Air conditioning is one of our great pleasures. When your city is suffocating at 100 degrees Heat domeThere is nothing better than the sweet relief that comes from returning home, clogging air conditioning and the open air behind the atmosphere for a cooler, more crispy internal. How The first large thermal wave 2025 is baking north -east, south and middle West, almost 150 million Americans They find this fact again.
But the air conditioner acts at a high price. Two billion units Work around the world is responsible for 7% of the annual global emissions of greenhouse gases, According to the United Nations Environmental Environment Program– The figure, which is expected, will double by 2030 and three times by 2050, when, according to forecasts, more than five billion units will be used. This will stimulate the climatic spiral, and the increase in carbon production pushes global temperatures even higher, which will lead to even greater use of air conditioning and still higher temperatures and further.
“The air conditioner becomes a rescue circle in this overheating of the world,” says Ankit Kalanki, an expert in cooling in RMIA group of research and state policy, originally known as the Rocky Mountin Institute. “This is no longer a luxury. We rely on the air conditioning for comfort, to feel productive, to feel safe and healthy, and this is an invisible driver of demand for electricity and emissions. ”
This fact makes many people feel guilty of their own use by the air conditioner. Our grandparents were indicated with fans, light clothes, drawn shades and cold drinks; Even in the face of climate change, could we do the same, at least for the routine summer heat?
“Feeling guilt comes from a sense of responsibility to do anything,” says Fiononua Walrencea, senior participant in the campaign in Environmental Investigation AgencyGreen Group of Protection. “We ask ourselves:“ What can we change? “
Read more: The most effective way to launch air conditioning during a heat wave
AC wine is only a piece of a larger phenomenon Climate wineResponsibility and even ashamed that many people feel if they do not have perfect disposal, regularly compost, minimally drive and support energy consumption as lower as possible. “Often there are many emotions that are connected,” says Wendy Greenspun, a clinical psychologist associated with Alliance of Climate Psychology North AmericaEducational non -profit organization. “There is sadness, anger, anxiety, fear – only different emotions that I put under an umbrella of climatic stress. Wine can be one of them. “
Management of all these emotions – and undertaken by all green steps to improve them – can be a significant rise, and almost no one can claim to be an ideal climate citizen. But when it comes to air conditioning, there are many measures to control, to control your use of cooling, while accepting this in an increasingly stuffy world, the air conditioner is daily necessary.
The most significant, if the most expensive – you can reduce the carbon trace of your air conditioner – this is to abandon any model that you bought 15 years ago or earlier and update to a new one. In 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Forbidden sale new variable current units (either central models of alternating current or windows), which are used by Freon, also known as R-22, as a cooling liquid. Freon, which can flow from home units and often should be replaced and crowned with a serving person, has the so -called Global warming potential (GWP) from Almost 2000-He packages 2000 times more impact on the planet of the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. New units are now using Puron Advance is also known as R-454b– What is GWP is only 465The field is still much larger than CO2 (which, by definition, has GWP 1), but much smaller than the R-22.
“Industry goes to alternatives that have a much lower area of the environment,” says Kalanki. “There are many promises when it comes to which refrigerants can provide similar cooling without influence.”
The disposal of old units is a little more difficult than just throwing them in a city landfill. Many state or local laws require This refrigerant is first carried out by specialized EPA-certified, after which AC AC can be processed or flies out Local landing programs on curb.
Kalanki also recommends buying what is known as Smart air conditionersUnits that are connected to Wi -fi and can control the use of energy and control remotely by phone. Smart AC allows you to pre-cool your home by turning on the device when you left to reduce the temperature before returning, allowing you to turn off the air conditioner, at least turn it off in accordance with the peak evening use when the air conditioners usually work at the maximum. This can be of great importance for the larger world, since air conditioners currently account for from 40% to 60% of the peak demand for the grid in the summer. Maintaining low use of electricity during these hours also saves money as energy companies often charges more for the power consumed in this window; Consumption bonging at such a time can also help avoid grid failures or disconnecting shutdown.
“A multiply designed device,” says Kalanki, “can feel and measure how much energy load is required to cool space. You can really significantly reduce energy consumption. ”
Architects and designers of apartments and houses for one family also play a role. For example, the best isolation may not only prevent the cold in winter, but also keep cool in the summer. Shades and awnings for the Sun screen can also help, like scoring of white roofs – during the general black resin, visible in cities that reflect the heat and light that absorb black roofs. “There are many of these passive strategies that can be used in the development of buildings,” says Kalanki.
Buying, renting or repairing a house with mind to this effectiveness, as well as installing new, updated variable units And thermal pumps It can not only reduce its carbon load, but also reduce the emotional load – a reduction in some guilt, which comes with too much power in the summer months, when the energy of energy.
Several other simple adaptations can also help. According to Wal equalse, companies such as law firms and banks can weaken their own rules of costume and connections during the summer, refreshing the load on Office air conditioners, which should make the environment quite cool for people wearing dark layers at triple temperatures. Adjusting our own internal thermostats can also help. Since 2022, 88% of American houses had air conditioningcompared with less than 10% of European houses, in accordance with MIT Technology ReviewThe field and we force our units strongly. One Time analysis since 2022 He found that the US residence is stored at about 74 ° F, even if no one is at home, and 70 ° F, when the family returns.
“We must change our thinking a bit,” says Walreyshens. “The reality is that we can survive and be productive at higher temperatures. This may seem a little frightening, but it will use much less energy and lead to much less fault. ”
Of course, you did not cause a climatic crisis yourself, and you cannot remotely correct it alone. The best you can do is play your small role and release the meaning in which you are to blame.
“We, as individuals, can be agents to change,” says Michaela Barnett, engineer -builder and owner KnoxfillMass sales business that seeks to limit the use of disposable containers. “We can rethink how we think about our individual actions for changes and how we live in accordance with our values. But we must also give ourselves grace and patience, and not wear all weight, because it is not productive. ”
