Re:Air pollution is worse than we thought
by bleepblorp on Thursday August 13, 2020 @11:10PM
(#24152832)
Air conditioning will become much less of a luxury as the climate warms. Even in the past decade, summer temperatures high enough (especially indoors) to pose a health threat have become an increasingly regular occurrence in many parts of the world. Worse, some places are approaching the point where the confluence of air temperature, humidity, wind, and sun intensity will raise temperatures above the 35 degrees C wet bulb limit for human survival. In these conditions, air conditioning will not be a luxury but rather an essential life support system. Plans for climate-compatible energy use will need to take increasing needs for AC into account.
Sourcing: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-deadly-extreme-t...
Re:Air pollution is worse than we thought
by jamiek88 on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:03PM
(#24150750)
It actually costs way less energy to cool a house than it does to heat one so the net migration to the south from the US northeast has and will continue to actually lower US per capita use and as the US uses circa 24% of the worlds energy this will have an effect.
Counterintuitive though.
Re:Air pollution is worse than we thought
by lotsofpulp on Thursday August 13, 2020 @08:36PM
(#24151787)
In dollar terms, heating is less than half the cost of cooling in my experience.
Air conditioning as a luxury to rethink, OTOH, rarely if ever comes into discussion around here (I'm writing from a Mediterranean perspective, obviously AC can quickly become a necessity elsewhere).