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Your next new home air conditioner could set you back $12,000 or more, with federal regulators contributing to the rising cost of staying cool. Before 2020, buying and installing a new residential central air conditioner typically cost well under $10,000. Many jobs, including both purchase and installation, fell in the $6,000 to $7,000 range—about half the current price—says Martin Hoover, a co-owner of Atlanta-based Empire Heating & Air Conditioning. While many factors, including rising material costs, have contributed to the increase in prices, regulations have played an outsize role. The Energy Department in January 2023 issued a new efficiency standard...

Scientists say they have created an experimental new high-tech window coating that works similarly to polarized lenses on sunglasses by allowing all of the visible light through while also reflecting unwanted heat. If added to existing buildings and car windows, the new coating could reduce internal temperatures in hotter climates without sacrificing any of the visible light while also reducing energy usage for indoor air conditioning by as much as 30%. The new coating was developed by researchers from Notre Dame University who were looking for a cheap yet viable way to reduce the use of air conditioning in cars...

The athletes competing at the Paris Summer Games will have plenty of condoms, but they will not have air conditioning. “We designed these buildings so that they would be comfortable places to live in in the summer, in 2024 and later on, and we don’t need air conditioning in these buildings because we oriented the facades so that they wouldn’t get too much sun during the summer, and the facades, the insulation is really efficient,” said Yann Krysinski, who is directing the service of infrastructure for the Games. The buildings housing the athletes will apparently have some sort of cooling...

Olympic athletes are going to be on the hot seat this summer in Paris. Not just metaphorically; the Paris Olympic Committee wants this Olympics to be the greenest ever (take that, Classical Greeks!), and one of the measures they have taken is to build the Olympic village without any air conditioning. There will be no air conditioning in athletes' rooms at #Paris2024, which pledged to host the ‘greenest ever’ Olympic Games. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo spoke to @Reuters about the city's plans to keep athletes cool https://t.co/Js9skXtWoF pic.twitter.com/uVBMusztdi— Reuters (@Reuters) March 14, 2024I think this is one virtue signal that...

The climate control used by termites in their mounds could inspire tomorrow’s climate-smart buildings. New research from Lund University in Sweden shows that future buildings inspired by the termites could achieve the same effect as traditional climate control, but with greater energy efficiency and without its carbon dioxide footprint Termite mounds have a sophisticated ventilation system that enables air circulation throughout the structure. This helps to maintain and regulate temperature and humidity. “The digitalisation of design and construction processes creates enormous opportunities for how we shape architecture, and natural and biological systems provide an important model for how we...

DIY (Do It Yourself): Furnace Air Conditioning Saving Project. I've moved into a new home in a retirement community and don't want big bills to replace my furnace A/C down the line. I also don't like the idea that my energy bills may go up significantly with the global climate change policies that many are embracing. What can I do? DIY (easy): Powered Furnace Filter - $149 Amazon. Improves air flow by 30% (lower heat/cooling bills), captures much finer/more particulate matter saving the furnace A/C down the road. DIY (Moderate): Nest 3rd Generation or equivalent Wi-Fi Thermostat - $206 Amazon....

New York (CNN) — Consumers are snapping up air conditioners, ice makers, pool floats and other goods to help them cool down in response to a brutal heat wave in the United States. On Amazon, sales of air conditioners increased 248% during the 30 days ending July 14, according to data from Jungle Scout, a data and analytics platform for Amazon sellers. Sales for fans grew 60%. Searches on Amazon for “single room AC units” and “portable misting fans” also spiked triple digits during the period, according to Jungle Scout. On Wednesday morning, a sun shade for car windshields was...

July 12 (UPI) -- The Biden administration has announced plans to continue its reduction of hydrofluorocarbons, releasing a new rule that aims to cut the United States' use of the greenhouse gases by almost half starting next year. Hydrofluorocarbon is a category of greenhouse gases used for refrigeration and air-conditioning as well as in a number of other applications, but is linked to global warming. The final rule announced Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency will reduce HFC consumption in the United States based on historic levels by 40% between 2024 and 2028. The reduction will be on top of...

Clip explains that other parts of the theatre complex had fully functioning air conditioning except the one particular theatre which was showing Sound of Freedom.. The theatre management succeeded in returning enough of the tickets so that only 8 people watched Sound of Freedom.

Accommodations might be far from optimal for the athletes competing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. After concerns were raised over the lack of air conditioning in the athletes’ village back in January, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo doubled down on the idea last week. The Olympic Village, currently under construction in the Saint-Denis area, was designed to have rooms six degrees cooler than the outdoor temperature in an effort to be environmentally friendly.

