No mention of humidity? Or how heat stresses the human body among the chronically ill and elderly who require a more temperate living condition using modern HVAC? Or of what to do with all the tens of millions of suburban homes who are NOT built according to turn of 20th century standards with high ceilings, cross-breeze transom windows, and the like?
Look, you're not going to ever convince anybody to plow under vast swaths of suburbia and rebuild to much more dense housing levels; you're not going to convince most people to lower their comfort level willingly, for any reason; you're not going to have a viable mass transit system running on frequent timelines through suburbia into (presumably) city centers, so I see all of this as a matter of tilting at windows like Don Quixote.
Can more trees be planted? Sure—but they need to be nurtured, and it takes decades for them to reach maturity, something that is not a "quick fix". Likewise, getting rid of cars isn't realistic to a large extent either because of the preexistence of suburbia. About the only thing that works is to acclimate one's self to a wider range of temperatures and humidity levels.
I'm surprised that the A/C "issue" is even an issue because peak solar power generation is from noon to 4 pm, and there are many instances of electric utilities having negative spot prices [read: they pay YOU to use more energy than necessary because too much is being made]—the same time of day that peak A/C use is required.
1) All residential air conditioners on the market today in North America use R-410A, not R-134A. That will make your point a little more compelling because the GWP of R-410A is higher than R-134A.
2) R290 is not in use for air conditioners or heat pumps yet in North America, so telling people to ask for them is just going to cause confusion and upset. R32 is being used by some manufacturers already for portables and window units. There is a mad rush by industry to get equipment and codes aligned for 2025 and the lower GWP requirements that will move us to A2Ls like R32 and R454. I don’t expect R290 to make it into split system ACs and HPs for at least a decade.
I recommend "the Original Green" by Steve Mouzon, which discusses things that can be done to make a building climate resilient.
Something has to be done about the infatuation architects seem to have with casement windows, if they include windows that open at all.
And we should be using more efficient heat pumps and water heaters, especially geothermal where possible. And of course power them with renewable energy.
I fully agree that with global warming there is an increase need for air conditioners. That being said, here are a couple of what should be baseline practices for minimizing the use of air conditioning (and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions).
1. Use a simple fan to blow air onto the occupants. Cool the occupants. No need to cool the building.
Incidentally, note the tie between conserving electricity and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. The tie is obvious if you're using less nongreen electricity. If you're using less green electricity, the conserved green electricity can be uaed on the electric grid to replace nongreen electricity.
No mention of humidity? Or how heat stresses the human body among the chronically ill and elderly who require a more temperate living condition using modern HVAC? Or of what to do with all the tens of millions of suburban homes who are NOT built according to turn of 20th century standards with high ceilings, cross-breeze transom windows, and the like?
Look, you're not going to ever convince anybody to plow under vast swaths of suburbia and rebuild to much more dense housing levels; you're not going to convince most people to lower their comfort level willingly, for any reason; you're not going to have a viable mass transit system running on frequent timelines through suburbia into (presumably) city centers, so I see all of this as a matter of tilting at windows like Don Quixote.
Can more trees be planted? Sure—but they need to be nurtured, and it takes decades for them to reach maturity, something that is not a "quick fix". Likewise, getting rid of cars isn't realistic to a large extent either because of the preexistence of suburbia. About the only thing that works is to acclimate one's self to a wider range of temperatures and humidity levels.
I'm surprised that the A/C "issue" is even an issue because peak solar power generation is from noon to 4 pm, and there are many instances of electric utilities having negative spot prices [read: they pay YOU to use more energy than necessary because too much is being made]—the same time of day that peak A/C use is required.
I like the article as much as an HVAC guy can 😁
Need to correct a couple of points:
1) All residential air conditioners on the market today in North America use R-410A, not R-134A. That will make your point a little more compelling because the GWP of R-410A is higher than R-134A.
2) R290 is not in use for air conditioners or heat pumps yet in North America, so telling people to ask for them is just going to cause confusion and upset. R32 is being used by some manufacturers already for portables and window units. There is a mad rush by industry to get equipment and codes aligned for 2025 and the lower GWP requirements that will move us to A2Ls like R32 and R454. I don’t expect R290 to make it into split system ACs and HPs for at least a decade.
Several things:
I recommend "the Original Green" by Steve Mouzon, which discusses things that can be done to make a building climate resilient.
Something has to be done about the infatuation architects seem to have with casement windows, if they include windows that open at all.
And we should be using more efficient heat pumps and water heaters, especially geothermal where possible. And of course power them with renewable energy.
Another excellent article - Lloyd.
I fully agree that with global warming there is an increase need for air conditioners. That being said, here are a couple of what should be baseline practices for minimizing the use of air conditioning (and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions).
1. Use a simple fan to blow air onto the occupants. Cool the occupants. No need to cool the building.
2. Go GreenBetween 13C-30C/55F-85F. Don't heat or cool between 13C-30C/55F-85F. https://greenbetween.home.blog.
Incidentally, note the tie between conserving electricity and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. The tie is obvious if you're using less nongreen electricity. If you're using less green electricity, the conserved green electricity can be uaed on the electric grid to replace nongreen electricity.