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Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

nytimes.com

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Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#301

Post by Nition »

wongarsu wrote: post #256
Nition wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, people who set their home heat pump to "auto" instead of "heat" in winter and "cool" in summer. No-one should mind if they have it on 18 in winter and the sun heats the room to 20 in the afternoon, but a heat pump on auto will start cooling to maintain the room at 18.

I've never understood why we even design most HVAC systems to maintain one temperature. I don't care that my home or car is exactly 18°C warm, I just want to keep it at a temperature between 18°C and 25°C year-round. It feels completely unnatural to be forced to set a single temperature and change it depending on the situation. A less straightforward change for further automation would be to make that temperature dep…

Hell yes, let me set a min and a max!

Although to be honest where I live, we wouldn't need it. We never really need to heat and cool on the same day.

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#302

Post by [deleted] »

cestith wrote: post #274
Nition wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, people who set their home heat pump to "auto" instead of "heat" in winter and "cool" in summer. No-one should mind if they have it on 18 in winter and the sun heats the room to 20 in the afternoon, but a heat pump on auto will start cooling to maintain the room at 18.

My system has separate "heat if below" and "cool if above" settings for its program, variable by user-defined portions of the day and by the (pre-set of course) days of the week.

[deleted]

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#303

Post by zackmorris »

One of the most wasteful components is the condenser. Salt water air conditioners can accomplish the same thing much more easily (50-75% savings):

http://www.happonomy.org/get-inspired/salt-water-air-conditi...

https://www.cnet.com/news/salt-driven-air-conditioner-looks-...

This is very old technology so people probably chose aesthetics over cost. Although when I think tacky, I think window air conditioning units..

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#304

Post by khedoros1 »

jrs235 wrote: post #47
klodolph wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

All the more reason we need to find a way to make remote work work for positions and jobs that allow it. Most people are already heating and cooling their homes while away at the office. How much energy can we save and how much more comfortable can we be if we work from our homes? Additionally less energy is consumed and less pollution generated from not having to commute.

The next move I do is definitely going to include the requirement of some kind of workspace for me and my wife. Right now, working from home means sitting on my bed with a laptop.

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#305

Post by Nition »

cestith wrote: post #274
Nition wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, people who set their home heat pump to "auto" instead of "heat" in winter and "cool" in summer. No-one should mind if they have it on 18 in winter and the sun heats the room to 20 in the afternoon, but a heat pump on auto will start cooling to maintain the room at 18.

My system has separate "heat if below" and "cool if above" settings for its program, variable by user-defined portions of the day and by the (pre-set of course) days of the week.

That sounds excellent. The ones I see are always just one set temperature.

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#306

Post by scottLobster »

npsimons wrote: post #299
scottLobster wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most large cities (at least in America) are loud, cramped, polluted, with horrible traffic and hit-and-miss public transportation, the schools are usually worse, and if you want space for even minor luxuries like a small workshop for personal projects, home office, rec-room, or other standard features of a typical middle-class American house, you better be willing to pay through the nose for it. Paying throug…

> Here in the states IMO we'd do better by making suburban lifestyles more efficient. That makes me sad, because when I envision suburbia, it involves all the NIMBYism (especially in the form of HOAs) you mentioned above, combined with distances that make using a bicycle for transportation unrealistic. I actually enjoy riding my bicycle to and from work (and the grocery store). I would dread a commute in a vehicle of…

Depends on the suburb. Some are indeed the HOA-from-hell fiefdoms that'll slap you with fines for your lawn being an inch above regulation, or boot/tow cars that park on the street without a pass. Those suck. And if you're not near a major population center you run the risk of there just being nothing to do/no real career prospects in town. But as someone who grew up in a suburb and has lived in several, in my experience people tend to keep to themselves so long as no one's being a bother.

A bike to work isn't necessarily out of the question either if you live just outside a major city. Some areas have bike trails that can take you quite a distance. But yeah in most cases you'll need a car for virtually everything, that is a downside. My personal commute is only 10 minutes, but I know people who commute up to 1 hour if they work downtown (morning rushour is a bitch).

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#307

Post by khedoros1 »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #69
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gender is supposedly a huge factor in temperature preferences Source?

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/is-your-thermostat-se... The biological reasoning, as I understand it, is that men have a higher ratio of heat-generating muscle than women. When I first moved to NYC, I was bewildered by all the women walking around with scarves and summer dresses; it was explained to me that this was a strategy to optimize being comfortable in the outdoor heat, and then having something to wit…

> (Personally, I'm of the opinion that one should acclimate to their climate, and folks who hate the heat wouldn't mind it so much if they didn't coddle themselves with AC all the time.)

I agree, to an extent. I mean, bumping the temperature that you can be comfortable in by 10 or 15 degrees is reasonable (up or down). I lived in southern Arizona as a child, where 80 degree nights were heaven after 110 degree days. I'd argue that AC wasn't coddling there, though. "But it's a dry heat" has special meaning for me. AC was usually set around 80 or 85.

During some of those same years, we stayed with family in my Grandparents' house: 2 aging window ACs, 90 degree heat, 90% humidity. We spent most of our time outside and slept in an un-conditioned room with the fan blasting. It's doable, but not my preference. A few weeks certainly wasn't enough to acclimate, and I think after a few years I'd probably still prefer to be in a (somewhat) cooled room.

On the other hand, I lived somewhere cold during my early teens. The home was often around 50 degrees with all the radiators blasting, and we dealt with that too.

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#308

Post by grogenaut »

microcolonel wrote: post #251
grogenaut wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Looks professional" is all about what "successful people" wear. If everyone in the US who was successful took to wearing Moomoos... then we'd all be wearing moomoos and the schlubs would be wearing suits. Just look at the hoodie pre and post zuckerberg. If Mark had instead wore a tank-top and board shorts 50% of SF would be wearing that year round instead.

No, there really is something objectively attractive about handsome clothing. Well made and handsome clothing, especially that which obscures the aesthetic weaknesses of the wearer, is a global concept. Hoodie and jeans is an okay uniform inside a business (though I would argue that if they're not well-kept, it lowers the standards of the people in the office), but in customer-facing roles I think it's inappropriate.…

Attractive clothing can be anything... Is a Sari attractive? A Burka? Timberland farmer's gear? A Police Uniform? It's about the craftmanship and the cut accentuating the human form and hiding the imperfections (or with true artistry showing them and pulling it off even better).

You say that "face customers with hoodies, t-shirts and jeans" except this is exactly hooter's uniforms. everyone wears uniform t-shirts. The non-wait staff wear jeans or shorts (depending on season/climate).

You're just showing off your innate biases based on current fashion. There's nothing innately better about a specific functional form of dress over another. A suit is not inherently more powerful than a Thawb or a Kimono. If we were going for pure power we'd all be in hockey or football pads or suits of armor.

Uniformness you have somthing on. But you can be uniform on just about any type of dress. Hell you can be uniform on color and totaly different on form and it'd still work.

This also might point out that you are basing things on appearance instead of form.

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#309

Post by quadrangle »

We already have solutions for dramatically more effective conditioning of indoors. Simply do other effective things to cool the indoors. Modern insulated whole-house fans like Airscape, exterior shades, etc. see http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/10-over...

The efficiency focus is itself misguided in several ways. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-efficient-is-energy-effi...

Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps

#310

Post by rplst8 »

muninn_ wrote: post #130
rplst8 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having large groups living in mega city heat islands is also an absurd configuration but pretty much the entire world is guilty of that one.

Eh, not really. Cities are better for Co2

CO2 per capita is not the only measure of absurdity.
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