Is air conditioning making cities hotter?

Re:Is air conditioning making cities hotter? by crtified on Sunday September 10, 2023 @04:45PM (#37459898)

I wonder, would that make for some interesting (or potentially problematic) visual side effects in an urban environment? With the variety of roof angles and sun angles, suddenly all manner of observation points (e.g. on roads) would potentially be subject to blinding reflections at different times of day and year.

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Re:Is air conditioning making cities hotter? by sethhochberg on Sunday September 10, 2023 @06:05PM (#37460566)

These concerns already come up with things like glass and metal clad buildings - plenty of urban zoning codes already account for the light that reflects off new or modified structures (or at least try to).

It tends to be newsworthy when it goes wrong, because the results can be things like buildings cooking nearby objects at certain times of day. Spicy stuff.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/09/03/Skyscraper-melting-c...

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Re:Is air conditioning making cities hotter? by crtified on Sunday September 10, 2023 @09:20PM (#37461755)

Fair point. In hindsight, my mind had wandered off unsupervised, and was picturing the unadulterated chaos of an instant universal conversion of all existing rooftops to super-reflective.

"All will be simultaneously unveiled at 12 Midday tomorrow, citizens, so, ...take care out there!".

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Re:Is air conditioning making cities hotter? by pfdietz on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @08:34AM (#37480160)

You seem to be assuming the surfaces will reflect like mirrors and not as if they are painted white. There is no reason the reflection would have to be specular.

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