Urban Planning and Air Conditioning

How can planning design issues affect the programming of air conditioners? Vox takes a look at this in a recent article titled “From air conditioning to urban planning, defaults and standards create dysfunction by design.”

According to the author of the article, “Personal heaters are a summer survival tool for many office workers chilled to the bone by hyperactive ventilation systems — an act of self-defense against an epidemic of overcooling that is wasting energy and confounding comfort in not only offices but also large shops, schools, and other buildings. An audit of US government buildings found that over three-fifths of their occupants felt too cold in the summer. The most likely culprit behind this big chill? Engineering conventions. Slavish adherence to unfounded and outdated rules of thumb that cause mis-programming of air conditioning systems. Frozen spaces are but one chilling case of an iceberg of waste. Many of the technologies, practices, and systems that we interact with every day are shaped by default settings in the form of ‘established practice,’ professional standards, and design codes. Many deliver dysfunction and overconsumption by design. Zoning rules preclude the construction of affordable microhomes. An outmoded presumption of universal automobile ownership begets wide streets and ‘gargantuan’ gaps between intersections that hog-tie urban planners working to increase density. Default settings dial in waste in all manner of electronic devices, keeping video game boxes on perpetual standby and pre-programming irrigation controllers to drown gardens in wasted water. And many such controllers revert to their wasteful factory defaults every time there is a power outage, undermining any conservation impulses consumers might have had. The flip side, however, is that confronting problematic design defaults can open some surprising opportunities to improve living, save money, reduce pollution, and conserve precious resources from energy to water to open space — sometimes all at the same time.”

If you’re looking for portable air conditioners, we’ve got you covered at AC World. Our ductless mini split air conditioner is a cost effective alternative to central air conditioning. Yes, it is slightly more than the typically wall or window air conditioner, but the minor additional cost is easily and quickly recouped in energy savings and home security. For example, since the compressor sits on the outside, the ductless mini split air conditioner is very quiet and efficient. Furthermore, they avoid the energy losses associated with the ductwork of central forced air systems.

Whatever portable air conditioner needs you might have, look no further than our team at AC World!