[WildRose]

I work in an older building which has been refurbished in the last three years but has constant problems with its chillers and air conditioning system. However, I also suspect that at times cost-cutting is the reason the air conditioning is off. Now, this is Edmonton, Alberta, which, in recent summers, has seen on average about a month of weather above 80 degrees F. For the last few summers, I have spent many nights working in my 6th floor office in temperatures above 90 degrees, and it is darn uncomfortable. It causes a person to sweat constantly, have swollen feet, become fatigued, drink 10 glasses of water a night and make untold trips to the bathroom. The only saving grace is that on the night shift there are only a few souls working compared to the 50 or more running around in the same space during the day.

My point is that loss of AC will cause MUCH discomfort, especially in places that have prolonged hot, humid weather. Imagine how grumpy co-workers will be with each other.

[Johnston]

My sense is that a hotter world will be harder on the electricity bill, on average, and thus cut deeper into fossil fuels.

But remember at the end of 2006 when the northern hemisphere had very warm winter weather. It helped drive oil down to $50... warmer weather seems to have a dramatic impact.

It might be helpful to know how much energy the world uses on heating vs. cooling in a given year.

[FreakOil]

One reason you're using too much air-conditioning is the senselessness of the 9-to-5 work schedule in hot climates.

I remember visiting my grandfather's hometown of Caltanassetta, right in the middle of Sicily, about five years ago in the month of August. My friend and I left our hotel around 11 a.m. to have a look at the town. We went into a few shops before realizing that everything was closing. In the sweltering heat, we walked around the town, the streets of which were completely deserted by 1 p.m. We went back to the hotel and relaxed unil around 4 or 5, when the streets were once again abuzz.

This is what towns and cities in Texas, Arizona, SoCal and other places should be like. Nobody should be working out in the sweltering heat in the middle of the afternoon, unless they absolutely must. Rather than 9 to 5, the work schedule should be 8 to 12, followed by siesta and a few glasses of ice-cold lemonade, with work beginning again at 4.

By the way, I find some of the posts here rather indicative of how coddled and weak (my fellow) Americans are. I live in the humid sub-tropical city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, and I'm perfectly fine without air-conditioning, as are most of the locals, even though the recent afternoon temperatures are usually in the mid to high 30s C.

There's also no heating south of the Yangtze River. A few years ago, we had a miserable cold spell, and there were even warnings of frost, which rarely happens in the sub-tropics. Not only did we wear sweaters indoors, we wore coats, hats and even gloves. Nobody complained, we just drank a lot of hot tea. It snows occasionally in the northern part of Hunan province in the winter, but there's still no heating because it's south of the Yangtze.

Some of you people really need to get a grip on reality. One reason my perspective may be a lot different, although I'm an American, is that I've lived in Russia and China and traveled extensively in Eastern Europe and India. I would strongly recommend getting out of America while you can, it would change your perspective for the better.

I was inclined to write a post more like Gideon's, but I saw what happened to that.

[WildRose]

By the way, I find some of the posts here rather indicative of how coddled and weak (my fellow) Americans are. I live in the humid sub-tropical city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, and I'm perfectly fine without air-conditioning, as are most of the locals, even though the recent afternoon temperatures are usually in the mid to high 30s C.

Yes, many of us have not had to condition ourselves to work in extreme heat, which is why I think the transition to no air conditioning will be difficult. Also, some of us can handle 30 degrees below zero better than 30 degrees above.

[Johnston]

I remember visiting my grandfather's hometown of Caltanassetta, right in the middle of Sicily, about five years ago in the month of August. My friend and I left our hotel around 11 a.m. to have a look at the town. We went into a few shops before realizing that everything was closing. In the sweltering heat, we walked around the town, the streets of which were completely deserted by 1 p.m. We went back to the hotel and relaxed unil around 4 or 5, when the streets were once again abuzz.

That's strange... I looked up that city on weather.com and the average maximum in August is only 27ºC.

There's also no heating south of the Yangtze River. A few years ago, we had a miserable cold spell, and there were even warnings of frost, which rarely happens in the sub-tropics. Not only did we wear sweaters indoors, we wore coats, hats and even gloves. Nobody complained, we just drank a lot of hot tea. It snows occasionally in the northern part of Hunan province in the winter, but there's still no heating because it's south of the Yangtze.

