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Page added on July 19, 2013
Air-Conditioning Will Be the End of Us
Earlier this week, as the temperature in New York City hit the upper 90s and the heat index topped 100, my utility provider issued a heat alert and advised customers to use air-conditioning “wisely.” It was a nice, polite gesture but also an utterly ineffectual one. After all, despite our other green tendencies, most Americans still believe that the wise way to use air conditioners is to crank them up, cooling down every room in the house — or even better, relax in the cold blasts of a movie theater or shopping mall, where someone else pays the bills. Today Americans use twice as much energy for air-conditioning as we did 20 years ago, and more than the rest of the world’s nations combined. As a climate-change adaptation strategy, this is as dumb as it gets.
I’m hardly against air-conditioning. During heat waves, artificial cooling can save the lives of old, sick and frail people, and epidemiologists have shown that owning an AC unit is one of the strongest predictors of who survives during dangerously hot summer weeks. I’ve long advocated public-health programs that help truly vulnerable people, whether isolated elders in broiling urban apartments or farm workers who toil in sunbaked fields, by giving them easy access to air-conditioning.
I also recognize that air conditioners can enhance productivity in offices and make factories safer for workers who might otherwise wilt in searing temperatures. Used conservatively — say, to reduce indoor temperatures to the mid-70s in rooms that, because of shortsighted design, cannot be cooled by cross-ventilation from fans and windows — air conditioners may well generate enough benefits to balance the indisputable, irreversible damage they generate. But in most situations, the case for air-conditioning is made of hot air.
What’s indefensible is our habit of converting homes, offices and massive commercial outlets into igloos on summer days, regardless of how hot it is outdoors. Recently, New York City prohibited stores from pumping arctic air out onto the searing sidewalks in an attempt to lure customers while burning through fossil fuels in suicidal fashion. I can’t help but wonder whether cities like New York will ever prohibit stores from cooling their facilities below, say, 70°F. No doubt a law like that would raise even more objections than Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attempt to ban big sodas, but it might well be necessary if we can’t turn down the dial on our own.
I’m skeptical that American businesses and consumers will reduce their use of air-conditioning without new rules and regulations, especially now that natural gas has helped bring down energy bills and the short-term costs of cranking the AC are relatively low. Part of the problem is that in recent decades, the fastest-growing U.S. cities — places like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Austin — have effectively been built on air-conditioning. (This is also true in the Middle East and Asia, and as a result, global energy consumption is soaring precisely when it needs to be lowered.) Throughout the country, most designs for new office, commercial and residential property rely entirely on AC, rather than on time-honored cooling technologies such as shading from trees and cross-ventilation from windows and fans. As a result, there is now an expectation that indoor air will be frigid on even the steamiest days everywhere from the Deep South to the Great West. What’s worse, this expectation is spreading to the nations where American culture carries influence; sales of air conditioners rose 20% in India and China last year.
Trying to engineer hot weather out of existence rather than adjust our culture of consumption for the age of climate change is one of our biggest environmental blind spots. If you can’t stand the heat, you should know that blasting the AC will ultimately make us all even hotter. Let’s put our air conditioners on ice before it’s too late.
29 Comments on "Air-Conditioning Will Be the End of Us"
actioncjackson on Fri, 19th Jul 2013 7:22 pm
While I agree with the article’s point about using A/C more economically, eliminating it all together would make many regions uninhabitable, displacing people. I learned a very painful lesson about thermoregulation and maintaining the body’s core temperature a couple weeks ago, and if it weren’t for A/C I would have probably died. I live in Florida and was out on a boat for too long, 100+ degree heat and 100% humidity. Despite being thoroughly hydrated and not sunburned at all (I regularly fish), throughout the day my body heated up, and at night it set in with terrible radiating fever, vomiting, severe headache, and periodic loss of consciousness. Heat Stroke. If I didn’t have a cool dark place to recover, I don’t think I would have made it.
Frank Kling on Fri, 19th Jul 2013 9:00 pm
We grew-up without AC and we survived including my 106 year old grandpa. It’s an issue of acclimation. Americans are so fricking spoiled.
LT on Fri, 19th Jul 2013 9:35 pm
Centralized A/C system is a big waste of energy. But, unfortunately most houses in the US are unwisely built that way. Portable A/C units -window mounted units – should be used to save energy usage. Unfortunately, most people will not choose this round until electrical bills get real high.
