Swiss and Germans avoid air conditioning

One in every two households in Italy has a built-in air conditioning unit whirring away, compared with just one in twenty in Germany. One in two Germans avoids using it because of the cost of electricity. A representative YouGov survey commissioned by the Swiss online retailer Galaxus and carried out in Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy and Austria shows just how differently people across Europe tackle the heat at home.

In Germany, people throw open the windows early in the morning to create a draught, then lower the blinds – for as long as possible. In Switzerland, too, four in five people say they cool their homes by airing them out in the morning and keeping the windows closed during the day – the highest figure of all five countries. Two-thirds also rely on external shading, such as roller shutters, blinds or awnings. This is also a top figure. Permanently installed air-conditioning systems? In Switzerland, as in Germany: none to speak of.

Meanwhile, fans are popular in almost all countries: around half of those surveyed use one. Only in Switzerland are they less widespread, at one-third.

The fact that Switzerland uses air conditioning so little is not primarily down to cost: only two in ten respondents cite the purchase price as a reason. In France and Germany, four in ten say the purchase price is too high.

What is holding Switzerland back is its environmental conscience: more than one in three people cite environmental concerns as a reason against air conditioning – in no other country is this figure so high. For Italians, environmental considerations play the smallest role. In Germany, it is neither the purchase price nor environmental concerns that put people off, but above all the electricity bill.

In Switzerland, only one in five people surveyed consider air conditioning in living spaces to be environmentally justifiable – the lowest figure of all five countries. Respondents in France and Austria have the fewest qualms.

Sales figures for air conditioning units on Galaxus suggest that the Swiss and Germans are changing their cooling habits: never before have customers there bought as many air conditioning units in a single month as they did in June 2026.