Green thoughts on Air-conditioning, Can we cool both ourselves and the planet?

As global warming matures with serious heat waves become increasingly commonplace, many of us will crank up the AC for relief, perhaps even survival, but this will worsen climate change when fossil fueled power plants spew out even more greenhouse gases. In the United States, Air-conditioning for buildings uses something like 18 percent of all electrical consumption. Most new construction all comes with central air-conditioning, most modern offices, stores and many workplaces all have the AC cranking during the hot summer months, many workers even have to bring extra sweaters to keep warm the temperatures can be so frigid. Occasionally, during really hot days the city or other agency will plea with us to be more reasonable with the temperature settings on the AC but most times any environmental concerns related to air-conditioning use are ignored. We have come to see air-conditioning as a basic need and right. We expect there to be a comfortable, air-conditioned setting in virtually all of our public spaces. It is hard to imagine that only 30 or 40 years ago air conditioning was the exception and not the rule. What will happen when we no longer have cheap energy so readily available?

Alternet has arguably the best online article discussing air-conditioning and the environment available. Written last summer in two parts, the article discusses how in little more than 50 years cheap energy has allowed air-conditioning to rapidly grow from a rare luxury to an unquestioned basic necessary utility present in virtually every aspect of our lives, especially in the southern regions. It seems unthinkable today to imagine shopping in any big store during the summer without air-conditioning. Can you imagine people in the southern states ever giving up their air-conditioning, even though I grow up in the south myself and remember what it was like to live down there without air-conditioning. What price will people be willing to pay to keep up this lifestyle?

Another good source of information on air-conditioning is Alternatives to Air-conditioning at PlanetFriendly.com A great pdf made by the US Dept of Energy discusses ways to cool your home naturally, and another link on cooling your home efficiently.
Here are links to a metaefficient.com review of an eco-friendly evaporative cooler type of air-conditioner that works well in hot,dry climates. Another review discusses a a cooling misting system that looks promising in some situations. Probably won’t work so great when you are working at your computer however!

This issue is far to complex to adequately discuss here but I hope to start to look at this vital issue more in depth in the coming summer months and examine ways people are trying to come up with more earth friendly air-conditioning.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Energy Saving, Green Appliances, Home and Garden, global warming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.