Does Air conditioning add to Global Warming?

Question

The new buildings (big towers) that are springing up in the far east are all air conditioned adding huge amounts of heat to the worlds atmosphere. More people travelling everywhere by car, sea (huge liners), and air (also huge planes) adding to pollution. Plastic being used without thought of the harm being done to the planet.

Answer 1

No, but the sun sure does! That's why other planets in our system are showing temperature increases as well.
I wonder why the alarmists ignore that little fact?

Answer 2

Air conditioning for the most part still uses freon 22 which is a CFC and has been linked to breaking down the ozone layer. A/C's also use power that was probably generated in a way that contributes to global warming. Moving heat from on place to another does not contribute to global warming. Sometimes I wonder if some of the people here actually have a clear understanding of exactly what we are pretty sure does cause global warming!
To get a good basic understanding visit the link below.

Answer 3

The study suggests that turning on the air conditioner could make global warming worse because the electricity widely relies on coal power plants, which add warming "greenhouse" gases to the atmosphere.

Answer 4

Not going to answer your question but:

75% or more of residential (see home) electricity use goes to A/C, heat, or hot water.

And we are being told if we can reduce the 25% remaining by 5 or 10%--remember it's all about the lightbulbs..... that global warming will be averted.

Hmmm, sounds fishy.

Answer 5

Sure. Here's why.

An air conditioner just moves heat from one place to another. Like from inside your house to outside. Just moving heat around at the surface of the Earth has no effect on global warming.

But it's not 100% efficient and it takes energy to move that heat. That comes from a power plant, very likely burning fossil fuels.

That's not saying you should stop using your air conditioner. We don't need to stop doing things, we just need to do them better. The next time you buy an air conditioner get the most efficient one you can. Be sure your house is well insulated. Get a programmable thermostat so the air conditioner only runs when you need it.

Fixing global warming is not easy, but it's not that hard, either.

Answer 6

Yes it does. When you switch on your air con it's removing heat from one place (inside) and transferring it to another place (outside). On this basis it's simply moving heat, neiother producing or reducing it.

But... your air con needs electricity to power it and the chances are that this comes from power generated by the burning of fossil fuels, this process produces greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. If your power supply comes from renewable sources or nuclear power then there's no emissions.

Most air con units have a chemical in them called dichlorodiflouromethane (Freon is one of the trade names for this chemical). As greenhouse gases go this is a particularly nasty one, one unit of dichloro... contributes as much to global warming as 8,500 units of carbon dioxide. Some of the modern air con units don't use these harmful chemicals, not sure what they use as an alternative.

Answer 7

What Bob said

The movement of heat from one place to another has no effect what so ever, however the generation of electricity to do some does.

Its exactly the same as if you turned on the micro wave or fridge. The same as any other electrical appliance

Answer 8

since air conditioners work by removing heat from a room and into the outside....the outside air becomes hotter...... when a large number of such air conditioners does the same..... they contribute to local rise in temperature....... when a large number of such localities heats up.... the problem extends to a global level.... so, the air conditioners truely do contribute to global warming!!

Answer 9

the relasing of cfc`s by the air-conditioners causes global warming

Answer 10

Yes..air conditioners have CFC..CFC causes global warming..so, yes, air conditioning add to global warming..however, nowadays, there are air conditioner without CFC..so, i guess we can still save our environment if we really try..