Fans also help save energy, too.
TIKIMAN on Fri, 19th Jul 2013 9:37 pm
” Today Americans use twice as much energy for air-conditioning as we did 20 years ago”
You mean to tell me we’ve built more structures in 2 decades and installed AC units in them? No shit… This article could have fooled even me… In many commercial buildings, without AC the building would be uninhabitable, as the inside temp would rise above the outside temp and act like an oven. The same is true in houses. If we got 100% of electricity no one would care if ppl ran their AC’s in winter.
Who can sleep when their house is 80+ degrees at night? I might run my at most of the summer but in the winter my heat is rarely above 62. Ahhhh now THATS good sleeping weather! 😀
rollin on Fri, 19th Jul 2013 9:50 pm
It’s not the AC, it’s the building. If buildings were properly designed and fully insulated, there would be little need of AC and then it would be minimal, mostly to remove the heat produced by the inhabitants.
Properly insulated and sealed buildings won’t use much heat or AC.
Heat pumps are super-efficient as they move far more heat energy than they consume.
mike on Fri, 19th Jul 2013 10:23 pm
I live in a 120 year old Victorian house that stays at a steady 18 degrees even during the current heatwave we are having here in the UK. We manage the house by opening up all the windows and doors at about 5.30 in the morning to let cool air in and then by about 7am we close everything down, doors closed windows closed, curtains closed. It stays lovely and cool all day. They don’t make em like they used to.
Ibon on Fri, 19th Jul 2013 10:34 pm
There is an already existing perfect solution to this problem. Go to any developing country that uses air conditioning where energy costs represent a much higher percentage of the average workers salaries. What do you find? Very energy efficient split level units with SEER ratings up to 27 usually in only one or two bedrooms in a whole house.
There is however a mafia at work here in the USA that I don’t understand. A simple split level condenser with one air handler in Panama, Philippines, Mexico or Thailand costs around $500.00
Try finding a split level unit in the US for under $2000?? You wont. I don’t know why this is but this price level is abusive and smells of collusion.
If energy prices went high enough even energy hog Americans would be forced to reducing their air conditioning to one or two bedrooms and using these energy efficient split level units like we see in almost all urban areas in developing countries.
There is no ductwork in the construction of homes and offices in most developing countries because they build with concrete blocks. Split level units do not need duct work
Central Air travelling through large ducts cooling an entire home is downright insane from an energy use point of view…….
BillT on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 12:53 am
As some mentioned, Americans are f–king spoiled brats. I grew up without A/C anywhere. I was 29 before I slept in a room with A/C. And I live in the Philippines now with A/C but it is kept at 80F to 82F and turned of in the AM when it is that temperature outside. Why? Well, the design is poor here also, but electric cost is $ 0.30/kWh and increasing. The A/C accounts for about 1/3 of my electric bill.
This is one of the reasons that cities will not be inhabitable when cheap energy is gone. The building will not be livable in 95F+ / 90%+ humidity weather, which here, is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the year. I think Americans are going to be in for a real shock soon. And, yes, many will die.
Dmyers on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 1:58 am
Some observations from many years of observing air conditioning behavior.
1. It is always way too hot when the air conditioning finally comes on at the top of the thermostat cycle and way too cold when the air conditioner finally goes off at the bottom of that same thermostat cycle.
2. As a result of number 1, there is a strong tendency for the thermostat setting to be lowered repeatedly, as the top of the range seems increasingly “hotter than it should be,” after coming off the freezing low end of the range.
3. Most of the heat energy in the environment is produced by other electric devices, such as ovens and light bulbs. As a result, the user is paying money to produce the heat(e.g. operate the oven), and then the user pays to remove the heat energy he just payed to introduce.
4. People are completely unaware and uninformed about the affects of repeatedly going through drastic changes in temperature and humidity. On a one hundred degree day, with 90 percent humidity, behind the closed door is typically 75 degrees with low humidity, even down to 70, if obese people are present and have power over the thermostat setting. Life on Earth has not known these kinds of rapid, dramatic changes, so it isn’t built to handle them.
5. Air conditioning is like many other technological artifacts of modern times; once you have it, you don’t think you can live without it.
6. Window air conditioners produce a very stale room and use more, not less, energy than a central air system.
7. Air conditioning is evil.
8. Sitting in a car for a long period of time on a hot sunny day, idling with the air conditioner on, shortens your car’s operative life, increases the ambient temperature you are trying to escape, and lowers resistance to the elements the body needs to resist.