That might have been the year I was in HK... Feb. 2004. I had to wear a jacket indoors because the hotel had no heating, even though it was a nice hotel.

Quite a few buildings had heating though, such as the museums.

I remember how when the subway (MRT?) trains start, they blast you with cold air... which would be delicous in summer.

[Ludi]

Probably someone has mentioned it but its worthwhile to remember that many/most modern office buildings and houses aren't built to function without airconditioning and will simply not be tolerable even to the most hardy souls in the future. They will by necessity be abandoned. It's fairly easy to die of the heat. More people die of the heat than the cold, worldwide, I believe. Certainly the European heatwave of a couple years ago was a disaster, killed thousands.


We don't use AC in our home, just for our work during quite hot weather (90 and above).

[Heineken]

You beat me to the punch on that, Ludi.

It's a very important point. Virtually all our civilization's large buildings are 100% dependent on air conditioning, a technology that even among energy hogs stands out prominently. The windows don't even open, fer chrissake. Even if they could be retrofitted to open (at enormous cost), the great majority of a typical large building's space is interior space, unserved by windows.

How would a shopping mall operate without air conditioning? A modern supermarket? A New York City skyscraper?

They couldn't. Eventually they will, indeed, be abandoned. All those millions of buildings.

This is a facet of the problem Kunstler describes so well. Our entire infrastructure was designed around, and is joined at the hip to, cheap and abundant energy, and cannot be adapted to scarce, expensive energy, whether it comes from fossil fuels or alternatives. So we're going to have to abandon virtually all of our infrastructure. Unfortunately, we will be in a poor position to start over from scratch, since we will have destroyed the best of our natural capital. A lot of it will be physically occupied by all those freeways and warehouses.
Which means we are doomed.

[coyote]

Eventually they will, indeed, be abandoned. All those millions of buildings.

And what will eventually happen to all those buildings, without upkeep? How long will it take them to come down under their own weight, and from weaknesses in the foundations and materials? I've read most skyscrapers are designed with a particular 'shelf life,' and for some of them it's not all that long. For that matter, what about dams? Bridges? Towers?

The great pyramid at Giza was the tallest manmade structure for thousands of years; and one day it will be again, and for thousands of years more.

[Ludi]

Most structures require periodic maintenance, something we won't afford once energy becomes expensive. So, the structures will fail, especially under the kind of severe weather we can look forward to. Dams don't have a long life, maybe 100 years from their construction, because most are not designed to flush silt from the base, and so will become huge waterfalls, and possibly eventually the concrete will fail due to the weigh of silt behind them, and they will crumble with catastrophic consequences for communities below the dam.


I'm guessing much will crumble in an unsafe manner over the course of 100 or so years. But not being an engineer, this is only a guess.

[pea-jay]

Eventually they will, indeed, be abandoned. All those millions of buildings.

And what will eventually happen to all those buildings, without upkeep? How long will it take them to come down under their own weight, and from weaknesses in the foundations and materials? I've read most skyscrapers are designed with a particular 'shelf life,' and for some of them it's not all that long. For that matter, what about dams? Bridges? Towers?

The great pyramid at Giza was the tallest manmade structure for thousands of years; and one day it will be again, and for thousands of years more.

We wont have to wait long to see the abandoned remnants of suburbia disappear. I'd argue in a bad downward spiral the unbuilding of suburbia would take months to years, not decades. Why? Because while the buildings are useless as a whole, they will remain valuable as scrap, for a very long period of time.

Take a shopping mall. Youve got miles of copper wire. Definately valuable and reusable. Interior furnishings and treatments can be bartered or sold. Lights will be salvageable as well as the plumbing. The AC system is still functional for parts use for buildings that still will have AC/heat. Even if not, the motors can be reused for different applications. Presumable some of the technology will still work and be salvaged as well. Think CC TV and alarms.

Then we get to the structural elements. Glass. Steel. Masonry (structural and decorative), wood, cast concrete forms. All high embodied energy items with definate salvage value even in a Mad Max super-doomer scenario.

Most of our suburban folly will be torn down and reused. Not abandoned for time immemorial.

[Heineken]

To reuse all that we have built up would take energy and other fresh resources and equipment we won't have in any great abundance, pea-jay. For example, stripping a mall of its copper wire sounds like a daunting task to me, particularly if the mall's roofs have collapsed.

Mechanical things like motors will rust and become useless rather quickly. Most of the mechanical systems of today require specialized parts and maintenance that will become unavailable.

