Many in the Balkans have long distrusted artificial cooling methods.
In some areas, far from tourist hotspots, people even avoid chilled drinks and ice cream for fear of catching a cold, Kathimerini reports.
Analysts say hot summer temperatures like this week's are changing those attitudes, and the data backs that up. This is good news for air conditioner suppliers. However, this raises concerns about the impact of rising consumption on the fragile power grid.
On July 16, Kosovo's energy provider KESCO warned its customers to limit their electricity consumption as it had to import electricity worth €1 million a day from its neighbours.
A month earlier, a spike in demand during a heat wave likely contributed to a major blackout in Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania and most of the Croatian coast, disrupting businesses and shutting down traffic lights.
"The stress that the power grids had already received due to the prolonged heat wave in the region contributed to the occurrence of this failure," the head of the Greek transmission operator ADMIE Manos Manusakis said at the time.
In the long term, some countries will need to strengthen their grids and increase domestic production of energy from renewable sources, experts say. Bosnia, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia rely on coal for electricity generation.
Albania uses hydroelectric power, but relies on imports when summer rainfall dwindles.
In the last five years, the import of air conditioners in Kosovo has increased by 400%, according to customs data. They were once the preserve of banks and businesses, but now they are buzzing en masse around residential buildings in the capital, Pristina. I BGNES
