
Air Conditioning Is the World's Next Big Threat - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-28/air-conditioning-is-the-world-s-next-big-threat
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solatic
Rising energy usage is an invariant. If it weren't for an increased demand for
air conditioning, it would be for an an increased demand in other areas -
transportation, computing, desalination, etc.

The answer is not to try to stop development - the answer is to cleanse the
sources of electricity.

~~~
notacoward
> The answer is not to try to stop development

"Stop development" is a bit of an alarmist phrase. Few want that. Also,
reducing demand in specific areas is still beneficial even if overall demand
continues to increase. There's no reason not to address _both_ demand and
supply.

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leereeves
How do you propose to "address demand"?

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notacoward
Tough one. Let me think a moment. Hey, didn't I just read an article about how
_air conditioning_ represented a significant amount of unnecessary energy use?
Crazy idea: let's reduce that. While we're at it, maybe we could also do
things to reduce the number of cars on the road, or increase efficiency. We
could build stuff using materials and processes that are less energy-
intensive. There are a hundred other ways we could reduce the number of kWh
used per day, separately from changing how those kWh are generated.

~~~
solatic
> Crazy idea: let's reduce that.

If you lived in a hot climate (like India, which is one of the countries TFA
referred to as a source of high future demand), then you'd understand just how
crazy of an idea that is. (side note: your profile links to a site with a bio
claiming that you live in Massachusetts. I rest my case.)

Look, it's not that the idea has _zero_ merit. There are architectures which
do a better job at keeping the interiors cool, and incentives could be set up
to favor those designs. But such designs are also usually bone-cold in the
winter, and you see energy usage pendulum-swing back to high in other parts of
the year. Plus, locales with hot weather typically have local architectures
with these kinds of "natural cooling" features anyway, so it's usually not
anything new.

There's a reason why I think calls to reduce air conditioning to be anti-
development, and it's because I happen to live in one of said climates, and
there's no way I'd get anything done without air conditioning. Unless we want
to keep the underdeveloped regions of the world in poverty, increased demand
for air conditioning is simply inevitable.

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nullwasamistake
Heat is many times more expensive than air conditioning expecially in
temperate climates too cold for heat pumps during winter. It's one scenario
where global warming will actually decrease energy usage.

~~~
Nasrudith
Well it is also political/rhetorical to some degree. Air conditioning is
energy inefficient while heating technically starts with a 100% conversion
efficiency. You also can't say 'just don't use heat' without looking idiotic
and out of touch.

Meanwhile air conditioning is considered a luxury even if lack of it also
results in people dying - both are of course on a spectrum in terms of
necessity depending on circumstances.

~~~
Baeocystin
> Air conditioning is energy inefficient while heating technically starts with
> a 100% conversion efficiency.

This is a common misconception- electrically resistive heat generation is
_not_ the most efficient way to heat a room with electricity. Rather, you can
move about two to three times more heat per unit energy using a heat pump than
you can with simple resistive heating.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump)

~~~
inimino
Nothing about the existence of heat pumps makes "100 conversion efficiency" a
misconception.

~~~
nullwasamistake
It is. Heat pumps don't create heat, they move it from one side to the other.
You can move 3-7x as much heat as the energy it takes to create it

~~~
zubiaur
Efficiency = Work out/energy in ;) Resistive heating is indeed 100% efficient.
There are better ways to heat up things tough.

~~~
dogma1138
Heat pumps are the most effective way of cooling or heating something as long
as you have good insulation and the temperature range is within the effective
range in which the pump can operate.

This is why you get over 100% efficiency in terms of work vs output.

Say you have a 100% efficient heater it means for every watt you put in a watt
of heat is released to the environment.

A heat pump doesn’t releases anything it moves it from one side to another so
for one watt of energy that it takes to operate a heat pump you can move up to
10 watts worth of heat (some pumps can be even more efficient than this) form
one side to another.

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vosper
Would demand for air conditioning not typically coincide with great local
conditions for solar energy generation?

(If the article covered this, my apologies - I couldn't read the whole thing
without having to pay).

~~~
dreamcompiler
There is some overlap as the article mentions. There's also a synergistic
secondary effect of residential solar not mentioned by the article: PV panels
on your roof shade your house and the solar energy that was heating your house
is now cooling it.

But the overlap is not perfect. Typically the hottest part of the day is a few
hours after solar peak, and it's often still hot after the sun goes down. So
you still need storage and/or grid power for complete A/C coverage.

~~~
fulafel
With sufficiently good insulation (see passive houses in cold climates), the
house should follow the outdoor temperature quite slowly and not change much
over the day.

~~~
Yetanfou
Insulation, or thermal mass - this is why adobe and rammed earth are suitable
building materials for hot climates: thick walls take a lot of time to heat up
and cool down and help to stabilise the inside climate.

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smitty1e
Could a partial answer to the power question be a large-scale bike system
merging the power from people pedaling (probably some hydraulics in there) to
drive a generator?

It seems that people could burn a few calories and generate substantial
kilowattage with a bit of clever engineering.

Same concept applied to an Archimedes pump bringing seawater to the top of a
gravity-driven reverse-osmosis purification plant could increase arable land.

~~~
jsilence
We built a setup like this where four people would power a monitor with sound
and a small video player to show short movies like Big Buck Bunny. The point
was to demonstrate how utterly inefficient this power generation method is.

~~~
smitty1e
So, by the time enough people were put in parallel, the problem would move to
maintaining literally hundreds of bicycle devices, swapping out crews of
sweaty bodies with fresh meat, and then keeping everyone hydrated and
medically fit.

Sounds like we're several innovations away.

Let's put Elon Musk on the task.

~~~
ksaj
Elon is already on the task. Only he is being realistic and producing
something outside of cynical reddit-style BS.

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pier25
Why next? It's already an issue.

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Causality1
I would rather make my commute by scooting the fifteen miles on my ass across
hot asphalt than sleep in a 90 degree bedroom.