Certainly, some of all that man-made glop will be reused, but only some fraction. And its reuse will take place at a much lower rung on Maslow's hierarchy.

Ludi---great comments.

[frankthetank]

My plan for AC is to hide in the basement. I've got a room with no windows right next to the well. Currently its 69.5F in my basement, but it will go higher as summer progresses. My best guess would be 75F. Somehow there has to be a way to use well water (60F?) to cool of a room (and then pump it out to a garden or pond or something.

[rdberg1957]

I don't begrudge people the use of air conditioning: sometimes it is necessary for survival. In Chicago a few years back, many elderly people died of heart failure without air conditioning during a heat wave. However, what does bother me is seeing 95--99% of drivers with their windows up using air conditioning on days where it is in the 70's farenheit. Yesterday it was quite hot, then it rained and cooled off quite a bit. Time to turn off the air methinks.

Jevon's paradox is a poor excuse not to do our best to conserve, particularly considering global warming in addition to peak oil. During national emergencies, the US has conserved. During World War II, folks had victory gardens, saved grease, rubber and other necessaries, gas was rationed. Not the best economic system, but it may come to that again.

[Ludi]

Some studies have shown cars get better mileage with windows up and AC on, due to less wind resistance. There's no point in having an aerodynamic car design if you drive with the windows down. I believe this refers to highway driving though, not city driving.

[jeezlouise]

I just noticed a big ad on the spine of the Atlanta yellow pages: it's for a heating and air company called "Arctic Polar." Their logo is... a sad looking polar bear stranded on a tiny piece of ice.

I hope the irony isn't lost on everybody who works there.

[Blacksmith]

Now first of all realize I live in the country and a truck is essential for my job. But when for the first time in about thirty five years I bought a new truck as opposed to a used one, I insisted that I did not need air conditioning. You should have heard the resistance and arguments I got not just from the salesman but his manager etc, about how I would never be able to sell it etc. I took them outside and showed them my old truck at which point they said I would have to special order.
Well I did get my truck with the small V8, roll up windows, manual transmission, no carpeting, a real plain Jane. That truck is still doing its job six year later and I suspect will still be doing it 6 years from now.
I guess my point is conservation starts with you.

[BlisteredWhippet]

WHY?

1. People are pussies. They are unused to anything but external control over their bodies. They complain its too hot, too cold, etc. etc.

2. People are fat. Being sweaty is even more uncomfortable, I presume, to the fat. Being fat and sweaty, I imagine, is an exponential level of discomfort. Consider the loss of hydration, the concentrated salt emulsions oozing forth, the shocked fatbody metabolism hysterically sensing sodium concentration losses. Visions of 40 oz. colas and sodium drenched fries and burgers explode throughout the hypertensive brain. Air conditioning is life support for bodies unused to physical stress of any external kind.

3. The infrastructure is dysfunctional. All the buildings in Phoenix, for example, are built with forced air cooling in mind, just like everywhere else. The architectural paradigm is the above ground building- a solar oven for human beings. These buildings create the problems air-conditioning solves. Contemporary urbanization follows a pattern of destroying every natural opportunity for heat sequestration and maximizes the radiant reflectivity of everything.

[steam_cannon]

Since someone mentioned home cooling...

Here is an amusing low-tech cooling system for cooling a house or cabin. It uses well water or ideally water from a small lake or cooling pond. But can also use any incoming water to a house.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Free Air Conditioning
http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Air-Conditioning/


Laugh all you want, what I see is something simple that works...

Free air conditioning by piping incoming cold water though a radiator and a fan. This system appears to be highly effective at transferring heat away from a house. It uses city water or ground water. When you use water, why not cool your house with it too? And it's much less work then burying a heat transfer loop in your lawn. Filtered stream water would probably also work and cost a lot less then an air conditioner. And if you really wanted to put something on your roof, you could put a solar panel up there and use a DC powered fan.

Can an air conditioner or water preheater be made simpler then this? This is easier to build then a swamp cooler! Run on a hot day it produces lots of warmed up water, this could be a very simple hot water preheater! Made with almost no work at all! Well, you said you have cold well water that you would like warmed up in the summer, this would do it. Just mess around with piping as you planned, hook up a radiator, rig up a fan and run down the wall wires for a switch and you're done. If you want to get fancy, design a vent so it blows cold air into your house...

How well does it work? We hit a high temperature in July of 112F, hottest that I can remember. The temperature inside was 76F with the cooler running all the time. I almost didn't want to go out to move the sprinkler.
The disadvantages? Well, you have to move the sprinkler a lot, but it does keep the grass green. Also if the humidity gets high, water will condense on the exchanger the same as on a glass of cold water. So I keep towels underneath it to soak up the moisture.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Air-Conditioning/

This is a pretty "cool" setup. The only change I would make is to make bin or wrap vinyl around the bottom to catch condensation.

[Cornelian]

The pot in pot system works extremely well - I have a friend who keeps all his food and drink cold in them right through the Australian summer.

[gg3]

Re. radiators in your incoming water line:
DANGER there is LEAD in the solder joints in those things and there may be a risk of it leaching into your drinking water.
Automobile radiators were used as components in illegal distillation systems during prohibition and there was a serious problem with lead contamination of the resulting alcohol beverages.
If you use a radiator hooked up to a nearby stream, you could also be discharging lead into the stream.
This is an item that absolutely requires a) lab testing of the water output, b) development of sources for safe radiators that can be standardized: a specific manufacturer and part number.
Note also, the power consumption to circulate the water between a radiator and a storage tank, needs to be factored in.
Last but not least, lukewarm water is a notorious breeding ground for bacteria and biofilms (slime) inside water pipes. You do not want to be drinking untreated lukewarm water.
How to keep cool in hot weather: Put two inches of cold tap water in a plastic container of sufficient size to insert your feet (a rectangular container of 12" x 16" by 6" deep should be sufficient). Get a set of rubber or plastic "flip-flops" (casual sandals often worn on beaches). Put your feet in the cold water while you are sitting down. When you get up, put on the flip-flops to minimize tracking the water around the house or having slip-and-fall accidents.

The water in the container is usable for cooling until the point where it reaches body temperature (starts to feel warmer than your feet). When the water becomes too warm, dump it into another bucket until you accumulate enough to use the contents of the latter bucket for a toilet flush. You can flush the toilet effectively by simply pouring 3/4 of a gallon into it (for "number one") or 1-1/2 gallons (for "number two"). By re-using the water to flush the toilet, you're not increasing your net water consumption.
Another simple method is to stick your head under the shower and get your hair wet with cold water, and let it evaporate. You can also take a T-shirt, get it wet, wring out the excess water and put it on. Both of these methods use evaporative cooling applied directly to the human body: cooling the body is always more efficient than cooling the entire room.

If ambient humidity reaches 100% (or in a practical sense, anywhere above 90%) and the temperature is in the upper 90s Fahrenheit or above, your body cannot transfer heat to the air either by convection or by evaporation. At that point the only effective solution is direct use of cold, for example water that's below body temperature, or the use of refrigerated air.
Otherwise, when temperature goes above 98.6 Fahrenheit at 90+% humidity, your body gets net heat gain, your body temperature rises as if you have a fever, and you can die. (Hey, it's not so bad, consider it your contribution to reducing overpopulation! According to some people, that's better than mandatory baby rationing!)

To safely store milk and other animal products, you have to get down below 40 Fahrenheit: the lower the better.
In my own experiments with refrigeration systems I've found that a temperature of 34 Fahrenheit is ideal for refrigeration, and -1 Fahrenheit (not 1 below freezing, which is 31 Fahrenheit, but -1 Fahrenheit) is ideal for the freezer.

A little bit higher-tech: My next appliance design project.
There are thermo-electric coolers (Peltier junction devices) designed specifically to supply cool air to rack-mounted computer equipment. Mount one of these in a board that fits into an open window.
The "hot" side faces outside. The "cool" side's fan output is directed to where you're sitting (either you sit next to the unit, or you use a flexible plastic duct such as a clothes dryer type duct, to direct the cool air over to where you are sitting and have the output above your head so the cool air naturally sinks to the floor, "pouring" over your body as it does so). It may be more efficient to place the cooler unit directly over your head and pipe out the warm air from the "hot" side to a window-mounted vent.

Once again, cool the body as directly as possible, rather than cooling the room. A typical thermo-electric cooler uses 20 - 40 watts, compared to over 120 watts for a room air conditioner. It can produce a temperature differential of up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit between the hot and cold side, thus obtaining a comfortable 80 degree temperature zone around your body when ambient temps are as high as 120 degrees.