For automobile fuel, America has a very inefficient system of different octane content and additive standards for different states, so refineries have to make all these "custom" fuels for different customers. But the opposite problem exists for air conditioners - there's only one configuration for the entire nation, despite our many climates. So we buy the same A/C if we live in desert Las Vegas or swampy Orlando. A/Cs essentially extract heat energy and water vapor from air. But the "standard" A/C unit is mostly built for the Southeastern US climate where it's humid, so more design emphasis is paid for water removal to lower humidity. But that feature is pretty much wasted for customers west of the Rockies. So if we developed 3 A/C types, for humid, moderate, and dry climates, we could cut America's electricity usage by many megawatt-hours and billions of dollars each year. This will of course also reduce greenhouse gases, which contribute to the vicious cycle of rising global temperatures and rising energy usage to compensate. I am not sure if this same problem applies to vehicle A/C, but I assume so.
But Washington has dragged its feet implementing this improvement, because A/C manufacturers of course don't want the extra hassle (it's more efficient for them to make one type of A/C for everyone). Though we may have no choice, and actually it's power companies leading the charge instead of environmentalists, because their networks just can't keep up with climing energy demands. Especially in the West, homes are getting bigger and popping up in previously uninhabited hot areas. In CA, homes are 50% larger than a generation ago, and over 50% of homes are equipped with central A/C, versus only 20% in 1980. We have power plants that literally exist only to support the added load during the hottest summer days, and then sit dormant the rest of the year (and unfortunately, those type of plants are the most polluting too). Electricity use can jump 50% from the norm on those hot days, of which 30% is A/C. Sure the best solution is to tough it out, but if we must use A/C (especially for senior citizens), why not purchase a more efficient device? A/Cs have gotten more efficient since stricter standards were implemented in the 1970s, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. Even a $400 fan adapter will improve air flow through your A/C, paying for itself in 2 years and reducing power usage by 20%. At the bottom of this email are a list of CA technicians who can install this part for you if you're interested.
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/wo/story/801371.html
DANIEL WEINTRAUB: Politics short-circuits cheaper air conditioning
08/17/08 00:00:00
With summer temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, this seems like a good time to talk about the politics of air conditioning. Hot air and politics have long been linked. But cold air? Sure.
One of the first things George W. Bush did as president was roll back a new set of regulations the Clinton administration had adopted in its final days that would have forced manufacturers to make their cooling units more energy efficient. With everything going on in the world in early 2001, Bush and his aides felt that saving the air conditioning industry from saving energy was important enough to warrant such an unusual action. Environmentalists sued. Bush lost. Eventually, the new rules took effect despite the president's objections.
Now, California is trying to push the envelope further. The state's Energy Commission recently adopted a new master plan for the future of air conditioning that seeks to wring still more efficiency out of the industry and its products. The state is spending $2 million on a university think tank focused on the project and is underwriting an inventor who has created an air conditioner custom-made for California and the West.
"We can make air conditioners a lot more efficient," says Arthur Rosenfeld, a member of the Energy Commission and a longtime advocate of regulating energy efficiency. "You can use much less electricity to extract the same amount of heat from a room."
To understand why this is a big issue, consider the profile of the state's electricity use on a hot summer day. In the morning it is fairly low, and then it rises steadily until early afternoon. Usage then starts rising much more quickly as commercial buildings crank up their air conditioners to keep stores and offices cool. Finally, in the late afternoon, when workers and families get home and turn on their units, usage soars. About 30% of the peak electricity demand on such a day is powering our air conditioners. That's a big change over the past generation or so. In the 1970s, air conditioning accounted for less than 10% of the electricity demand during peak hours.
But the average house is much larger now, probably 50% bigger than a generation ago. More Californians live in hotter inland areas where air conditioning is considered a basic amenity rather than a luxury. The percentage of single-family homes with central air conditioning rose from about 20% in 1980 to 56% today, and almost every new home has it.
Air conditioning is increasingly common even along the coast, where it is cool most of the time. While residents there might use it only a few days a year, the utilities have to be prepared for those days, for what is known in the business as the "load from hell."
"They are building power plants that sit around doing nothing for 99% of the time," Rosenfeld says.
That's why the Energy Commission is pushing the federal government to encourage the sale of a new kind of air conditioner designed for the hot, dry climate typical in the West. Currently, air conditioning manufacturers are required to meet a single national energy-efficiency standard for their products, and that single standard is geared toward the more humid climates of the East and Southeast. That means all air conditioners are designed to work best in temperatures around 82 degrees, and they use much of their energy drying the air before they cool it. But California's peak temperatures are far higher than that, often over 100 degrees, and the humidity here is much lower, so the air does not need to be dried before it is chilled.
John Proctor, a San Rafael engineer, has been working for 20 years to perfect an air conditioner better suited for the climates of California, Arizona and the rest of the arid Southwest. With funding from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and now the Energy Commission, Proctor says, he has been able to design a machine that saves energy by moving air through the unit more efficiently and using a more efficient fan. Those changes and a few others mean the air conditioner spends less of its energy drying the air unnecessarily and creates less heat itself in the process. The unit uses 20% less electricity than the typical air conditioner sold today.
While Proctor estimates that his design might add $400 to the cost of a new unit, consumers would recover that upfront expense in two to five years through lower electricity use. But first, California has to persuade the feds to replace the national standard with a regional rule requiring a different unit for the Southwest. Without that change, the industry is unlikely to sell the kind of product Proctor has designed. "Manufacturers want to make one unit they can sell everywhere in the country," he says. "They make money doing what they're doing today. Asking them to change is difficult."
The Bush administration is unlikely to give California's pleading much of a hearing. But among all the other things that might change when a new president takes office in January, you can add air conditioning to the list.
Daniel Weintraub, a columnist with The Sacramento Bee, can be reached at (916) 321-1914 or at dweintraub@sacbee.com.
http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2008/09/05/reporters-notes-air-conditioning-reinvented/
If you want to retrofit your central AC system to tailor it to California climate (and make it 20 percent more efficient) a number of Bay Area installers are ready to do it. Here are some of them, courtesy of Proctor Engineering:
– Ace Air, Inc., Merced, 209-722-2200
– Action Air Conditioning, Clovis, Fresno, 559-292-8640
– Air Solutions Heating & Air, Stanislaus County, 209-380-3032
– Allbritten Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Fresno Area, 559-292-4566
– Bland A/C & Heating, Inc., Bakersfield, 661-836-3880
– California Indoor Comfort, Fresno Area, 559-276-7457
– Certified Heating and Air Conditioning, Fresno County, 559-273-8048
– CPR Sheet Metal, Inc., Vacaville, 707-628-7495
– Herrera Heating & Air Conditioning, Bakersfield, 510-750-6972
– Leo's Heating & Air Conditioning, San Joaquin Valley, 209-271-7873
– University Refrigeration, Stockton, 209-609-8400
– ReNu, Marin County, 415-462-0245
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