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Alternative to Air-conditions?
(lemmus.org)
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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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Alright, I have phrased my question wrong. English is not my first language and I tend to be a bit absolute. I meant that I am opposed to A/C because I feel that we -as society- have postponed our responsibility towards eco-friendliness. Additionally A/C worsense the heat outside of your house. My conserne was not only about A/C since as pointed out heat-pumps or evaporative coolers can cost (money and energy wise) if not more the same. I made this post to hear thoughts on how we can combat heat collectively and not how as individuals we can protect ourselves temporarily. I found a lot of ideas quite interesting. I believe that small changes could have an impact. So far I think the points bellow would help:
A/C is indeed not a solution for solving climate change. It's merely a solution to survive the transition that we are trying to do. The solution is in how you produce the electricity, among others, to feed the A/C.
There is some additional heat that an AC system will create, but the heat that goes out of the external block is not heat that was created by the system. It's heat that was displaced and that would otherwise come through other ways in the atmosphere.
A theoretical perfect heat pump would not heat the atmosphere at all, despite having a heating part. The heating would be perfectly balanced by the cooling part.
It is a bit counterintuitive when you think about machines as creating heat or creating cold. A better way to look at it is in terms of energy evacuation.
A house without any AC will radiate heat because humans inside, machines inside, they do produce heat. So that heat goes out in the atmosphere through the walls and through the windows when the inside is warmer than the outside. An AC creates a sort of channel for the heat to go all through the external block and it blasts hot air at a specific place. But what you don't see is that as a result your colder house radiates less heat and actually may to some extent cool the atmosphere around it.
Both effects balance each other out. There is a difference because a heat pump is not a 100% efficient system. So you do have additional heat that gets there as waste. But it's not on the same level as what gets blasted out of the external unit.
A/C and "heat pump" are the same technology
@spazzman6156 @turip They are similar, but a heat pump is a much more advanced version with a lot less energy loss.
What people refer to as a "heat pump" is just an air conditioner that can run in reverse to provide heat in the home as well as cool it. The cooling part is the same technology as a non- heat pump air conditioner.
Heating this way is more efficient than resistive electric heat
Cooling is the same mechanism as standard air conditioners
Biggest efficiency difference in A/C (cooling) would be if the compressor is inverter-driven or not
@turip Trees, trees, and public transit. And yeah, passive solar, underground trenches the Amish use. And drinking water isn't going to fix it. There will be parts of the world where the wet-bulb temperature will literally be unlivable and will require ACs. People are also more stupid and violent when they overheat.
I have to say, drinking water in extreme heat is not nearly enough unless it’s iced or at least cooled. You can drink all the water in the world but if the humidity and temp are above certain levels your brain will still fry. Dehydration is only one part of the danger
Drinking iced beverages in extreme heat is a good way to get heatstroke.
Your thermoregulation sense will think you're cooler than you are, and you'll stop sweating.
Seems counterintuitive, but hot drinks in hot weather is wiser