To Ban Air-con

[chaosmaker]

On a rapidly heating planet, shouldn't we be looking for ways to build/fit housing for all sorts of extreme weather?
Air-con just makes it hotter for everyone overall as it adds heat into the environment and makes it worse overall.

I wonder what consumes more energy - heating cold parts of the world or cooling hot parts

Indeed. Try the deep level Underground lines (i.e. Central, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern, Victoria, Piccadilly) in London on a day like today if you dare... like stepping into a sauna on those trains.

Yeah. Try that In Saudi Arabia, see how it goes.

I take the Tube daily and today was an absolute sauna.

We definitely don’t need it in the UK but some countries definitely do.

We don’t even really need heating in this country but some countries definitely do.

I do agree with you about building buildings that are better at staying cool/warm and I assume they already try and do that now.
It would obviously be much better for everyone including the planet and our bank balance, if we didn’t have to use aircon or heating at all.

Great, build lots of new housing for warm weather then.

And all the houses that already exist?

I had A/C fitted in all rooms a few years ago when we hit 40s in the uk.
No way am i going through that again.

That was 2022, I think? It hit 40 in London. I should have put in some aircon then, but I stupidly held out hoping it was an anomaly.

I'd get rid of Cola Cola - ridiculous amounts of water wasted.
Of course I'd ban AI. Used masses of water, stops employment for many entry level positions and takes creative jobs. It also steals and lies though many people will believe it regardless.
Many good points made on the thread so far. Will keep reading.

Well, we have air conditioning in our house, but we rarely use it (even this week). Best of both worlds.

@chaosmakerare you the same person who posted this last year? You are being short sighted - people in hot countries would die without air conditioning.

as it is in south east England I’ve had over 20 years and makes sleeping possible meaning getting up and driving the next day is safer. So many angry people about cause of a bad nights sleep

Planets fucked anyway, I may as well be comfortable.

The contribution from AC to Global warming is between 3.2 and 4%, but that contribution is caused by electricity consumption and leaking refrigerant (says Google, so it must be right). Not because the AC warms the planet. So yes, of course all sources of global warming should be reduced or eliminated, but you've got to hit the biggest contributors as priority, and that remains burning fossil fuels. Greta can protest in Europe until the cows come home, until she's waving her banners in Shanghai nothing will change (and nothing due to her then). So, interesting pov, but wrong target (IMO).

Totally agree. AI is awful for the human race for so many reasons, I can’t believe we’re sleepwalking into it.

I would be happy for AI to at least be tightly regulated. The US is moving its data centres to Asia because it knows they suck up water.

Do what you want. When it's hot, I want and need AC. I'm sure there are things you use/do that are bad for the environment, too. Let's ban those first.

Meh, I’m at peace with my air con run entirely by energy generated from my solar panels.

We live in an old-ish house, and rooms like the hallway are lovely and cool, but anything with windows or doors get quite warm, even with shutters and blinds.

OMG, this has to be one of the most rediculous posts I’ve ever read on here 😂🤡

I lived in Greece for several years up to 2011. Very few homes do not have air con because it's absolutely unbearable in the summer without it. No amount of "shutters and shading" can counteract the extreme temperatures they endure all day for months.

Until buildings and dwellings in the UK are built or modified to withstand the extreme heat we are now seeing (still sporadic, but definitely more frequent), the air con units we had installed in the new year for the kitchen/lounge and our bedroom are staying put and staying on.

I often wondered why I never seem to suffer with the heat as much on hot holidays as I do here. Now I've figured out the answer - having a cool night's sleep and a cool start to the day seems to heatproof me for many hours to follow. I was out in the 33-degree heat for over 3 hours yesterday, and at no point did I feel more than a little uncomfortable. As soon as I was back home into the chilly air, I cooled right down again instantly.

I know it's not great from an environmental view, but honestly, for the few days a year we're probably going to have this on, and for the sanity it's going to give me back during my menopausal years, I'm afraid it's staying. Also worth noting that our heating bill was substantially less this winter as we used the units to heat the rooms as and when needed rather than having the central heating cranked up!

Indeed!

Surely air con powered by solar is a win-win? Am I missing something?

Another perspective here OP.

Basically it's too late for most of our housing stock.

YABU. My AC runs on solar so not using any of the planet's resources.

I love air con.

However, supermarkets need to make their stores to regulate temperature better. Hence why in hot weather, many supermarkets (including my former employer) had to keep emptying chillers and freezers as over heating. It’s a pain when this happened as sick of explaining to customers we can’t access everything. Made milk and salad bits accessible

Those supermarkets with doors to their chillers and freezers - this has reduced the overheating

Supermarkets in many countries have larger compressors than UK ones