The rise of modern air conditioning has saved lives, helped economies boom, and changed everything about how and where we live. (Not to mention the need for a work sweater.) But some aspects of an air-conditioned world are pretty chilling. Most A/C u

Air conditioning

June 14, 2018

Cool your jets

The rise of modern air conditioning has saved lives, helped economies boom, and changed everything about how and where we live. (Not to mention the need for a work sweater.)

But some aspects of an air-conditioned world are pretty chilling. Most A/C units rely on refrigerants like hydrofluorocarbons, which are potent greenhouse gasses. Carbon emissions from cooling have tripled since 1990, contributing to the warming climate, which in turns requires more air conditioning. Cool the room, warm the globe, repeat.

This cycle is particularly acute in parts of the developing world likely to be hit hardest by rising global temperatures. And while it may have started as a luxury, the real risks of high heat have led some to argue that A/C is a human right.

Let’s take the temperature on this situation.

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Reuters/Vivek Prakash

By the digits

10%: Share of the world’s electricity devoted to air conditioning

70% Share of Saudi Arabia’s electricity devoted to air conditioning

1.6 billion: Number of A/C units installed globally

80%: Drop in US heat deaths since 1960, due largely to the rise of home air conditioning

$20.2 billion: Amount spent per year by the US military for air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan

2.5–10°F: Projected range of global temperature increase this century due to climate change

124°F: Record temperature set in Ahmedabad, India in 2016

117 million: Metric tons of carbon dioxide released by US air conditioners every year

5.6 billion: Number of air conditioners expected to be in use globally by 2050

Fun fact!

40% of all air-conditioning capacity is in the US, and its 328 million residents consume more energy for cooling than the 4.4 billion people living in all of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia (excluding China) combined.

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Explainer

How does A/C work?

Air conditioners have a cold coil called an evaporator inside. On the outside, they have a hot coil, called the condenser, which releases heat. A pump moves a refrigerant between these two coils: When the liquid refrigerant is in the indoor coil, it evaporates (hence the name), cooling the air around it. Then the hot gas is pumped out into the condenser, where it reverts back to a liquid. These are the same basic components of a refrigerator, by the way.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were the most common refrigerant until 1995, when production of these ozone-depleting chemicals was stopped. Modern-day devices mostly use halogenated chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), but those will be completely phased out by 2030.

What will replace them? Ozone-safe hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and alternative refrigerants like ammonia, according to the US Department of Energy. There are also some pretty cool chemical-free AC technologies in the experimental phase, like magnetic air conditioners, membrane-based air conditioners (which use water as a refrigerant), and passive cooling systems that manipulate interior climates through the smart design of wind and water.

Charted

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Brief history

~1300 BC: Egyptians hang wet reeds in windows for evaporative cooling, Roman aqueducts channel cool water through the walls of homes, and Persian architects use cisterns and windcatchers to harness cool air.

200 AD: Han Dynasty mechanical engineer Ding Huan invents the rotary fan.

1800: “Ice King” Frederic Tudor harvests New England ice to sell around the world, revolutionizing the meat, produce, and fishing industries.

1842: Florida physician John Gorrie cools off his patients by inventing an ice maker that relies on air compression, a technique still used in refrigerators today.

1902: Willis Haviland Carrier designs the first modern dehumidifying air conditioner to prevent paper from buckling and ink from smearing in a steamy Brooklyn printing press.

1965: Houston’s Astrodome opens as the first air-conditioned multipurpose sports stadium.

2018: The number of American households with air conditioners hits 90%.

2050: Roughly 2/3 of the world’s households will have an air conditioner, tripling current global energy use from cooling.

Quotable

“By the 1970s, when home A/C was commonplace, Americans spent the summer cooling on the couch, watching the same television channels as their compatriots in New York, Atlanta or Los Angeles. We abandoned the dialect of parks and bars and began, quite literally, to speak the same language.”

— Henry Grabar

Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom

Pop quiz

Which sociopolitical phenomena can be traced back to air conditioning?

All of theseHollywood’s Golden AgeRonald Reagan’s victory in the 1980 electionSingapore’s 21st-century economic boom

Correct. Movie theaters were some of the first air-conditioned public spaces, driving demand for movies even during the Depression. Besides multicultural tolerance, Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew cited air conditioning as the “most important invention” to successful development. And A/C enabled mass migration to the Sun Belt, which gave Reagan crucial votes in the region.

Incorrect.

If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email.

Reuters/Danish Siddiqui

Take me down this ❄️hole

“The ACs India alone is expected to install by 2030 will be the equivalent of adding several new midsize countries to the global grid,” Josh Dzieza reports at the Verge, in a deep-dive into the country’s burgeoning AC culture. “In Ahmedabad, health officials worry that all the new ACs are pumping heat out into the streets, raising the temperature for anyone who can’t afford an AC of their own.”

Fun fact!

Your frigid office temperature settings are based on the metabolism of a 40-year-old, 155-pound man.

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Watch this!

Here’s one soothing aspect of A/C you can enjoy emissions-free.

Million-dollar question

Why is my office soooo cold?

Blame lazy architects. Modern air conditioning meant that designers could ditch cooling tricks like high ceilings, courtyards, and breezeways for hermetically sealed, climate-controlled monoliths like New York’s Seagram Building… or anything Le Corbusier ever did.

But the climate crisis has birthed the field of bioclimatic architecture and the rise of carbon-neutral “fifth-generation“ skyscrapers, which integrate technologies like water catchment and natural ventilation. Repurposing old school cooling systems to address a modern problem? Now that’s refreshing.

Reuters/Carlos Barria

Poll

Linguistics challenge! If you want to make the room colder, you ask someone to:

Click here to vote

Turn the A/C “up”Turn the A/C “down”

The fine print

Today’s email was written by Lily Strelich, edited by Jessanne Collins, and produced by Luiz Romero.

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