Artificially Chilled Air is Wholesome and Good

It's been a delightfully cool summer here in Germany, but on those rare hot days, I've switched on my air-conditioner and enjoyed a bit of guilt-free refreshment. Yes, guilt-free. Over at Slate, Daniel Engber explains why:

The case against cooling, like certain other pillars of hipster sanctimony, stands on a foundation of half-formed ideas and intuitions. Opponents cite a mishmash of concerns that begin with global warming and extend to worries over personal health, moral laxity, and some ambiguous notion of what it means to live in harmony with the natural world. And running through them all is the strange and puritanical politics of human comfort.

It's true, there is something twisted in the way we warm the planet when we try to cool it. This summer could end up the hottest in 60 years, and all our hiding out indoors will have made the problem worse. Stan Cox, whose 2010 book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World, makes this argument with blistering intensity, points out in the Times that the cooling of buildings and vehicles accounts for the release of 500 million tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent every year. But it's easy to get distracted by the giant numbers. Yes, A/C units have grown in popularity, but they are not more of a threat to the environment than heaters; in fact, they may be the lesser sin. Analyses of home-energy use reveal that we use more energy to heat our homes (41.7 million BTUs per year, on average, at a cost of $631) than to cool them (7.8 million BTUs, at $276). That’s true even though millions of people have moved into the hot and humid metropolises of the Sun Belt since the 1970s. In fact, as Cox himself points out, that southward migration produced a net decline in energy use for climate control, since all the extra demand for electricity—in the frigid shopping centers of Houston, Phoenix, and elsewhere—has been more than offset by a reduced need for oil- and gas-based home heating. As of a few years ago, homeowners in cold states like Minnesota were putting out 20 to 25 percent more carbon dioxide through the use of their heaters than were the A/C-happy folks in Florida. And while it's true that the HFC refrigerants now used in home appliances are themselves a source of global warming, these will soon be phased out by manufacturers. Even now, they amount to just one-fourth of the total greenhouse emissions associated with air conditioning.

"All right," says our member of brrr-geoisie as he sips his icy lemonade. "Heating may contribute as much or more to climate change than cooling, but that's because heating is more important. When it's hot, you just open your window, turn on a fan, or take off your clothes. When it's cold, what can you do?" If you take it as a given that it's fine and dandy to sweat out a summer day in your underwear but absurd to huddle up at home in a fur-lined parka, then you've already decided the question. But what if the reverse were true? Our capacity to endure the heat has an upper limit, and one that isn't very high. Even in a northern city like New York or Chicago (where 739 people died in a weeklong heat wave in 1995), the summer weather can be so extreme that an electric fan loses its benefit. (At some point, it's just blowing hot air around.) After you've stripped naked and dipped your feet in ice water, there aren't many other options. Winter chill, on the other hand, leaves more room for maneuvering: If it's too cold, you can always don another sweater, drape another blanket, or huddle with a friend.

 

 

Comments

[Mike Cornelia]

I know that heaters consume much more energy than AC units, but they have made large strides in making them more efficient. Some models now have an option over the amount of Btu' used per hour. This gives the owner much better control over the amount of energy being consumed by his or her heater. It feels good to know that there are constant changes being made to help preserve energy.

[Jer]

I am wondering if this is environmentally friendly?

[Norbert]

@Susan: There are more cars registered in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia (18 million people) than in Africa (about one billion people) altogether. [Please note that I have no source to back up this statement.]

It just appears that if humans have technology available to them, they tend to use it. However, if China and India one day reach a standard of living like the one we in the West have been used to for the last 40-50 years, there might be a problem.

[Rebecca]

New England can be quite hot in the summer. In my current location, it's now about 31 C, with 59% humidity. Not unbearable, but a brisk walk, which I just took, does make one rather warm. It's nice to have an airconditioner at night to take the moisture out of the air while sleeping. Agree that public places can be overcooled.

