Climate-wrecking air conditioning units aren’t the only way to survive a heatwave

theguardian.com:

Historically, very few UK homes have had any sort of air conditioning – neither the country’s climate nor its culture have called for it. But things are changing. Global heating is no longer a distant threat but afelt reality,air pollution is taking people’s lives, andour cities are getting so noisy they’re causing elevated blood pressure and heart problems. All these things make home air conditioning more attractive than opening a window.

In summer 2020,sales of domestic cooling systems were 20% up on summer 2019, with home working understood to be the major driver. Sales have been up in recent years in Europe as well. The continuing Covid-19 pandemic has changed working patterns, and those used to working in cooled offices are often at home struggling to concentrate or worse, to control heat-related aggression.

So if you have a couple of hundred quid, and work from home in the armpit of an A-road and the “London Thunderground”, you may well conclude that splashing out on a portable AC unit is the way to go. But is that really the best we can do? Because while it might be nice for those lucky enough to enjoy the delicious cool air, AC actually makes things worse for everyone else.

There are a variety of AC units available, and some will be more efficient than others, but the best-case scenario is they’re electric, and until our electricity grid is 100% renewable, all energy use is exacerbating climate change. Most units will be ejecting hot air into the urban spaces between the buildings, so you are heating up the outdoors and increasing discomfort for anyone in the line of your hot exhaust, including people outside and people desperately trying to get some fresh air in through their windows.

Almost all systems use