Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
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Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#2Misleading headline. Research found that the temperature increase could be lowered by one degree centigrade.
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#3Misleading headline. Research found that the temperature increase could be lowered by one degree centigrade.
The extra efficiency could be used to cool the outside air.
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#4[SPOILER ALERT]
Can we change the post title to match the article?
"If You Fix This, You Fix a Big Piece of the Climate Puzzle"
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#5In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#6Wouldn't switching to DC motors for both the fan and the compressor save a lot of power?
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#7Half the article wasn't about a/c efficiency it was that HFC is more of a greenhouse gas than CO2, and was agreed to be phased out.
Is there really an HFC replacement - what is it? I wasnt aware.
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#8I have a Fujitsu mini split that has been awesome in terms of bringing my electric bill down versus window units (we live in Maine, central A/C is less common here, and few homes were built with it until the 2000's). It does, like most splits, use R-410A, but I'd be happy to use something else if it didn't kill the efficiency.
In parallel with refrigerants and efficiency, though, I wonder if the article misses on mentioning geothermal cooling. Those systems are expensive, but if you can bring down the install cost and power them with cleaner energy, you solve some other problems. In developing nations, maybe you try and build larger systems designed to cool multiple residential units - and start to require it for mid/high-rise residential construction?
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#9Wouldn't switching to DC motors for both the fan and the compressor save a lot of power?
Not the source of significance, according to the article:
"New research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California indicates that adding improved efficiency in refrigeration and phasing out fluorinated gases used for cooling, as mandated by international agreement, could eliminate a full degree Celsius of warming by 2100. Given that the “business as usual” trajectory leads to 4 to 5 degrees Celsius of warming, that is shaving off a pretty big slice.
Hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, account for about 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but they can be thousands of times as potent than carbon dioxide "
Re: Improving air conditioner efficiency could reduce worldwide temps
#10Could higher efficiency cooling be done by using more evaporative cooling systems (Swamp Coolers)[0] rather than traditional AC units?
There are climates where evaporative cooling is not effective, but perhaps they would be useful in the majority of climate regions.