3 ms·

It's funny that air con is seen as a wasteful luxury, but nobody blinks at a heating bill, even though the average household spends 4x more on heating. The neg

It's funny that air con is seen as a wasteful luxury, but nobody blinks at a heating bill, even though the average household spends 4x more on heating. The negative externalities are interesting though: using air con inside makes your outside that much hotter on a hot day, whereas in winter, nobody worries about waste heat leaking out.

Minnericht 4y ago
France as a policy to reduce heating energy in households aswell. It's even seen as a primary mean to reduce energy waste. People are more and more conscious that you don't need to heat your house at 70F+. It's ok to live with a sweater on.
nomel 4y ago
> The negative externalities are interesting though They're not interesting, because they're absolutely negligible. You're moving heat that was outside, back outside. Your house cooled the outside, and you're just undoing this insignificant amount of energy transfer. The only additional heating is from inefficiencies, which aren't so bad these days.
tyoma 4y ago
Thank you! I find the opinion that AC is somehow a decadent luxury but heating is essential to be a very Northern US/Eurocentric view. From a pure energy usage perspective, it may make more sense to live in a warm climate that never needs heating versus a cold climate that never needs AC.
- Sharlin 4y ago
  Yes, heating consumes a lot of energy. On the other hand, most buildings even in fairly cool climates are absolute sieves when it comes to energy efficiency, mostly because energy has been artificially cheap, historically. It's possible to construct buildings that require very little heating, but of course turning all the existing buildings into Passivhäuser overnight is not really a reasonable proposition.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
It's not a wasteful luxury. It's critical. But more attention needs to be paid to overall efficiency. Better home insulation and building materials, and better AC unit placement and better units themselves.
fomine3 4y ago
Also when A/C cooling is needed is very linked to when PV generates energy.

Minnericht 4y ago

France as a policy to reduce heating energy in households aswell. It's even seen as a primary mean to reduce energy waste. People are more and more conscious that you don't need to heat your house at 70F+. It's ok to live with a sweater on.

nomel 4y ago

> The negative externalities are interesting though They're not interesting, because they're absolutely negligible. You're moving heat that was outside, back outside. Your house cooled the outside, and you're just undoing this insignificant amount of energy transfer. The only additional heating is from inefficiencies, which aren't so bad these days.

tyoma 4y ago

Thank you! I find the opinion that AC is somehow a decadent luxury but heating is essential to be a very Northern US/Eurocentric view. From a pure energy usage perspective, it may make more sense to live in a warm climate that never needs heating versus a cold climate that never needs AC.

Sharlin 4y ago
Yes, heating consumes a lot of energy. On the other hand, most buildings even in fairly cool climates are absolute sieves when it comes to energy efficiency, mostly because energy has been artificially cheap, historically. It's possible to construct buildings that require very little heating, but of course turning all the existing buildings into Passivhäuser overnight is not really a reasonable proposition.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

It's not a wasteful luxury. It's critical. But more attention needs to be paid to overall efficiency. Better home insulation and building materials, and better AC unit placement and better units themselves.

fomine3 4y ago

Also when A/C cooling is needed is very linked to when PV generates energy.