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My HVAC is a ground source heat pump, and my electric co-op buys power from a huge wind farm.
No pollution.
Our local coal fired power plant was shut down and removed.
No pollution.
My winter carbon footprint is way worse than my summer one. I heat one place with natural gas and the other with propane. My summer house is coastal New England where 90F is unusual and I cool with a 19 SEER mini split. A big summer electric bill might be $75.00. When the mini split dies eventually, I’m planning to replace it with a heat pump and use my natural gas boiler as a backup. I’m mulling solar panels on the roof and a plug-in hybrid.
I don't know about the South but large areas of the Southwest have such low humidity and high elevation that AC is unnecessary. Swamp coolers are basically a fan and recycling water pump that cools by adding humidity -- the opposite of AC. They use much less electricity than refrigerating air. Depopulating some lower elevation and oppressively hot places might happen at ome point. Las Vegas, Phoenix, and parts of Texas will be a major challenge.
They really won’t, though. Those are and will remain some of the fastest growing cities. We have modern technology, there’s nothing challenging at all about air conditioning hot places. It’s incredibly simple and there’s so much sun that solar power is readily available. If you want to live in cold climates, knock yourself out. I prefer he desert - I can’t tolerate cold weather constantly like the Pacific Northwest. Give me heat and give me AC when I walk indoors. I don’t care where I’m living, Alaska or Las Vegas, it’s 72-74 during the day inside and 66-67 at night. Just the way it should be.
MOD: The thread is about the effect of home AC use on global warming/ climate change/ whatever. It is NOT a general global warming thread. Posts that are not specific to home air conditioning or the effects of AC in general will be deleted. If off-topic posts continue, the thread will be closed or deleted.
MOD: I changed the thread title to be more respectful, as per the sticky
"Air Conditioning obviously adds heat to the air. First it requires the power plants to burn more fossil fuel, and second because it sends additional hot air from homes into the outside air."
The reasoning of your second point is completely incorrect. That is simply movement of heat within a larger system. Over time such effects cancel each other out.
Your first point has validity in pointing out that energy is used in air conditioning, but you don't get to require a link to fossil fuel, as that is an error of logic. Power can come from hydroelectric (common here in the southeast) or solar, wind, or other non-fossil fuel source. Also, AC in the southwest includes evaporative cooling using water, the same process that keeps forests from being deserts.
The poster most likely has meant an impact of a refrigerant’s use in a/c on climate change.
We are still producing and using a Freon- very detrimental to the planet and people. The newer refrigerants are a bit better- but more progress should be made, for sure.
I've silently weaned my family to a bit warmer on the A/C side in the summer. We used to be 75 day/72 night. Now we are 77 day and 75 night. So trying to help where I can, plus saving a little $$.
Just wondering if those who believe that each persons actions are overheating the climate of the earth, use AC?
I don't necessarily believe that each person's individual actions are overheating the climate of the earth, but, we do use A/C sometimes. We set it at 78 degrees day or night if we have it on. We really try to minimize it due to costs and personal preference, not our possible affect on the climate. We live in the south in a wooded area and would rather have fresh air blowing through the house whenever possible, that's how we grew up.
We have lived in homes in Ohio and California that did not have A/C. We lived in New Mexico where we used swamp coolers. We also lived in homes in California that required A/C most of the time, due to their locations on hilltops or lots without trees. My daughter lives in inland California where it gets extremely hot and of course, they have A/C.
IMHO, a lot of the need for A/C use is from the newer methods of house construction which end up with houses that require A/C.
Hawaii's electric rates are the highest in the nation or close to it. I'm sure Guam and Puerto Rico have the same problems since they are also island states/territories. Because the electric is so expensive, nobody can really afford to power A/C so there's all sorts of ways to deal with heat without it. FWIW, there's generally no heaters in houses around here, either.
Houses in Hawaii typically have a three foot wide eave - not to keep off rain, but to keep the sun off the sides of the house. Roofs are frequently white or light colors since white and light colors reflect sun. For awhile, there were state tax credits for folks who installed a white roof. Roofs are usually ventilated with vents up near the top to let heat out. All these passive systems add up to a cooler house without any costs for cooling.
Heat rises, so there's vents near the floor or louver windows below picture windows is a good method, or grills in closet floors with louvered closet doors - although that only works when the whole house is elevated on 'post and pier' foundations - to let in cooler air and with vents near the ceiling to let out hotter air.
High ceilings give the heat somewhere to go. Transom windows over doors are a good way to let heat migrate out.
A lanai all the way around the house creates a shady area to cool off the air before it enters the house. Louver windows are 100% ventilation instead of 50% for pane type windows.
An enclosed box requires A/C, a well ventilated box pulling in air from a shady spot works pretty well. Hawaii has high humidity, too, so the ventilation helps to keep down mildew and such.
Insulating the ceiling and allowing the attic to be well ventilated provides a big air space between the roof and the living space which keeps things cooler. Typically, older (prior to 1980 or so) houses in Hawaii have zero insulation, but all these passive ventilation systems keep them pretty livable. Tyvek house wrap started being used in Hawaii around then as well as double wall (2x stud wall) construction. Not sure if that's going to be a problem for mildew eventually or not. It does make it easier for the electrical and plumbing, though.
Yes, how a house is constructed can really help, too. One issue is how many people live in apartments which can be very hot. I lived in a poorly insulated second floor apartment without AC, the sun shone on it for hours, I tried a lot of tips but it was still 85 degrees inside for months and up to 94 a few times. This was in Oregon, too! The way it was laid out, as it was small, didn't make for good air flow, either. I have temperature regulation problems so I was sick a lot from it.
I've noticed that in the south, houses built 1950's and before tend to have been designed in such a way to allow for better air flow where it can be more comfortable without AC.
Some have kitchens where you can close the door and trap the heat from cooking in there, instead of it heating up an open living/kitchen space like modern designs.
In places where it's cold, this design allows one to stay in the kitchen where it is warm.
Many older houses in colder climates have doors to close off rooms to conserve energy and keep those rooms warmer, instead of heating the whole house if it's not needed.
Due to line losses, its only economically feasable to transmit power about 300 miles.
I dont know it it exists, but it would be fun to see average btu needs to heat and cool homes in different areas of the country. My guess is, that in most cases, the average is +/-10% for 80% of the country. Ca would probably have the lowest, Alaska the highest.
Years ago Parade Magazine had an article stating which metro areas have the best climate judge by heating and cooling days...
Oakland CA came out on top with two months out of 12...
Never lived in a home with A/C and growing up the only time the home was heated was during the holidays when family would come over...
No moldy books, no incidence of illness... etc...
Plenty of million dollar homes in the Bay Area with no A/C... and many older ones with no central heat...
The only way I know to avoid Home A/C and the effect on climate is to find your individual ideal climate and live there...
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We have only gotten into the low 70s during the day, but use our bedroom AC at night anyway to keep it at 67, our comfort level for sleeping. A little 6,000 btu window unit
Cooling a 400 sf bedroom is not having any measurable effect on the earth. We have another with 10,000 btu in the family room/kitchen and have yet to use it, because our triple pane windows have kept it to 70-72. Those windows alone have saved a lot more greenhouse gas than what our two ACs produce.
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