Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A Luxury the World Can’t Afford (Air Conditionining!)
The New York Times ^ | June 21, 2012 | Stan Cox

Posted on 06/22/2012 4:14:16 PM PDT by Timber Rattler

The economist Thorstein Veblen once quipped that "invention is the mother of necessity." That was before the age of air-conditioning, but no technology better illustrates Veblen's point. Having developed efficient cooling, we've designed homes, businesses and transportation systems that are completely dependent on it, while the resulting greenhouse emissions create the need for even more air-conditioning.

(snip)

We must break this feedback loop, but what does one say to someone living in one of the tropical nations where much of the increase in cooling demand is expected? Surely not that Americans are addicted to air-conditioning and can’t give it up, but we expect Southeast Asians to get by without air-conditioners because they're used to the heat.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; US: New York
KEYWORDS: ac; agenda21; airconditioning; carbon; climatechangehoax; cultureofdeath; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; hotaircult; neoluddism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 181-191 next last
To: GeronL

“There would be bloodshed in the streets.... hello triple digits in Texas!”

I wasn’t aware the Texas was unpopulated until around the 1930s.


101 posted on 06/22/2012 6:00:28 PM PDT by Mears
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: jeffc

...but we expect Southeast Asians to get by without air-conditioners because they’re used to the heat.

We do? I don’t remember saying or thinking that. Who’s “we”? I say if it’s hot, crank up the A/C!


I bet if those Pacific Islanders were in Buffalo New York in January, they’d want to crank up the heat.

I say, let em!


102 posted on 06/22/2012 6:03:31 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: GeronL
There would be bloodshed in the streets.... hello triple digits in Texas!

Folks don't really know Texas until they have to work outdoors all day in our triple digit heat. Like yours truly.

We don't just wear them big hats to look cool.

103 posted on 06/22/2012 6:06:19 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: elkfersupper; ROCKLOBSTER

The real air is outside and unconditioned.


That “real” outside air is full of bugs and stuff.


104 posted on 06/22/2012 6:07:21 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Charles Martel

***Just crack a few windows open an inch or so each and turn the fan on***

We lived next to a dirt road and the dust would be pulled in covering everything.

Ever notice how the old houses were designed for hot weather? 10-12 ft ceilings, large windows with two panes, one to lower and one to raise. But they were cold in winter!


105 posted on 06/22/2012 6:08:53 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (I LIKE ART! Click my name. See my web page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: Venturer
I’ve got a couple of window shakers, but with the ceiling fans running I seldom need them.

Lucky you. If you were in Texas, you'd be wearing those window shakers out. I grew up in SoCal, so I know what some high temps are about, but the heat down here is a whole 'nother breed.

106 posted on 06/22/2012 6:10:22 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Iron Munro
Years ago while building a new house, the owner hit a cavern while drilling a well. He noticed that the air coming out the drill hole was a constant temp between 72 and 74 degrees. He installed duct-work and a blower to drive the air into his home and the small electric bill is less than $20 per month.

Here is what is getting popular in Texas now:

http://www.chevron.com/deliveringenergy/geothermal/?utm_campaign=Tier_1&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Bing_Yahoo!&utm_term=geothermal

107 posted on 06/22/2012 6:10:22 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (It's time to take out the trash in DC.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: elkfersupper; ROCKLOBSTER
“Yes. That makes it fake. The real air is outside and unconditioned.”

LOL. You sound like my grandmother complaining about a cheap window AC.

Nothing is changed about the chemical make-up. It simply passes near a cold piece of metal that cools and dries the air. No chemicals are used to dry it. The metal simply “sweats” and the excess water drips down. Just like a cold pint of beer.

Aside from the temperature and moisture content, this air is identical to unconditioned air. There is nothing unnatural about it. Even if it is different from the air currently outside, there is somewhere on the planet that currently has the identical temp/moisture of your ideal conditioned air. We condition because the optimal human comfort zone is fairly narrow. About 70-80 degrees F and 30-50% humidity. Outside that zone is survivable but not optimal.

It sounds like you only have experience with cheap or poorly maintained HVAC systems. People have misconceptions about conditioning mainly for these reasons:

-Cheap materials can leech chemicals into the air. This is why the air can smell like chemicals and make you think conditioned air is unnatural. Cheap window ACs are nearly always guilty of this. A good system will not leech any detectable amount of chemicals.

-Poorly maintained filters, ducts and coils give off dust and mold smells. Maintaining a cheap AC is hard but there are advanced systems today that virtually eliminate this type of maintenance.

-A poorly designed system is loud and creates drafts. A properly designed system should be quieter than ambient noise in the room and shall not create drafts noticeable by anyone in the space. You shouldn't even know the unit is on. Some advanced systems don't even have indoor fans but instead rely on natural air currents. Very expensive but completely silent.

