Ok fair enough. I think we need both in a lot of places though, and the number of places where we need both is only going to increase. And there’s an obvious synergy between the two.
Where I live we have very very hot summers (along with most of the measures you mention) and winters that rarely get below freezing, but we spend so much more on heating than we do on A/C. Yet there never seems to be discourse about people in cooler climates turning on the heating in winter.
That’s true about the double standard. It’s not great to use a bunch of carbon based energy to heat in the winter. I guess what makes cooling more conspicuous is that it’s a positive feedback loop. The waste heat makes the problem worse. Not to mention other issues like one person using (portable) A/C causing humid air to be sucked into the building, making everyone else less comfortable. But ideally, we would at least use clean energy for heating rather than carbon based fuels.
Yeah I’m beginning to realize that, like most online debates, the whole thing is skewed by Americans doing everything in the dumbest way possible. We have a well-insulated flat with integrated AC and I don’t feel particularly guilty about using it to keep temps below 30 during the summer. Especially as the electricity here is 80% wind/solar. You do get some chuds here blasting the AC at 23 degrees out of spite, but most people just want to keep their bills down without melting.
I’ve ‘lived’ in this heat without AC and it’s only possible if you accept that you can’t move or wear clothes or work or sleep. It sucked. Lots of people have no choice but to live in such conditions, and they shouldn’t have to
Ok fair enough. I think we need both in a lot of places though, and the number of places where we need both is only going to increase. And there’s an obvious synergy between the two.
Where I live we have very very hot summers (along with most of the measures you mention) and winters that rarely get below freezing, but we spend so much more on heating than we do on A/C. Yet there never seems to be discourse about people in cooler climates turning on the heating in winter.
That’s true about the double standard. It’s not great to use a bunch of carbon based energy to heat in the winter. I guess what makes cooling more conspicuous is that it’s a positive feedback loop. The waste heat makes the problem worse. Not to mention other issues like one person using (portable) A/C causing humid air to be sucked into the building, making everyone else less comfortable. But ideally, we would at least use clean energy for heating rather than carbon based fuels.
Yeah I’m beginning to realize that, like most online debates, the whole thing is skewed by Americans doing everything in the dumbest way possible. We have a well-insulated flat with integrated AC and I don’t feel particularly guilty about using it to keep temps below 30 during the summer. Especially as the electricity here is 80% wind/solar. You do get some chuds here blasting the AC at 23 degrees out of spite, but most people just want to keep their bills down without melting.
I’ve ‘lived’ in this heat without AC and it’s only possible if you accept that you can’t move or wear clothes or work or sleep. It sucked. Lots of people have no choice but to live in such conditions, and they shouldn’t have to