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A comment on Earth just experienced its hottest 12 months in recorded history. Parent comment

Re:Earth just experienced its hottest 12 months in recorded ... by inference-lord on Sunday February 25, 2024 @07:20AM (#39500202)
If India is building more power plants, which I'm assuming are coal? Isn't that going to mess them up worse than before? I mean, having air-con is nice, it's not possible for the whole of India to be inside with air-conditioning on for 3+ months of the year.

Even in places like Tokyo, they have to limit their use of A/C because it' so energy intensive due to the crazy amount of heat from the urban heat island effect.

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Re:Earth just experienced its hottest 12 months in recorded ... by logifail on Sunday February 25, 2024 @01:06PM (#39503125)
> Even in places like Tokyo, they have to limit their use of A/C because it' so energy intensive due to the crazy amount of heat from the urban heat island effect.

I was in Singapore on Friday, for one day.

There's air-conditioning in the MRT (metro) stations, but (at least from what I experienced during my brief stay) the stations are not typically closed off from the outside.

You approach a station at street level and it's perhaps 33°C (91F) w/ humidity outside. Around midday my phone reported the weather as '33°C feels like 38°C (104F)'.

You go down an open set of stairs/escalators, and it gets progressively cooler and then you're in the metro and it's pleasantly cool. I was very quickly wondering whether this wasn't a mind-blowingly wasteful use of energy.

Anyone care to comment?

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Re:Earth just experienced its hottest 12 months in recorded ... by paulmd on Sunday February 25, 2024 @02:07PM (#39503718)
heat rises and cold falls, so the cold air will stay in the subway system. there is no real need for doors/etc at the entrances as long as you're going down.

the subways themselves put off a substantial amount of heat (from friction, motor loss, etc - all inefficiency eventually becomes heat) and for example in london they have problems with heat buildup in the tube system. so air-conditioning the platforms is generally desirable and probably necessary (especially in a more equatorial climate than england).

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Re:Earth just experienced its hottest 12 months in recorded ... by inference-lord on Thursday February 29, 2024 @08:18AM (#39548897)
What about the waste heat from the a/c units heating the surrounding areas?
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