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> The Lawrence Berkeley study argues that even a 30 percent improvement in efficiency could avoid the peak load equivalent of about 1,500 power plants by 2030. Okay, but where is this 30% jump in efficiency going to come from? That seems like a pretty big leap!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hear ammonia and propane: http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/materials/refrigerant-mana...
Isn't there a big fire/explosion risk as these are very flammable?
Not for nothing, but ain't greenhouse gases only the short term problem? The Earth radiates a fixed amount of energy into space every year. But when we produce electricity etc. no matter how we do it, more than half of the energy escapes as heat - a byproduct of boiling the water or whatever! This isn't sustainable in the long run either! We are basically raising the temperature of the atmosphere even without greenho…
The Earth radiates a finite but not fixed amount of energy into space every year. Radiated power goes up with the 4th power of absolute temperature (modulated by greenhouse effect). The effects of increasing the greenhouse effect from fossil combustion are much greater than the direct waste heat from fossil combustion, because the greenhouse effect slightly amplifies the warming effects of the ~10^17 watts of sunlight reaching Earth's surface. Fossil combustion directly accounts for ~10^13 watts of terrestrial heating. Note the 4 orders of magnitude difference.
> The Lawrence Berkeley study argues that even a 30 percent improvement in efficiency could avoid the peak load equivalent of about 1,500 power plants by 2030. Okay, but where is this 30% jump in efficiency going to come from? That seems like a pretty big leap!
> The Lawrence Berkeley study argues that even a 30 percent improvement in efficiency could avoid the peak load equivalent of about 1,500 power plants by 2030. Okay, but where is this 30% jump in efficiency going to come from? That seems like a pretty big leap!
http://news.mit.edu/2013/madmec-design-competition-1017
Better summer clothes will help too. I've been pretty impressed by advances in cooling undergarments that are designed to wick away moisture and encourage air flow.
Anyway, all of these seemingly unrelated things contribute to improved AC efficiency.
> The Lawrence Berkeley study argues that even a 30 percent improvement in efficiency could avoid the peak load equivalent of about 1,500 power plants by 2030. Okay, but where is this 30% jump in efficiency going to come from? That seems like a pretty big leap!
https://energy.gov/energysaver/geothermal-heat-pumps
The amount of efficiency increase you get depends on the ground temp, which varies by latitude, but I've seen 70% reductions in electricity usage quoted for systems installed in North America.
A side benefit is you no longer have a big, loud heat exchanger running on the side or top of your house. The pump unit for a ground loop can sit inside your garage, it's about the size of two mini-fridges and only emits a quiet hum.
Sidenote: When I bring up ground loop air conditioning in conversation with people, no one has ever heard of it. The technology has a marketing problem. That makes sense in states where electricity is cheap, but in places like California I'm surprised the state hasn't mandated them for new installations and offered tax breaks to give it some momentum.
> The Lawrence Berkeley study argues that even a 30 percent improvement in efficiency could avoid the peak load equivalent of about 1,500 power plants by 2030. Okay, but where is this 30% jump in efficiency going to come from? That seems like a pretty big leap!
> The Lawrence Berkeley study argues that even a 30 percent improvement in efficiency could avoid the peak load equivalent of about 1,500 power plants by 2030. Okay, but where is this 30% jump in efficiency going to come from? That seems like a pretty big leap!
Off the top of my head, * A lot of home conditioners are fighting the weather in conditions with poor insulation, running when nobody is home, or running in rooms when people are in different parts of the house. * Office air conditioners are often set too cold, subjectively speaking, sometimes resulting in workers bringing sweaters or even space heaters to their desks. This is shockingly common. Multi-zone cooling ca…
> The Lawrence Berkeley study argues that even a 30 percent improvement in efficiency could avoid the peak load equivalent of about 1,500 power plants by 2030. Okay, but where is this 30% jump in efficiency going to come from? That seems like a pretty big leap!
Off the top of my head, * A lot of home conditioners are fighting the weather in conditions with poor insulation, running when nobody is home, or running in rooms when people are in different parts of the house. * Office air conditioners are often set too cold, subjectively speaking, sometimes resulting in workers bringing sweaters or even space heaters to their desks. This is shockingly common. Multi-zone cooling ca…
Source?