Air Conditioners and the vicious cycle we are in!
I always liked to believe I care about the climate — to think twice before using plastic; to consciously separate the dry and wet wastes every day; to switch off the light and fan before leaving a room; to give up burning firecrackers on Diwali (which somehow seems like a big deal!), I thought I was doing everything that I could! Then came the dilemma, you see, some choices are difficult to make — whether or not to buy an Air Conditioner (AC) was surely one among them!
Recently, my husband and I shifted to a new apartment with a living room, a study and two bedrooms. On entering the new apartment and noticing that each room had AC ducts which looked rather ugly, the first thought that came to me was, do we really need to get so many ACs? and I whispered to myself, Never!
Then came Delhi summers, and soon there creeped in the urgent need of having an AC in at least one of the bedrooms. As expected, we were glued to that one room the entire summer! When guests came, we did what was the most decent thing to do — let them use the room with AC. For us, those nights were pure torture! Waking up every hour, rushing to the washroom to sprinkle water on our faces, shoulders, necks and trying hard to sleep. As much as we loved hosting guests in our new apartment and for them to stay overnight, deep within we were always terrified to sleep without AC. And then, with our parents planning to come over and stay for weeks if not months, we had to decide on getting another AC for the other bedroom.
Soon after, we felt the need to use our study to conduct webinars and lectures, because that’s where we had two screens! And in no time, there we were, hopelessly purchasing our third AC!
Perhaps we will find another excuse to get our last AC too, for the living room! You see, not all guests can be brought straight into your bedroom! Who would have thought that in less than a year we would be requiring so many ACs? As bad as this might sound, the reality was even worse — we weren’t the only family who shifted into these new apartments. There were 150 other families who took possession around the same time. Now, considering each household, sometime or the other, having to install at least 2 ACs, the numbers surely sound alarming!
A paper that was published in the American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) by Kumar, et al. (2013) states that a 1.5 ton AC emits 5.7 kg of carbon per day which adds up to 1368 kg in a year, if the air conditioner works for 20 days per month as an average. Of course, ACs with better ratings are comparatively more energy efficient and less damaging but the damage is happening nonetheless.
Whether we realize it or not, we are already in a vicious cycle! We are using ACs that emit greenhouse gases, which affect the climate adversely, making the earth an even hotter place to live in and in turn increasing the demand for ACs.
Researchers across the globe, are surely working really hard to find a solution and to come up with more efficient technologies to limit such emissions; but sitting on July 2022, as we see Assam flooding, UK recording its hottest summer and several parts of Europe and California fighting wildfires — the question that arises is: is it too little too late?!