9. Huge blocks of real estate in the USA, governmental, medical, educational, and commercial will become dysfunctional and non-functional without air conditioning. Million dollar valuations would go to zero overnight if air conditioning were removed.
Suffice it to say, I hate air conditioning for all the above reasons. That fact is, I have lived without it, and more than likely, I will live without it. But until forced to by circumstances, I ain’t breakin’ a sweat for no one.
rollin on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 3:12 am
Many of us grew up without air conditioning, the body can adjust to a wide temperature range if given some time, especially when you are young. Losing most of your body fat helps too. Old people and ill people do need the air conditioning.
I also found I could sleep at near freezing temps with just a single blanket. After a couple nights of shivering the body adapts and you hardly notice it, if you have a decent food supply.
Probably the best use for it is in vehicles. They are built like green houses and build up high temps very quickly.
As far as Americans being spoiled, be careful, many work in very hot and cold conditions both in factories and outside. Just look at American recreation, they beat themselves into extreme shape just for fun.
DC on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 5:36 am
Matchsticks, sawdust and PVC soak up heat like sponges. A feature, not a bug. We are too stupid now to build any structures that can still function in the absence of HVAC. But we have LOADS of people that are very competent at building terrible structures. Im pretty sure if I ever had the money to build a proper house and laid my specifications out, I would probably have to bring someone in from Germany or someplace else where they still have people that know how to build properly. Try and find anyone like that in N.A.-they dont advertise…
GregT on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 6:30 am
Maybe there is something that we ‘whities’ need to learn from the ‘brownies’ , about survival in hot climates, without needing to alter the Earth’s natural environment.
mark on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 6:43 am
http://www.amazon.com/Losing-Our-Cool-Uncomfortable-Air-Conditioned/dp/B007F81YL4
Stephen on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 8:08 am
I think instead of window A/C units, we need to build community solar powered absorption chillers. Absorption is a process that turns hot into cold (If you look many RV refrigerators use a heating element or flame and an ammonia / hydrogen mixture and condenser coils to chill food). Solar panels are an efficent source of heat (many of them heat pools for example), and we could use them to produce steam to run an absorption chiller system in the neighborhood and then use it to chill a bunch of homes if we run the pipes to the vent coils. Many universities, large businesses, etc already use a chilled water A/C system for cooling. The other advantage of this system is that you can run hot water in it during the winter and have central heating. I bet a solar powered absorption chiller system would work really well in a desert climate like Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc.
BillT on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 8:25 am
Hahahaha….sorry Stephen. We ‘need’ to just turn them off. Not find another techie ‘fix’ that allows the bullshit to keep piling up.
Might I remind you that we live in a Capitalist democracy and anything that is practical AND profitable will be done, for profit. Nothing gets done anywhere in the world if there is no profit in it for the doer. Even family is an investment in offspring that will be there in later years to return the favor. Many things work in the lab but not in the real world.
Beery on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 11:22 am
I think it’s funny that the author thinks that when he goes to a movie theater or mall, ‘someone else’ is paying the AC bill. Does he really think his ticket price pays for just the movie? Does he really think the money he forks over at the mall only pays for the stuff he buys? LOL. What a rube!
Poordogabone on Sat, 20th Jul 2013 4:28 pm
One thing I never fail to notice is that when you step in your car on a hot summer day and it feels like an oven, 99% of people will turn both power and thermostat of their AC on full. You should only set the thermostat at the temperature that you are aiming for. PUTTING IT ON MAX WON”T HELP COOL THE CAR FASTER. After a while you are driving in an igloo without realizing it.
Nice way to waste gas and pump unnecessary CO2 in the environment.
CarpeDiemBiker on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 12:23 am
What’s “indefensible” is regulating or underpricing air conditioning or, for that matter, energy (among other services/products) in general, primarily because of the unintended consequences of such policies.
If you think WE use too much A/C in he US, try Saudi Arabia (among many Middle Eastern, energy rich, but also populist societies), where residents literally ‘air condition their yards.’ Why? because electricity is priced below any reasonable variable cost, much less a tariff which encourages reasoned consumption patterns. I could go on, but why?
