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Does anybody else feel a tinge of guilt when turning on the air conditioner? (Because it supposedly releases CFC which contributes to global warming). It's a p
by 2143 4y ago
Does anybody else feel a tinge of guilt when turning on the air conditioner? (Because it supposedly releases CFC which contributes to global warming).
It's a positive feedback infinite loop: so hot we have to turn on the AC, which inturn contributes to global warming :(
Update: through comments here I learnt that this isn't as much of a problem anymore. No more guilt. Phew!
- tenebrisalietum 4y agoDepends on age of the air conditioner. Older refrigerants such as Freon were very bad but newer ones are not. https://www.cielowigle.com/blog/ac-refrigerants/ https://www.cielowigle.com/blog/ac-refrigerants/
- bcrosby95 4y agoNo, because CFCs are not a problem anymore. Countries were able to move amazingly fast on that, at least compared to the whole climate change thing.
- pengaru 4y agoThis. It was relatively trivial to switch refrigerants to something that didn't trash the ozone, compared to something like replacing fossil fuels. We could still use the same basic evaporative heat pumps for cooling, it was a minor change.
- Denvercoder9 4y agoThe refrigerants (that's what CFC's were used for) in AC's are not consumable, so their environmental impact isn't influenced by whether the AC is turned on. The CO2 released by electricity generation is a factor in climate change, though.
- gandalfian 4y agoI feel more guilty about the cars AC. A twenty year old variety of refrigerant that needs to be regassed every few years suggesting it is leaking out somewhere along with millions of others...
- orangepurple 4y agoThe ozone holes caused by refridgerant release (CFCs) have been shrinking for decades. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220321-what-happened-to-the-worlds-ozone-hole https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220321-what-happened-to... https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/2019-ozone-hole-is-the-smallest-on-record-since-its-discovery https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/2019-ozone-hole-is...