[Johannes]

I do not think Germans have in mind the boiling southern or southwestern states (or even NYC) when complaining about too much AC in the US. I spent about one year in Seattle in 95/96 as a grad student.
The climate there is very similar to Germany (mild and wet), but I distinctly remember freezing in a movie theater in summer. There are plenty of regions in the US where it is not extremely hot in summer: the Northwest, New England, also the Californian coastal region except maybe the southernmost part etc. and still many indoors are chilled considerably.
I think Cox has a valid point that one should reconsider whether it was such a smart move to settle a region like Phoenix in such a fashion rather than trying to get even more people there.

[Rebecca]

Adrian, your explanation doesn't make sense to me. 28 C is not cold, and if a breeze blows at that temperature, it's very comfortable. 23 C is also quite nice, and I don't see why a breeze blowing at that temperature would cause people in a sweaty room to catch a cold - especially since colds are caused by viruses, not by breezes. Cool air on sweaty flesh makes one cool off - which is a good thing, wouldn't you agree?

[Adrian]

Rebecca - No, that's an entirely other topic but there's something similar, I believe. In Germany when you feel a cold draft or breeze at some beautiful summer day it's probably only close to 28C outside. The fear of moving air is usually justified. Here's the other side or problem in conversations. In an American summer the temperatures are higher though, usually around 35C because they're way more South. I'm afraid Americans in Germany are not aware that they could catch a cold when they're stuck with lots of people in a steamy room while it's only like 23C outside. However, the real problem is when we sweat. If the windows were open before everybody sweats you'd be safe and also when you run the AC all the time. The cold draft even from the AC is usually not a problem when you don't sweat which Germans aren't used to when they come America and freak out hysterically.

[Rebecca]

Adrian - is this part of the German fear of moving air, that causes people to close the windows on a hot day for fear of a breeze coming in?

[Adrian]

The main problem in conversation like this is that Europeans have absolutely no clue where the United States are located on the planet. They have never heard of the Missouri Compromise (Parallel 36°30′ north). They are unaware that this line basically dividing the U.S. in Northern and Southern States in Europe runs below Gibraltar, Sicily and through Turkey scratching just a few Greek islands south of their main land. They don't know (care!) that all the Southern States are located outside Europe or that windy city Chicago equals Barcelona, New York=Rome, San Francisco = Athens, from downtown Austin in Texas you could see the pyramids in Cairo or Montreal (yes that's Canada) is like Milan in Northern Italy. Germany equals Canada, completely! Texas, larger than Germany, in the North begins where Sicily and Europe ends in the South. Next and what is really annoying in these conversations is that most Europeans point out their "first hand experiences" when they came to visit, i.e. their vacation (or "holiday") and when they are more than happy to strip down naked but don't have to work 8 hours shifts in suit or dress. They completely forget in their arguments what it felt like those two days at work last summer around 32 degrees Celsius or that "tropische Nacht" two years ago where they couldn't sleep all night. Also when they enter a room at 74F (~23.5 Celsius) from outside at 90F or more they can instantly feel and measure it as precisely 18C or even less. Never mind the actual reading. Last but not least they cannot understand how cooling works,i.e. is different from heating a room. That blowing cold air is they only feasible solution to cool a room is beyond their comprehension.

[Nick]

Conservation is great, but at some point you hit the limit of the actual energy available for human use. If everyone on the planet lived at even a German level of energy consumption, I still don't think it could be sustained with current energy sources.

Honestly, with all the economic oppression and bullshit most people in the U.S. face, do they really need some over educated dope to bitch at them for not melting at the same time? For the skeptics overseas, I can say from personal experience that the heat and humidity in most of the U.S. are much worse than in Germany.

Photovoltaics are a proven technology though, and if somebody could crack the energy storage issue, then the sun would provide plenty of energy.

[Susan]

America uses more energy for air-conditioning than Africa uses altogether.

Enough said.

(See Stan Cox "Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World")