Environmental Outlook: The Growing Demand For Air Conditioning
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-07/environmental-outlook-growing-demand-air-conditioning
Apartment air conditioning units in Kwai Tsing, Hong Kong.
Image used under Creative Commons from Flickr user Plastic_Bat
In this month’s environmental outlook, a look at the growing reliance on air conditioning. This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the air conditioner. Since its invention, air conditioning has provided relief from the heat and allowed industry to thrive in the hottest of places. But flipping on the air conditioner to cool off may be warming up the earth. The U.S. is the biggest air conditioning consumer, but use in countries like China and India is skyrocketing. Some scientists say the gases and electricity the units run on are contributing to global warming. Diane and her guests discuss the demand for air conditioning and the search for a cleaner way to cool.
Guests
Durwood Zaelke
president for the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.
Steve Yurek
president of the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute.
Stan Cox
senior scientist at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas and author of "Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World."
Elisabeth Rosenthal
international environment reporter for The New York Times.
Comments
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The main answer for reducing the need for air conditioning as well as heating is to build to the "Passive House" standard. This standard will reduce the overall energy use by 80 to 90 percent. The standard is not necessarily more expensive and can even save over a few years. And the indoor air quality can be much better than the leaky houses now in use and being built and with many other positives. And adding solar PV (photo-voltaic panels) to a leaky house is throwing away energy and money--better to make a better house first.
Also, for a city, light colored roofs and green roofs when done by a significant portion of buildings can have a positive effect. Just doing one roof in an area is no where as good as having a substantial portion of roofs that in the aggregate can potentially limit the heat sink effect.
Thank you SO MUCH for doing this program!!!!!!!!!!!!! Air conditioning, as used in the majority of buildings in the United States, is not relief from the heat, it is, instead, a recreation of winter indoors during summer. It is a form of torture. It is pure insanity. Go to any other country in the world and you will discover that people are able to acclimate to heat. I find it impossible to go indoors in the US during the summer and have not done so during the past several years. US airconditioning is a nightmare. Why can't we get laws establishing limits on how cold it can be indoors while AC is on (minimally, as a starting point) while we work towards building buildings that make sense. What have architects been taught in school during the past 5 decades???? Buildings with no windows, no trees. Spending time in a work place in the US is like being sentenced to prison.
Have friends who have homes that are totally solar fed both their heating and air conditioning needs. Can you talk about this potential
Which countries which companies out in front manufacturing solar air conditioners.
Which countries which companies out in front manufacturing solar air conditioners.
Which countries which companies out in front manufacturing solar air conditioners.
Why not use propane instead of co2? It works just as well and would work even better if it weren't so if the government didn't regulate it......
Just googled solar air conditioner manufacturers: 4778 in China, 41 in the U.S., 15 in INdia, 22 in Malaysia. Could this be 4778 solar air conditioner manufacturers in China or is this just air conditioner manufacturers. Sounds like some new jobs could be created here in the U.S.
Just googled solar air conditioner manufacturers: 4778 in China, 41 in the U.S., 15 in INdia, 22 in Malaysia. Could this be 4778 solar air conditioner manufacturers in China or is this just air conditioner manufacturers. Sounds like some new jobs could be created here in the U.S.
On the Web it says that a Chinese company Shandong Vicot Air Conditioning company created the first solar air conditioner that heats and cools the air as well as heating water. Gas can also be used to fuel the unit. As is always the case China seems out in front again. Are there many U.S. companies manufacturing solar air conditioners?
I live in the South, and, I do not air condition my house. I change my diet and cooking method to adapt to each season, and, I do not suffer the heat. Air conditioning is not healthy for the body or the environment.
I live in Georgia and on a 96 degree day I can go down to my "NOT" air conditioned basement for a chilly treat. It stays around 60 year round. Several years ago while bicycling the Loire Valley of France in July I visited some of the troglodyte dwellings built under ground centuries ago and met the same cooling effect. Are we missing this wonderful passive cooling opportunity. Have always said underground housing is the way to go in tornado prone regions
There is a relatively easy way to reduce our need for A/C - mature trees. I told my realtor not to show me a house where they'd bulldozed the yard then
planted one sad Bradford Pear tree in the yard With many trees, my house is naturally shaded and when it cools down, it stays cool for a very long time without further A/C.
Let's encourage the planting of shade trees for future generations and work to preserve the ones we have.
I would love to replace the 30 year old evaporative cooler on top of my house. It's wonderfully efficient compared to air conditioning, but it's ugly, hard/dangerous to maintain, and as far as I can tell, there haven't been any substantial improvements in the design of evaporative coolers in the last 30 years. The whole southwestern US could benefit from using evaporative cooling instead of air conditioning. Why hasn't there been more engineering and design focus on this form of cooling?