The Senate has voted to ratify a global climate treaty that will phase down the use and production of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, the climate-warming chemicals widely used in air conditioning and refrigeration. The Senate voted 69-27 on Wednesday to move forward the 2016 Kigali Amendment, an amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol climate treaty that dramatically curbs the use of HFCs, which are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at heating up the Earth. Forty-eight Democrats and 21 Republicans voted in favor; four members of the Senate did not vote. “This is a win-win in our fight against...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg expressed his "impatience with all the complaining about high gasoline prices. The more pain we experience from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is from switching to electric vehicles. The stubborn insistence on holding onto the out-dated technology of the combustion engine makes me sick. Electric vehicles (EVs) are the obvious solution to mobility needs. People need to stop whining and get on-board with the government's efforts to motivate them to change how they travel." The ability of many people to buy EVs is impeded by their high cost. The initial purchase price...

Paris (AFP) – Air-conditioned shops in France will be ordered to keep their doors closed or risk being fined, a minister said Sunday announcing an upcoming rule to combat energy wastage. Leaving the doors open when the air conditioning is on leads to "20 percent more consumption and... it's absurd," French Minister of Ecological Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher told RMC radio. The minister said there were also plans to restrict the use of illuminated signs. "In the coming days, I will issue two decrees: the first will widen the ban on illuminated advertising, whatever the size of the city, between 1...

As climate change exacerbates heat waves, more and more people rely on energy-guzzling air conditioners to keep cool — a vicious cycle. Experts say passive cooling could alleviate some of the pressure. Demand for space cooling is soaring The climate crisis has made heat waves more likely and more intense around the world. Even in 2018, the use of air conditioners and electric fans made up 10% of global electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency. And that although air conditioners were only widespread in a few countries like Japan and the United States — where more than 90%...

DYI Mini Split Heat Pump, I did it! And it works very well! My existing Trane AC sadly died an early death at a very young 27 years.; RIP. I did have the need R-290(Not the old Texas R-1bbq refrigerant, real R290, no water vapor) to revive it, but then the fan solenoid gave out. And we said our goodbyes. Our daughter and HVAC guy S.I.L. put on an addition and went with a Mitsubishi/Trane mini split system, the Cadillac of heat pumps $$$. They love it! And last year my brother an MIS, installed his own Pioneer mini split...

Spain passed a decree this week limiting the use of air conditioning in public buildings as part of a strategy to conserve energy and reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. Spain itself does not depend on gas from Russia, but its government is working to increase energy efficiency as the European Union looks to reduce reliance on Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of this year alone. “Energy savings are the quickest and cheapest way to address the current energy crisis, and reduce bills,” the European Commission said last week when it unveiled details of its REPowerEU plan “to...

It’s the scariest moment of the year for many homeowners – that first really hot day, usually in May, when we turn on our air conditioners for the first time since the previous summer and cross our fingers that it still works. If not, it will need to be repaired or possibly replaced, and the 2022 air conditioning season is shaping up to be a very expensive one thanks to environmental regulations. Meanwhile, the Senate is busy considering a United Nations climate treaty called the Kigali Amendment that would make things worse. The news is bad whether your air conditioner...

A record-breaking heat wave is sweeping South Asia, threatening hundreds of millions of people with deadly temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. As the world heats up, billions of people need air-conditioning. This 120-year-old technology used to be considered a luxury, but in the age of climate change, it is a necessity for human survival. Understandably, this has created anxiety over the climate threat of a world overrun with ACs. But the coming boom in air-conditioning is an essential shift toward reducing the enormous gap in cooling availability that exists between rich and poor people and nations—and toward producing a...

As you may have heard, Tesla Model Y and Model 3 owners in Canada are having issues with their cars' heat pumps. This is a major problem that could be life-threatening, so it needs to be addressed and fixed as soon as possible. That said, Transport Canada has put the cars under an “Issue Assessment Investigation.” The investigation is specifically related to Tesla's HVAC systems and potential problems with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning in frigid weather. The government organization has not yet issued a recall. However, automakers must make Transport Canada aware of defects and potential safety concerns, and...

White houses are often boring, but they might just save the planet. As USA Today reports, Purdue University researchers have developed an ultra-white paint (it just earned a Guinness World Record) that reflects 98.1 percent of solar radiation while outputting infrared heat. As this leaves the surface cooler than the environment (regular paint warms the surface), it could effectively replace air conditioning in some cases — it produces a cooling power of 10kW for a 1,000sq. ft. roof, or more than a typical house AC unit. There are existing paints made to reflect heat, but they reflect no more than...