"the important thing is that people are talking about it"

Something interesting and bizarre that these points don't really cover, is why they're still opposed in public buildings like hospitals. If you're going to cool one building, it should be a hospital. It wouldn't even be that big a stress to the grid. Just suffering for the sake of suffering.

Thanks. Yeah, I've heard quite a few people were upset at the German greens, in particular, for this reason.

Which country are you talking about. I think each needs it's own investigation.

The German media was extremely critical of Habeck for subsidiesing ACs and "sabotaging his own goals".

Rooftop solar is a pretty straightforward solution to the energy need of ACs at least outside cities.

The German greens were also not the ones that rushed the nuclear exit.

Yeah and the general superiority stuff going on about it.

Until recently it largely wasn't needed in many places that do now, owner-occupiers are rare comparatively, old buildings are hard to refit, electricity is quite costly. All that made it a luxury item with few installers. Reverse cycle heatpumps aren't even that common in many places vs unidirectional ones and gas was relatively cheap so the heating side of the value wasn't great.

No great mystery, no stupidity required.

Obviously in countries where heat, and especially humid heat, is common it's extremely attractive and there's been wide adoption. If you also get cold winters it's a no brainer to go reverse cycle.