Kerry: Air conditioners as big a threat as ISIS

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Nice page on the problem:
https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/fgases.html
And on the unit used, 'GWP'
https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gwps.html

Basically, it's simple: HFC's are about 15,000 times worse for creating the Greenhouse Effect than CO2. And they stay in the atmosphere for a couple hundred years. Unlike CO2, they are only created - synthesized - by humans, intentionally. They don't occur in nature. Also unlike CO2, there is no natural way to sink them the way plants can absorb and store CO2. So, they are a very real problem. And it'd be a shame to lose the ozone layer again - we just started getting it back, which was an amazing accomplishment.

Kerry is the most actively ineffective SOS I have seen. His point about the danger of freon or whatever is valid but stupid to compare to a vile terrorist sect. The comparison is of two too different things and makes no sense whatever.

Maybe that is how Swift Boat John is saying ISIS is not much of a threat....

Thank you for sharing the information.

there are alternate methods of cooling that don't require HFCs. acoustic cooling [using high-intensity sound waves] is one such newer technology that doesn't have to cost more than present tech. in the middle east, for centuries they have worked with nature in terms of arranging their daily living activities to avoid staying out of the sun when it is highest in the sky, emerging only at sunrise or sunset. wind towers are an old technology for cooling, as are subterranean-fed heat chimneys. new construction could take advantage of these things without necessarily adding a lot to the cost, and together with mandatory R60 insulation, thermostat and timer-automated whole house fans and dampers, partial subterranean construction, reflective metal film in sun-exposed areas, snowroofs, IR-reflective window film, large awnings etc. would lessen the need for a/c.

refrigeration is a process of compression of a gas that has been cooled by radiation and then passed through a pipe with slats extending from the pipe designed to transfer the heat from the warmer environment to the cooler environment via thermal conductivity in order to attain a thermal equilibrium between the slats and the pipes.
after it circulates through the container to be cooled, it is then decompressed again and therefore releases the thermal energy by unbunching the atoms of the gas so they can jiggle more freely and spend their excitement and become dormant with respect to room temperature, whereupon it is recompressed which constricts the atomic jiggling and causes the temperature to drop and it is again passed through the system.

chlorofluorocarbons were quite damaging to the ozone layer (ozone layer depletion is not relative to green house effect as it is more relative to ultraviolet ingress to the ground(skin cancer, plankton extinction (food chain implications))), and hydro fluorocarbons are less leeching of the isotopic instability of ozone (O3) than CFC's (not going into the chemistry of chlorine verses hydrogen as an occupant of hooks in fluorocarbons and their effect on ozone) but it is an amelioration of damage rather than a solution to the problem.
the same thing (refrigeration) could be achieved with just plain air, but the energy required to propel the process would then be evident in the co2 emissions of increased electricity requirement and contribute to the greenhouse effect.

whatever.
i just say that if you arrayed a complete arena of efficient air conditioners around a gathering of isis people, it may cool their head enough for them to just calm down and not be so angry about stuff.

sounds good to me

It's actually fairly trivial to design a building for passive cooling. But it won't be done in most first wold countries until fire codes can be changed to work with it. We used a number of techniques to keep a 12x12 R-22 insulated & dry-walled outbuilding cool for some small animals we once bred and showed. The roof was actually a double roof, with a shiny corrugated steel roof mounted about an inch or so above the actual roof, providing an gap for air flow to cool the metal. The lower roof remained cool to the touch (but was still insulated) since it never absorbed much solar radiation.

The concept behind passive evaporative cooling is really simple:

Air can only enter the building via low-mounted evap-cooler-pad equipped vents. We just had one 2x2 ft one for our little shed; it was a bit too tall to stay wet via capillary action, but proved the concept. The high point of the pitched ceiling then had a single wall black stove pipe that stood about 8 ft tall as seen from the outside. Warm air in the room would rise up the pipe, where it would be heated much more by the black metal in the sun. That increased its rise to the point it could easily suck air through the evap pads.

The problem is that currently such a set up in a residential unit would be a disaster in a fire. There are simple ways to eliminate this, such as failsafe dampers but it would take a long process to certify what works and then update fire codes. But it can be done. It also assumes ample water availability, which limits its use in desert areas somewhat. But it does work, we saw temps of 15-20 degrees lower than ambient.

Another alternative would be to increase the efficiency of Peltier / thermocouple units. Even the ones used on our space probes and rovers like Curiosity (in reverse, as generating power from heat) rely on a design and metal combinations not so far advanced compared to those first used by Thomas Johann Seebeck in 1821.

Hopefully the State Department removes their AC units right away, same with the Kerry-Heinz personal residence!

Hypocrites have no moral authority to lecture us when they can't even live up to their own deluded demands, look at the celebrities that cross the country in the private jets crying about global warming! They are the worst advocates!

In the prior post mentioned in the link, it was mentioned that most large scale industrial refrigeration uses ammonia refrigerant, around 80%-90%. That leaves just commercial and home HVAC and I suppose automobiles. Also mentioned though is that since our bodies have mechanisms for processing ammonia and turning it into urea as part of our normal metabolism, we are exceedingly good at detecting it at low levels. Also, it is lighter than air and so dissipates somewhat rapidly. However, it is toxic in concentrations and can be explosive. CO2, HCFCs (like R22), & HFCs (like R134a, R404a) and ammonia are the primary coolants for compression cycle cooling systems we now have. All are dangerous, and all are necessary. Unfortunately, thermoelectric coolers have a maximum of 15% efficiency compared to a minimum of 40% efficiency for compression cycle cooling systems.

Apparently open-cycle desiccant air conditioners are as efficient as compression cycle coolers, and may have superior operating costs. However, at present they are far more expensive to make.