Why has evaporative cooling not been discussed. The unit in my research complex in Michigan is run on evaporative cooling. Granted, it gets somewhat uncomfortable when its +90% humidity outside, but 4.5 out of 5 days of the week the temperature is just right. I think "smart controls" (let's use technology) of AC use would also help in addition to more efficient AC units.
The only country in the world that hasn't signed the Kyoto protocol cares about global warming? Don't make me laugh.
Just read that "between 2007 and 2011 the solar industry grew at approximately 70% a year" One would think that a percentage of that growth would be manufacturing solar air conditioning units. Seems like China is out in front on this issue. How many companies in the U.S. are manufacturing solar air conditioning units?
I am in Boulder Colorado and can not find one company in this area selling or manufacturing this potential job creating industry
Why are your guests dismissing the use of alternative energy sources to produce electricity? Here in Utah there is a collective buying program underway for people to purchase and install solar power panels. In combination with purchasing high energy efficiency air conditioning units, we will have the ability to meet at least 85% of energy usage. (This is ALL our usage, not just air conditioning.) The project is being coordinated by a local nonprofit organization. This can be part of the solution.
Roland you nailed it. The U.S. will sign the Kyoto protocol when hell freezes over.
All winter people here in Kentucky complain about the cold, but as soon as it gets warm, they turn up the AC. I wear a sweater or jacket all summer because it's so cold in public buildings. I rush through my shopping because the market is so cold.
If you ask someone to turn up the temperature, they get indignant, actually some get angry. They feel entitled to be "cold."
I had to argue with the roofer to get the lightest color shingles available. In his opinion, color made little difference.
My house has been fully insulated and we have a solar powered fan for the attic. We keep the temperature in our home at 78 deg and are quite comfortable, and I'm a post-menopausal woman.
The guest that keeps using the excuse that we are stuck with our already built environment as a rationale for not getting rid of air conditioning is not telling the truth. The opposite is true. We are taking old buildings, removing the openable windows and replacing them with unopenable windows, cutting down the trees near them to build new buildings with windows that do not open. Since we can make environmentally friendly, self cooling buildings into air conditioned nightmares, we can certainly do the reverse.
Fans.....fans are great, whether ceiling or any other kind. I set my a/c at 83 or 84, and sometimes when it comes on in the evenings and the ceiling fan is cooling me, I just turn off the a/c altogether. I live in central Florida presently, and have lived in the Caribbean and the Keys in the past. I love fans! And they're much cheaper to run.
Very interesting discussion. I am an environmental engineering student at the University of Oklahoma. We are in a drought and burn ban, due to the hot temperatures this summer. Last week, the temperature rose to 113 F, about 5 degrees hotter than in Dubai! So, I am writing this to see if anyone has read or knows about Air conditioned clothing and blankets...it would appear to be far more efficient to cool down one's own body rather than an entire room. Is this a viable option for our cooling needs?
In AZ you use evap coolers during the dry season, plant trees, water your lawn at night to give more evapotransporation from it and keep it dark inside. I agree 78 degrees is cool enough, but selfish people want to destroy everything. The funny thing is that AZ ranks the highest for pneumonia in the summer since offices are in the 60's and outside is in the 110's.
For completely off the grid housing with built-in, off the grid heating and cooling, watch this AMAZINGLY inspirational video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrMJwIedrWU&feature=share
I agree with Peggy Haymes & those posting about Evaporative cooling...
An often overlooked cooling strategy is simply increasing local tree populations. As trees transpire water into the air, this energy of transpiration locally cools things down.
This 'swamp cooler' approach = very low env. impact., and offers other benefits, like air quality, water controls.
Keep in mind, Urban Heat Island effect (UHI)... urban temp's often reach 10deg. F more than the surrounding countryside. = Try doing more Urban Forestry !!
CHicago Study:
(1994) Chicago's urban forest ecosystem: results of the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project
http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/4285
Peter
Syracuse NYS
Also build homes under ground, I visited a friend who built a house underground in AZ and it stayed in the 70's year round with no A/C
Here is an interesting start up by a few MIT students for creating high tech clothing.
http://shop.ministryofsupply.com/
The urban heat island is real I lived in AZ for 37 years and at the end of that term the Monsoons in the summer literally come down the mountains and go around the Phoenix valley and avoid the heat island so they don't get much rain anymore. Not that they do anyway, avg 7"/yr
Dissapointed that you do not have any Architects on this pannel.
Clemson University Architecture department, along with many others, are working on passive cooled buildings.
It goes beyond throwing tech at buildings, to designing buildings that require less cooling & heating through passive stratagies.
I have been a supporter for decades of environmentally friendly buildings. The problem I've always encountered is that lenders will not touch an "unusual" home. Also, such homes are almost always impossible to sell later for even a fraction of the construction costs. A passively heated/cooled or earth-bermed home has to be the builder's permanent home, and usually self-financed.