Air-conditioner Environmental Program

Air-conditioners use a lot of electricity to carry out cooling and heating. To produce this electricity, power plants burn fuel, which generates CO₂, one of the causes of global warming.

The Earth maintains a balance of heat: in the daytime, heat from the sun warms the planet, while at night this heat is emitted back out of the Earth’s atmosphere. But if greenhouse gases like CO₂ increase, heat is trapped and the Earth’s surface temperature rises. This is the global warming phenomenon.

source:IPCC Third Assessment Report - Climate Change 2001

Melting of the polar ice will cause sea levels to rise. This will submerge the coasts of some countries and regions. If there are large changes in temperature due to global warming, the result will be catastrophic droughts and desertification, and localized torrential rain. These in turn will affect living things and food production, and cause endemic diseases.

CO₂ constitutes the largest greenhouse gas emissions. Before the industrial revolution, the only CO₂ emitted was from the breathing of humans and animals as part of the natural circulation loop. But CO₂ emissions from human activities have been steadily rising since the industrial revolution and with the increase in the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil).

Air-conditioners use a lot of electricity. Of the energy consumed in the average home, air-conditioners account for about 25%*, more than TVs or refrigerators. This alone shows the amount of CO₂ emissions during air-conditioner use. That’s why it’s important to buy an energy-efficient air-conditioner, and to avoid wasting electricity by doing things like setting the cooling temperature as high as possible and the heating temperature as low as possible, and regularly cleaning the air-conditioner filter.

* For homes in Japan.

source:overview of electric power supply and demand (2003)