Many find it abominable for vendors to air condition the sidewalks. Others think we should ban cars that dont measure up, environmentally. Pricing energy appropriately, including a phased in cost for carbon (tax it — cap and trade is a bureaucratic disaster), will, eventually, force improved efficiency and use. No, not EVERYONE will behave thusly, but enough of us will…
Laurence Josserand on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 1:38 am
In reply to ‘Poordogabone’: In case you don’t remember much about the lower price end of the automotive spectrum (<$20K) most of the cars do NOT have thermostats which can be set to a specific Fahrenheit temperature. There is no way to "dial-in" a desired temperature, except on more expensive cars. Most cars have AC and MAX_AC with several fan speed settings. In at least some models, the MAX_AC shuts off outside air input, so that the A/C unit is cooling and recycling only the air from inside the car. So it may not make much sense to use MAX_AC when just starting out on a trip. But once the car's inside air has started to cool off, then MAX_AC should accelerate the further cooling of the car's interior.
GregT on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 5:35 am
One thing that I have noticed, is that there was no such thing as air conditioning in most vehicles 25 years ago. Now, all of a sudden, it is a necessity.
It makes me wonder, what are people going to do, when there are no more vehicles, let alone air conditioning, but apparently I digress, that will never happen.
Laurence Josserand on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 5:59 am
In reply to ‘GregTonSun’: I would have to disagree about there being no A/C in most cars 25 years ago (circa 1988). At least I can speak with some certainty about new cars sold in the southern areas of the USA (I was in Texas at the time). During the late 1980’s I bought a couple of new cars, I can tell you that nearly all new cars on sale at the time were equipped with factory A/C. I don’t recall seeing a single one that did not have factory A/C – and I was test driving several different brands of mid-priced cars (roughly equivalent to today’s $20K cars). It is possible that some of the VERY cheapest new cars (let’s say $12K in today’s prices) might have lacked A/C. In fact, I know of someone who bought a Ford Fiesta around that period without AC, but this car was sold in Michigan. And I would guess that most of the cars being built without A/C went to dealerships in the northern-most US states (or perhaps to Canada). I would contend that very few (if any) such cars went to dealerships in south Texas!
GregT on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 2:04 pm
I guess I should have been more specific. I live in Canada. AC in automobiles was not a common sight 25 years ago. Today, it would be difficult to find a vehicle without AC. It is now a standard feature.
WhenTheEagleFlies on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 2:11 pm
Awnings! All of these exposed windows on buildings distresses me. Awnings should be part of building codes. We only use AC on the +100 deg days. Awnings and fans are enough for the rest.
Poordogabone on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 4:40 pm
in reply to Laurence Josserand
“most of the cars do NOT have thermostats which can be set to a specific Fahrenheit temperature.”
Moot point imo, well I should have said to dial the thermostat to the desired comfort zone. It does not have to be that precise. The compressor in a AC has only 2 functions: make cold or do not make cold. there is no setting on the thermostat that makes “more cold faster” that was the gist of my comment.
I understand that it is hard to undo 30 years of bad habits but I get perplexed when I hear some rant about the price of gas but don’t seem to have a clue on how much they would save by changing the way they operate their 2 ton hunk of metal. “convenience driving” has a price to be paid these days. You don’t need to afford a hybrid to get 45 mpg.
Gilbert Godfrey on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 7:44 pm
We have neighbors that ‘never’ open a window. The thermostat is set year round. Even on what will be a hot day of 100+F, if the morning is cool their heater kicks on. I wonder how prevalent that is and if people like that will survive a post peak oil dislocation of energy supply.
We use the AC when it’s over 78F inside but open the windows in the evening, then close them in the morning. Got to have the fresh air to sleep well.
PrestonSturges on Sun, 21st Jul 2013 8:12 pm
>>>>>throughout the day my body heated up, and at night it set in with terrible radiating fever, vomiting, severe headache, and periodic loss of consciousness. Heat Stroke.
That may not have been heat stroke – it could have been heat prostration, which is a depletion of electrolytes. You probably needed salt tablets.
I had this once after tarring roofs and then drinking a couple beers that night. I was puking bile and my thighs were cramping. instinct led me to the drugstore where I said “Salt tablets, now!”
BillT on Mon, 22nd Jul 2013 1:22 am
Salt tablets are common (or were common.) for any exercise in high heat. I first saw them when we were training in the summer heat at Fort Knox. Any intelligent person knows that you sweat and the sweat is salty. Where do you think the body gets salt to replace that? Or, didn’t you think, Action?
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