![]() Homes and offices account for 13 percent of the nation’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, with much of that from oil or natural gas burned in furnaces, hot water heaters, ovens, stoves and dryers. “Now it’s getting hotter and people need to cool their homes, so how can we do that in a sustainable way?”įiguring out how to cut emissions from buildings is one of the thorniest problems in climate policy. “Many of our homes were built for a different climate, when it didn’t get that hot and you could open the windows to cool down at night,” said Grace Rink, executive director of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. City officials caution that they still need to sort out what policy steps to pursue, though last year Denver voters approved a new climate fund, paid for by a sales tax hike, that could potentially help defray upfront costs. One idea under discussion is helping residents install heat pumps when it’s time for a new air-conditioner or furnace. This month, Denver released a plan for cutting emissions associated with heating and cooling its buildings. In Denver, which was hit by a 100-degree heat wave in June, nearly one-third of homes still lack air-conditioning, which is becoming increasingly necessary at a time when global warming means more intense and frequent heat waves, and more wildfire smoke that makes it hazardous for people to open their windows. Some cities are taking the idea seriously. “It’s essentially the same piece of equipment with a few extra parts, and you can make the swap with almost no extra work,” said Nate Adams, a home performance consultant who proposed the idea in a recent paper, written with experts at Harvard University CLASP, a nonprofit formerly known as the Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program that advises governments on energy efficiency. But if done right, proponents say, households would see utility bills either drop or stay largely unchanged, and they would even enjoy a more comfortable heating experience. So, the idea goes, policymakers would have to step in with subsidies or regulations to make adoption universal. Most manufacturers already offer heat pump versions of the air-conditioners they sell, but they’re typically about $200 to $500 more expensive to make. Existing furnaces would only need to be used as backup on the coldest days of the year, since many heat pumps work less efficiently in subzero temperatures. During the cooler months, heat pumps could warm homes far more efficiently than the furnaces that run on fossil fuels or electric resistance heaters that most households currently use, which would cut down on carbon dioxide emissions. That extra heating function is the key to helping tackle climate change. The idea is simple: If Americans are going to buy air-conditioners anyway, either for the first time or to replace older units, why not convince them to buy electric heat pumps instead? Although the name can be confusing, an electric heat pump is essentially an air-conditioner that is slightly modified so that it can run in two directions, cooling the home in the summer and providing heat in the winter. ![]() ![]() One common concern is that a surge in air-conditioning could make the planet even hotter, by increasing the need for electricity from power plants running on coal or gas, which produce emissions that drive global warming.īut some energy experts, as well as cities like Denver and Berkeley, Calif., have recently started exploring a counterintuitive strategy: Soaring demand for air-conditioning might actually be a prime opportunity to reduce fossil fuel emissions and fight climate change. As global warming fuels deadly heat waves across the country, more Americans in places like the Pacific Northwest are rushing out to buy air-conditioners for the first time.
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