Hot Hot Hot - Air Conditioning's Net Result is Heat

Submitted by NewOldSalt on Thu, Jun 12, 2008 - 3:01 am

Air conditioning. *

A temporary relief to heat, but it ends up creating more heat than it reduces.

I think a strong parallel could be drawn between the ongoing use of compressor, refrigeration-based AC and giving cigarettes to a dying patient.

Yes, some temporary relief, but...

  • fuel has to be BURNED to create electricity
  • that fuel had to be delivered to the plant somehow (unless it was sunlight)
  • most methods of generating energy produce "green house" gasses or some other negative by-product

This doesn't even take in to account that one of the worst things for our earth's upper atmosphere is a chemical used in every compressor based refrigeration unit in the US before ____ (I don't know the exact date). But this begs the question, how many countries have also banned that refrigerant? In any case, even if it's banned in all countries now, the other, above, reasons still exist.

2008-06-25 - Update. It seems some countries still haven't banned/phased out "CFCs". Just today I read that two New Zealand refrigeration engineers were prosecuted and convicted of "depleting the ozone layer".

According to the news story, HCFCs are banned under an international agreement starting in 2015.

* Refrigeration based "AC" that runs off a compressor.

Evaporation based AC uses SIGNIFICANTLY less electricity. However, evaporative cooling, as awesome as it is for many reasons and in many places, doesn't work in areas where it's humid.

General Reason:

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NewOldSalt

Wed, Jun 25, 2008 - 2:57 pm

I updated the article with some relevant and recent news.

I am not intending to draw attention to them as scapegoats or 'Joe' and 'Tom' of 123 XYZ Street, and bring punishment on them; I am trying to point out the seriousness of this issue, as it was conveyed to me, hm, back in the 1970's or 1980's.

I don't have statistics memorized, and may or may not come back and provide links, but I think there is "proof" that one molecule of certain chemicals rise in the atmosphere and "destroy"/chemically-alter groups of Oxygen atoms/molecules.

If I recollect correctly, from what I've been told, the ratio is like 1 harmful molecule to thousands (or more) "good" atmosphere molecules. In other words, one CFC/HCFC/etc... destroys many thousands of (necessary earth atmosphere) molecules before it decays and can do no more harm. I don't recall all the details, but maybe you can find more at Wikipedia.