air conditioning

Saved By The…Air Conditioner?

New Paper Proposes Carbon Sequestration From HVAC Systems

You have to like the idea carbon sequestration: if our ability to stop putting carbon into the atmosphere is limited, why not try taking it out? But it always seems to founder on a life-cycle analysis: it costs so much in energy to get the system working that you wind up producing more carbon than you …

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Los Angeles Heat Waves, Electricity Use and Climate Change

It is 102 degrees in Los Angeles as I write this.  Not in the San Fernando Valley or in the communities east of Los Angeles whose temperatures are regularly several degrees higher but in downtown Los Angeles.  We’re in record heat territory and way above historical averages.  But temperatures aren’t the only records that are …

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Buidlings and Energy Efficiency — Just Being New Isn’t Enough

Newer buildings in California put more of a strain on the electric grid than do older buildings.  That is the apparent conclusion of a new paper written by Howard Chong through UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas.  The strain comes in the form of a greater “temperature response” – an increase in temperature on a …

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Are Heat Waves Related to Climate Change?

Andrew Leonard had a great post on Salon this week arguing — essentially — that liberal bloggers are wimps when it comes to connecting extreme climate events like heat waves to climate change.  By contrast, he notes, conservatives eagerly throw barbs at Al Gore any time it snows in D.C.:  climate denier James Inhofe’s grandchildren …

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