Source: How We Can All Stay Cool Without Air-Conditioners – The New York Times
Air-conditioners have other problems. They spew hot air outside, making the surrounding area hotter. And, they use dirty refrigerants. Cooling is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, destined to grow especially fast in developing countries.
There are ways to improve cooling and make it more fair. They would not only make heat waves less oppressive, they could even make our communities more livable.
Build better
There are many ways, old and new, to reduce or eliminate altogether the need for air-conditioning inside buildings. Architects and urban planners are trying many of these things already.
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Now more than ever, energy-saving innovations are needed. The Toronto cooling system saves enough electricity to power a town of 25,000 through a year, while the Rio museum’s cooling system consumes 50 percent less energy than a conventional one. In fact, a recent United Nations report estimates that a global, coordinated effort to make cooling more sustainable and efficient could avoid eight years’ worth of global emissions, based on 2018 levels, over four decades.
Make air-conditioners better
The Rocky Mountain Institute, a research group whose Colorado-based office generates more energy than it consumes, runs a competition to spur innovations in cooling. The two companies that won last year, Daikin and Gree, developed air-conditioners that use much less energy.
Why doesn’t every company do that? Electricity standards don’t require it yet, explained Iain Campbell, a cooling expert at the Rocky Mountain Institute, . Plus, it’s more expensive upfront. The prototypes developed by the two companies were two to three times pricier, Campbell said. “But over 10 years, using these machines would cost you half,” he added. They would simply use less electricity.
The average efficiency of air-conditioners sold in the market now, Khosla said, is typically one-third of the most efficient technology available.
The other way to make air-conditioners better is to make them less dirty.
Some hydrofluorocarbons that are used in most air-conditioners, known as R134a or R404a, are like greenhouse gases on steroids. They warm up the Earth’s atmosphere much more than, say, carbon dioxide. So, as more people buy air-conditioners, Khosla points out, “a new source of global temperature rise is essentially being introduced.”
Alternative refrigerants are out there, according to the European Commission, which has its own regulations to reduce the climate impact of air-conditioners. To scale up adoption globally, governments will need to urge their use, in order to protect the health of their people.
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