Thank you, I know how AC works. The point is the difference is minuscule, on home scale. Unless all home AC users start to vent their refrigerant tanks into the atmosphere (which would defeat the whole purpose of having AC), and keep doing it for decades, the effect of it would be nil. In practice, the leaks are small and are promptly fixed because when refrigerant is leaking, AC is useless and nobody wants that. Of course, it would be nice to use even better chemicals (such as HFOs), but even now the contribution of home AC - if properly used and disposed - is small.

> The collective use of air conditioning does indeed contribute to climate change.

Not significantly more than any other use of the same energy.