Hope this helps someone struggling to survive the heat

  • me_myself_and_I@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Surely that emits a lot of bad stuff into the atmosphere especially during a heatwave? Can’t be very good for the environment!

    • Burray_Mookchin@lemmy.ml
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      16 hours ago

      It works similar to a fridge with the inside of the fridge being your apartment and the outside being, well, the outside. All it does is circulate air over a heat sink filled with a refrigerant, which never leaves the system; it does not emit anything.

      The fact that the power it uses comes from burning fossil fuels instead of green energy is really not the consumers fault and is part of the reason why the demand for these devices is skyrocketing in the first place (It’s getting hotter because of the climate change)

        • Burray_Mookchin@lemmy.ml
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          15 hours ago

          Sure, but the inside and the outside of your house aren’t different universes, the heat that your fridge emits still gets out into the world. Dense urban areas with widespread AC units can indeed be slightly hotter than if there were no AC’s. We’re talking in the ballpark of 1-2°C. That shouldn’t be a big issue for the local environment. And that heat is not what’s causing climate change. Climate change is caused by greenhouse gasses, not by heat-emitting electrical devices

          • elephantium@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            Eh, technically both contribute. Heat from electrical devices still gets dumped into the environment, and a good portion of that electricity is produced with greenhouse gasses (coal or oil-fired power plants).

            Generally, though, yeah, the heat from running AC (or, say, a desk fan) is miniscule compared to other factors.

            • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.ml
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              6 hours ago

              The heat from electrical devices are basically negligible compared to what the sun beams into the planet, otherwise solar panels would be physics defying.

              The problem has always been greenhouse gases causing the sun heat to escape slower than we collect them.

        • elephantium@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          Your phrasing of “a lot of bad stuff” sounded like you were saying that AC puts out chemicals or something.

          • Abyssian@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            No, but many air conditioners make racist social media posts, aggressively catcall female passerby, and support child marriage.

    • 7101334@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      I mean the electricity which powers it does. The unit itself does not, unless it was installed with a leak, in which case it won’t work for very long.