With climate change, heat waves appear more frequently, and more and more people rely on air conditioners to survive hot climates. However, air conditioners are also an important source of global warming. The fundamentals of air conditioning have not changed since their invention a century ago. It uses a lot of energy and uses harmful chemicals called refrigerants, and experts believe it’s time to change the way homes are cooled . The problem with air conditioning is its core technology: vapor compression, which converts stored HFC coolants from liquid to gas, absorbing heat in the process and moving it out of the room. HFCs are greenhouse gases that absorb a lot of heat when released into the atmosphere. The technology to make more environmentally friendly air conditioners already exists. Daikin and Gree won the Global Cooling Prize last year in a competition to design eco-friendly air conditioners that reduce the climate impact by a fifth, and Gree plans to sell prototypes in 2025. Another alternative technology is the use of heat pumps, which do not rely on vapor compression to provide both heating and cooling.
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