How much does Air Conditioning use affect global warming?

Question

I am trying to conserve energy and shrink my energy footprint.

Does anyone know the facts on automobiles's using AC and homes/businesses using AC? I know by not using the AC I'm helping- but what impact does our AC use as a society, have on global warming?

(for this question- we can set aside for a moment the obvious chemical/hazardous waste issues).

Answer 1

your electric bill will be the onlything thats hurting you ,if you want to conserve energy keep it arround 70

Answer 2

A/C uses a lot of energy in homes. The best thing to do is keep your A/C set to a temperature that is the highest that you can be comfortable in (I've only used my A/C about 6 times this summer and usually just keep my windows open and am comfortable, however this depends on the climate you live in, however, when I do use my A/C I put it anywhere from 75-80 and am totally comfortable, but of course, everyone is different). Another tip is to not overdress. Wear shorts/t-shirts/tanks in the summer in your home, there's no point to turn your A/C to a lower temp just to wear pants or a long-sleeved shirt. A/C use does directly impact global warming unless of course your energy supply is from a clean resource such as wind or solar energy, if this is the case, use all the A/C you'd like. However, the majority of energy produced in the United States is from coal-burning power plants. The more you use your A/C (or the lower the temperature you set it at), the more coal which is burned sending CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. This is the same way it works for any appliance that you leave plugged in or any lights left turned on. The best thing you can do is be mindful of every bit of energy you use, this will not only help fight global warming, but it will reduce your energy bill as well! :) As for cars, I have noticed a reduction in the amount of miles I can go on a tank when I have my A/C on versus when I have it off. If you can go without it, that is best. What I try to do on hot days is just put in on for a couple of minutes, turn it off, and then turn it on when I start getting really hot again. Also, as posted above, keeping the windows down actually cause your vehicle to be less fuel efficient because of the aerodynamics. However, this is only if you are going faster than about 40-45 mph. So if you're driving around town, go ahead and feel good about rolling those windows down, but if you're on the highway, switch on the A/C if you get too hot. Hope this helped! :)

Answer 3

AC does use a lot of energy, so it has a large footprint. I live in Texas where it gets pretty hot in summer and my electric bill goes WAY up in summer. Your car would get slightly better mileage if you did not use the A/C, but ONLY if you also keep the windows rolled up, because the aerodynamics of the car are much worse with the windows open and it takes more engine power to maintain speed. Nobody in their right mind would keep the windows rolled up AND not use the A/C though. The heat in a closed car without A/C on a hot day can actually kill you it gets so hot. Every year there are stories of parents leaving children in parked cars in summer only to find them dead when the come back to the car.

Answer 4

GOD COULD COME DOWN AND SAY GLOBAL WARMING IS FALSE... BUT PPL WLD NOT BELIEVE EVEN THAT!

wrote a 29 minute speech on why it is false... we as humans do not cause it

EXTRACT:

--Email [e-mail] for the whole thing--

I. For a long time people have been looking through glasses that have foggy lenses of deception regarding global warming. In the next couple of minutes I intend to show you a more accurate eye chart and update your prescription.

A. My point for this response is to try and persuade you to see the light at the end of the dirty tunnel of humanities’ lies.

II. Global Warming is the most debatable topic that was probably ever around. You need to know this information. If you don’t educate yourself properly on this topic you will live the rest of your life in fear of something that doesn’t exist.

A. Global Warming is a natural cycle. Everything about it is natural. Carbon dioxide levels vary throughout time. Humans can make little or no impact on the environment.

1. In reality…. There is about one person who doesn’t believe in Global Warming to two people who do. This means that only 60% of the world believes in global warming. My goal by the end of this response is to have the 60% be persuaded that they do not believe in the accurate thing. With the following facts, I am 100% sure that this goal is possible and will be achieved.

2. Al Gore stated this quote in his movie “…The 10 hottest years ever recorded were within 15 years of today.” Now this point is valid and true, but we have not been measuring the temperature or anything since the early nineteen hundreds. Can we go down and see how the polar ice caps were doing in the early 1800’s? We can not do that because temperature was not recorded. You may say that they guessed using carbon dioxide levels, but whose to say that they are right? I heard that scientific measures were not always accurate because they took a hundred year old log and did some carbon 14 testing on it. Scientists thought that it was thousands of years old. It was later proved to be younger after more tests were ran. Who’s to say that our method of discovering weather is right? We have been measuring temperature for only a short period of time. Earth right now is in a heating process. Thousands of years ago we were cooling which is when we had an Ice Age. Now we are doing the opposite and are starting to warm up before cooling again. Look at this political cartoon. What is one thing that you notice? I notice it being freezing then gradually getting warmer. As my next point is about to prove, we have no effect on the environment no matter what we do.

3. In 1990 a volcano in the Philippines erupted violently. It was by far one of the biggest explosions of the century. We all have read about how volcanoes let off carbon dioxide, but did you know this… When the volcano erupted, it put more carbon dioxide in the air than all of humanity has ever produced…. More than humans have made since the creation of time. All in just a matter of hours. Look at this picture (not included). See all of this carbon dioxide being put into the air? While, with all of this there was no temperature increase or decrease at all… just some carbon dioxide level changes, but nothing major. If volcanoes put off this much carbon dioxide with no effect, then how could we be doing this? When all this happened, then how could you be persuaded that humans who produce fractions of that amount could impact the environment in fractions of the time? Humans if we tried could not severely impact the environment. It is just too big. Even if we are letting some off, plants and other natural recyclers of Carbon Dioxide are just transforming them to oxygen.

4. During World War II, we dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. We spilled tons of harmful green house gasses into Mother Nature. This includes radiation, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. After all of that happened, again there was no effect to the environment that was found. Hiroshima has been having radiation problems still, but there is no significant temperature problem. Nothing humans do can severely change our environment. We only occupy about 50% of the globe. The other 50% is the ocean, ice caps, and land that are not suitable for humans. How could two nuclear bombs not have an impact on the environment, but changing a light bulb in your house to fluorescent can save the environment? It is just impossible that we could have an impact.

5. Another point is that if you look in your text book, I promise you that you will find these words… “When Washington was marching his troops, it was bitterly cold outside” Bitterly cold means freezing. I know that they didn’t have supplies but Virginia in the summer (which is when they fought) is warm. As you can see by these charts, it was 106 degrees outside in the summer. This is without humidity too. Now when we look at this chart it shows us that the battle was fought in Yorktown. There isn‘t much of a distance between Yorktown and Richmond, were this was recorded. How was it bitterly cold a few hundred years ago when now it is normal? The conclusion is that it is a natural cycle. The cycle changes every several hundred years. It was cold then, and now it is slowly warming up. We have nothing to do with it. This is perfectly natural for our environment to do. We would like to believe that humans are the dominate species. Have we ever thought to wonder if what we believe in is caused by nature?

6. One of the most important factual information is still on our planet. Greenland is one of the most misunderstood places around. People like to believe that the reason that it got it’s name is because the settlers didn’t want people to move there so they called an icy land Greenland so that settlers would move their instead of Iceland were it really was green.. After I saw a show on the discovery channel, I concluded that it was actually green. When the first settlers went there, they dined on grapes and cows. I don’t think that I am mistaken, but how could a cow live on an icy land with nobody to feed it. Grapes grow in warm environments which is not ice. Greenland fits that exact description. Also as you can see on this picture, there is still some green left in it. All of it was green once, which proves that it once was green and now it is ice because of the natural cycle, it is starting to freeze. Now Greenland is melting to start the process all over again. In a few hundred years, Greenland will begin to freeze.

NOTE TO READER: FOR POINT 67-8 IT MAKES NO SENCE UNLESS POWERPOINT IS VISIBLE… THANKS!

7. Ok… Phoenix is known as a hot dry desert place. You think that it keeps getting hotter and hotter here each summer. Take a look at this display on the screens. As you can see, during the day the sun is radiating energy to a large city… lets call it Phoenix. It does this all day until the sun starts to go down. As you can see now, the buildings are built up with radiation while the desert area barely got any radiation build up. Now it is night and as you can see the buildings are radiating heat forming a heat bubble. Now in Phoenix at night it is around 95 degrees. That is because of the buildings radiating. We are made of concrete and steel so we absorb heat. Take a look over at the desert. See how the temperature there is lower? This is because it is not trapped in the heat bubble of radiation.

8.Many people relate global warming with long citywide droughts. Like in Phoenix, we are in a drought. There are many reasons why this is not caused by us. Have you ever watched the news and heard the following phrase “… and people of Chandler are getting pelted by rain, many individuals are putting up sand bags to protect their homes…?” What this is saying is that small little cities are getting poured on. Look at the power point and see why, The big glob in the center is called Phoenix, Glendale, and Peoria. Ok now imagine that we are in the middle of a storm. The red indicates heavy rain and the yellow indicates moderate rain. As you can see from this animation that I made, the storm is going around Phoenix. We are a giant blob and the storm is just simply avoiding us. Smaller cities like Chandler and Mesa are being pelted by this continuous down pour. So in smaller cities they may say, “We got rained on the most we ever have” and the airport were they measure the amount of rain says there were only a few drops of rain. This proves that we did not cause the drought by carbon dioxide, but we did it by industrializing.

9. Global Warming is also just a political trap. Who are the only ones who want to try and do something about global warming besides tree huggers? Politicians do. When somebody is running for office this makes a better point, I am going to save the world! Who would you rather vote for… Mr. Free Dental Insurance or Mr. I am Going To Save The Planet From Destruction! The choice is pretty clear. Which, that was Al Gore’s main election motto. They want you to vote for them do they are scamming you. Al Gore doesn’t believe in global warming himself! When he was running for elections, he rented private jets which emit 800 pounds of CO2 per passenger instead of commercial for 88 pounds of CO2 per passenger. He didn’t even own a private jet either; he flew this way for 20 trips. If he would have flown on a commercial plane he would have saved 14240 pounds from the environment.

III. Global Warming is all natural. We do not have an effect on it. If we tried there is nothing that we could do that would impact our society.

1. We have nothing to do with what is going on in the world. There is no reason that just because our planet is warming, we are to blame. This has happened before and will be continuing to happen for the rest of the history of out planet.

Answer 5

Air conditioning adds to your electric bill, but doesn't contribute to global warming in any way.  It's a hermetic (sealed) system...it has to be.  Around an airconditioner condenser there's only air movement, nothing more.  

Unless your air conditioner has a coolant leak it can't affect the environment.

Answer 6

Not at all.

Answer 7

A/C accounts for about 4% of electricity use in America.  Not significant.  So don't sweat it.

China is now the largest CO2 emitter, and unlikely to agree to any restrictions (or any pollution controls period).

If China is not on board, nothing anyone else in the rest of the world does, matters.

Answer 8

I love davem answer

He states that it adds to you electricity bill but doesn't add to GW

Ha Ha Ha if you are using more electricity you are making more Co2 unless of course you have solar aircon

In most houses the aircon unit is the single biggest consumer of electricity 3-5 Kw