The Effects Of Using AC For Global Warming

22 May 2022


Source: Air conditioning demands are bound to increase as the temperatures soar. Photo by Gije Cho on Pexels.com

As household incomes increase worldwide and global temperatures rise, the use of air conditioning will increase dramatically. AC growth is expected to be very strong in middle-income countries, but direct empirical evidence is scarce. In this article we will describe the relationship between temperature, revenue, and air conditioning. We will explain how electricity consumption increases with temperature given current AC levels, and how climate and income drive AC adoption decisions. Then we will combine these estimates with end-of-century temperature change estimates to estimate future energy consumption. Under conservative assumptions about household income, our model predicts nearly universal AC saturation in all warm areas in just a few decades. Rising temperatures contributed to the surge in adoption, but revenue growth alone explained most of the increase. This means that electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions depend on the rate of technological change.

The International Energy Agency said that the use of air conditioner (AC)  will be the main cause of increasing world electricity demand in the next few years. According to the latest data provided by CNN Indonesia in 2018, the use of air conditioners in Indonesia is still relatively small. The reason is only 10% of households have air conditioners. However, in the last 4 years it cannot be ruled out that the percentage of AC usage in Indonesia is escalating, the main cause is the increase in temperature. BMKG predicts that the temperature in Indonesia in the first quarter of 2022 will increase to 4 degrees Celsius. This certainly triggers people to use AC and in line with that will also impact on the increase in world electricity demand. 

AC works by absorbing warm air from the room into the machine and then meeting cold liquid which will later be dispersed periodically. When there is a lot of hot liquid, the liquid will evaporate and turn into a gas. The AC compressor outside the house will receive the hot gas and then throw it into the air. The hot gas contains CFCs or Chlorofluorocarbons is an organic compound containing only carbon, chlorine, and fluorine produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and propane. CFCs are what will have a bad impact, namely slowly destroying the ozone layer. As the years go by, the use of air conditioners is getting higher and causing the earth’s temperature to increase. Hot temperatures increase greatly and occur over a long period. No need to be surprised if later the entire ecosystem will be disrupted due to the use of air conditioning. 

Air conditioners use greenhouse gases called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs for short. CFC, or what we often call freon, is a gas produced by a very stable mixture of chlorine, fluorine, and carbon atoms. Air conditioners use CFCs to cool the air and then release it into the atmosphere. Due to their stable form, CFCs released by AC can rise into the earth’s stratosphere, where the ozone layer is located. According to reports from the American Chemical Society, ozone absorbs most of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation and prevents harmful radiation from reaching the earth’s surface. Simply put, the ozone layer protects life on earth from harmful solar radiation. However, CFC gases that can rise into the stratosphere can damage the ozone layer. In the higher layers of the stratosphere, CFCs find high-energy photons from sunlight. 

The quick answer is we should never lose our life because of overheating by not taking advantage of an air conditioning system being operational in our home or workspace. The most crucial action we can take is what we are doing right now by Arming ourselves with knowledge about the possible effects. With these details, we know what to watch out for, and we can adjust accordingly. By taking the right steps, we can enjoy air conditioning in our residence without any health issues and minimum disruption to the environment.  Continued Advances in Energy Efficiency or the Development of New Cooling Technologies Could Reduce the Energy Consumption Impacts. Similarly, Growth in Low-Carbon Electricity Generation Could Mitigate the Increases in Carbon Dioxide Emission. However, the paper illustrates the enormous potential impacts in this sector, highlighting the importance of future research on adaptation and underscoring the urgent need for global action on Climate Change.

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Abigail Permata Safin, Alya Syavira Putri Awinka, Annisa Marzuqah Shafiyyah, Clara Carolina, Janice Selestine