I'm an engineer with years of HVAC experience. I hope you someday see a system that changes your mind. But yes; properly designed, installed and maintained systems are rare.

108 posted on 06/22/2012 6:15:28 PM PDT by varyouga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler

Our AC comes from our ground source heat pump.
It’s free, more or less...


109 posted on 06/22/2012 6:17:16 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76
I actually like the warm weather and very rarely turn on the air conditioning either in my car or at home. When I come home from the office, I get out of the suit and put on some shorts with a Hawaiian shirt - no sock, no shoes.

I don't know what folks up your way consider high temps, but from the Southwest to the Southeast, the heat can be overpowering. Even at night. Most homes in Texas have the A/C running from late Spring to early Fall. Continuously.

110 posted on 06/22/2012 6:18:01 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler

I was born and raised in Houston in a time when our schools had 35 students per classroom and no air-conditioning, to consider returning to what now seems like an impossible situation is absurd, but we should try it out in the government offices and media first to see if it is doable.

If the Mayor and City Hall, and Congress, TV and print media all like it both at work and at their homes, then let them bring it up to us again in a couple of years.


111 posted on 06/22/2012 6:19:40 PM PDT by ansel12 (Massachusetts Governors, where the GOP now goes for it's Presidential candidates.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: elkfersupper
No, I pretty much eat fresh food. I have a refrigerator, but I've rarely used it.

You must go through a lot of elk, then...

112 posted on 06/22/2012 6:27:14 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler

If they would build houses right; we wouldn’t need a/c. My husband’s mothers house was practically in desert; but it was built right and didn’t ned a/c. Same way with my grandfather’s house.


113 posted on 06/22/2012 6:29:01 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Windflier
We don't just wear them big hats to look cool.

I just started wearing big hats when working outside in the lawn and garden. It also stops skin cancer cells from starting.

114 posted on 06/22/2012 6:33:12 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (It's time to take out the trash in DC.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler

They hate the south and want to do everything they can to undermine it. Ag products under attack are invariably southern. Go after air conditioning while failing to note that heating costs are much lower.

There’s an Israeli company, Advantix, that has invented a new sort of air conditioning using salt that requires 50-80% less electricity. Like fracking and peak oil, the idiots better come up with a new scheme to reduce us all to sweltering serfs packed into concrete housing projects, because reality has caught up and surpassed their narrative.


115 posted on 06/22/2012 6:35:34 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76; hinckley buzzard

I’ll make a deal with y’all. We will turn off the AC in the summer... and the heat in the winter! Think how much that will help! What... you don’t agree? Well, I usually wear t-shirt and shorts around Thanksgiving... don’t everbody else do the same?


116 posted on 06/22/2012 6:39:54 PM PDT by Former Fetus (Saved by grace through faith)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: sawmill trash

“When they pry my cold dead fingers away from the thermostat.”

I like how you think. If I need a company gunnery sergeant to kill Nazis, are you free this fall?


117 posted on 06/22/2012 6:40:45 PM PDT by sergeantdave (Public unions exist to protect the unions from the taxpaying public)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler

My brain shuts down at exactly 75 degrees. At 74 degrees, I’m productive. At 75 degrees, I need a nap, and can’t accomplish anything.

So, is it a luxury to keep me productive on behalf of others with air conditioning?

Y’all want to live in caves?


118 posted on 06/22/2012 6:50:08 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Nobody died at Watergate. Who were Brian Terry and Jamie Zapata? (Post this on Facebook, everyone!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: elkfersupper
I have a refrigerator, but I've rarely used it.

Riiiight!

I have a car, but I prefer to walk 8 miles to work. I have a phone, but I prefer yelling as loud as I can hoping the person can hear me. I have a computer, a typewriter and a pencil, but I prefer scratching images on the walls of my cave with a rock, in hopes that some day, someone will see it. < /sarc >

And yes, "conditioned air" is simply humid, dusty, allergenic air, potentially containing bacteria or viruses, that gets drawn past a cold, wet metal grid. The bad stuff sticks to the condensed water droplets and drains out onto the ground.

No hocus-pocus there.

119 posted on 06/22/2012 6:50:08 PM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate Republicans Freed the Slaves Month.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: Ciexyz

“AC helps those with asthma and breathing problems breathe easier. If you ban AC, you’re cutting the life spans of people whose hearts and lungs must work harder to breathe as a result.”

This means nothing to the “ban AC” crowd, who would argue that the above-mentioned people have a “duty to die” and free up the plant for the young. Also, fewer costs to government if they die earlier…. (sarcasm off)


120 posted on 06/22/2012 7:02:07 PM PDT by Road Glide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 181-191 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson