or window units. Portable A/C units live inside your home with you, but they need some way of expelling hot air and condensation. The unit will likely come with a long, wide flexible hose that must be vented to the outside. Sometimes there is a tank to collect condensation (which you need to empty at regular intervals); alternatively it might accept a hose that leads to a pipe or receptacle for collecting the water.
The solution you find for venting the air depends on the nature of your home environment: if the unit only lives in one place, perhaps creating a more-or-less permanent external vent would be a good option—requiring a glazier to cut a hole in a window and attaching suitable connecting hardware, venting it through a hole in the wall, etc. Alternatively, for these portable A/C units, window seal (joint de fenêtre) kits can be purchased to enable venting through typical hinged (fenêtre battante) or tilt-and-turn (fenêtre oscillo-battante) windows. But whatever you do, don’t vent it through a chimney flue!
Finally, if you’re sensitive to noise, you might want to consult the unit’s specifications for the level of noise it creates, in decibels. These things can be pretty noisy!
As for window units (climatiseurs de fenêtre), it all depends on the kind of windows you have. In Nice, where I live, it would be the rare building that would be suitable for such things, as American-style over-and-under windows (charmingly known as fenêtres à guillotine) that accommodate them are the exception rather than the rule. But if your habitation has them and there are no legal or contractual constraints, installing yourself (or with the help of a handyman) is possible. Just bear in mind that this type of system will likely only cool a single room effectively, will be noisy, and might not be very energy efficient.
If you rent your dwelling place, the starting point is probably a conversation with your landlord. Or maybe you’ll have several conversations. Just be prepared by trying to look at it from the landlord’s perspective, too.
What do I mean by that?
If the landlord can see some benefit to themself by installing A/C, then they have an incentive (other than just making you happy). Those incentives might be:
retaining a reliable and valued tenant;
your volunteering to taking on responsibility for identifying vendors and lining up quotes (if you’re up to that kind of thing);
improving property value;
benefitting from a tax break.
The latter two points can be meaningful from a tax perspective, depending on the property type. If you have a “standard” three-year lease in an unfurnished rental, the landlord likely declares rental income under the so-called régime réel, and is entitled to tax deductions for improvements made to a property for the benefit of tenants or to achieve energy efficiency (for example, replacing gas consumption with electricity consumption). More specifically, a landlord can deduct expenses for equipment, labour, and any associated VAT. If you have a furnished rental with the typical one-year lease, the landlord can also benefit under the régime réel BIC tax scheme by depreciating the cost over the useful lifetime of the equipment—but this provides, obviously, a lesser financial incentive.
I’m not suggesting you figure out the landlord’s tax situation in general, or that you get acquainted with all the ins and outs of the tax code. It’s enough to know that there’s potentially a tax incentive that you could mention in one of your conversations with the landlord.
And here’s a final incentive: You can motivate the landlord even more by offering, at the right point in a conversation or negotiation, a willingness to pay half of the costs (in cash), while letting the landlord declare the full expense on their tax declaration. If you’re desperate for relief and have the money, you can also offer to pay for the whole thing yourself!
By the way—the landlord cannot increase your rent based solely on having installed air conditioning, unless that is part of the agreement you’ve struck, in writing, when negotiating for the installation of A/C. Otherwise a landlord would have very limited options to raise rent on this basis, since the usual national basis for calculating rent increases does not recognise a right to pass on the cost of such improvements to a tenant.
If your landlord says “absolutely not!” then you might look at the options described above for portable A/C or window units.
And what if there are no viable options for A/C? There is one more option that might make your dwelling more comfortable. No, I don’t mean fans—though that’s an obvious choice, and for some it’s all that’s needed or all that is affordable. I’m thinking rather of a dehumidifier.
Living in Dublin, Ireland, before moving to France we relied on a dehumidifier to maintain a more-or-less constant humidity in our house since we have musical instruments that do best when humidity is kept below a certain level. We made use of the dehumidifier our first year living in Nice, and it made things more comfortable in the heat of summer, even if it did not lower the temperature. Since we dry clothing inside on a clothes rack, it made them dry much more quickly than otherwise. In addition, it had an HEPA filter for cleaning the air—also desirable in an urban environment.6
Ultimately, after the notoriously hot summer of 2022, we caved in and went the full split-system A/C route—just as four other occupants of our building have done.
So, I hope this is helpful to someone. And if it is, please let your expat friends know—you won’t miss hearing them complain about the heat and how “the French” are constitutionally opposed to air conditioning.
Find this post useful? You can always buy me a coffee to say thanks…
Bénédicte Lutaud, “La climatisation aggrave-t-elle le réchauffement climatique ?” Le Figaro (4 July 2025) https://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/la-climatisation-aggrave-t-elle-le-rechauffement-climatique-20250701 (consulted 5 July 2025). “Quelque 58 % disaient même préférer « souffrir de la chaleur plutôt que d’installer un climatiseur … »”
Guillemette Faure, “Drôle d’été : en froid avec la clim,” Le Monde (31 July 2020) https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2020/07/31/drole-d-ete-en-froid-avec-la-clim_6047771_4500055.html (consulted 5 July 2025)
“Canicule : Marine Le Pen et Éric Ciotti veulent un «grand plan pour la climatisation»,” Le Figaro (1 July 2025) https://sante.lefigaro.fr/social/sante-publique/canicule-marine-le-pen-et-eric-ciotti-veulent-un-grand-plan-pour-la-climatisation-20250630 (consulted 5 July 2025)
See also Julien Hoez’s remarks on Le Pen’s statement on air conditioning, “Le Pen’s Aircon Push, RN’s Legal Woes, Macron vs Iran, and a Youth Rebrand,” Substack: The French Dispatch (6 July 2025) https://www.frenchdispatch.eu/p/le-pen-aircon-rn-embezzlement-macron-iran-jam-jem (consulted 6 July 2025)
“Accès à la climatisation, congé spécial... LFI présente son plan contre les canicules à l'Assemblée,” Le Figaro (1 July 2025) https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/acces-a-la-climatisation-conge-special-lfi-presente-son-plan-contre-les-canicules-a-l-assemblee-20250701 (consulted 8 July 2025)
See also: “L’orage fait péter les plombs à l’Assemblée, la canicule ne réconcilie pas Mélenchon avec la clim... Les indiscrets du Figaro,” Le Figaro (4 July 2025) https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/l-orage-fait-peter-les-plombs-a-l-assemblee-la-canicule-ne-reconcilie-pas-melenchon-avec-la-clim-les-indiscrets-du-figaro-20250704 (consulted 5 July 2025)
Alix Lavoue, “«Presque tout a été vendu» : avec la canicule, les Français se ruent sur les ventilateurs et climatiseurs,” Le Figaro (3 July 2025) https://www.lefigaro.fr/conso/presque-tout-a-ete-vendu-avec-la-canicule-les-francais-se-ruent-sur-les-ventilateurs-et-climatiseurs-20250701 (consulted 5 July 2025)
For information, we were quite happy with our Meaco dehumidifier, which had a 12 litre capacity. Smaller and larger versions are available; see: https://eu.meaco.com/collections/luftentfeuchter. And we now use stand-alone air purifiers since with live in central Nice, with vehicle exhaust and occasional Saharan dust; we find our Coway units effective and extremely quiet.
Obviously a very timely article that should be useful to some. We installed A/C in my husband's law office, where I work also, which is on our house's property. It really wasn't possible to work there all day, especially in my office which is upstairs. So far we do without it pretty well in the house, but then again the Rodez area is significantly cooler than much of the south, and indeed other parts of Aveyron -- often 3-5° C lower.
As for the US, I echo what your friend Bill says about New England as it was the same in the PNW. I don't remember any houses with air conditioning growing up, although larger businesses had it, but now more people are putting it in.
Fascinating picture of an aspect of French culture. The "attitude" about AC in New England was similar - until it wasn't. You must remember that in Duxbury, there were just a few really hot days each summer. Ya just got through it.
When we were originally Inn Keepers in Maine, the idea of AC was hardly discussed. Just open your windows at night for the cooling breezes. And after all, the winters will be long and cold. How can you complain about the heat?
But...by 2001, the most frequent question asked when booking a reservation was
"Do you have AC?" It then became a matter of a business model that would fail without it.
As one who becomes downright grumpy in hot humid environments, it's clear to me that summer travel to France and much of Europe is now completely out of the question. Why suffer?