Enjoy cool air without warming the planet

[Music]

[Applause]

when i was young

one of my favorite ways to relax is

under the vents of an air conditioner

it was the remedy to all of life’s

problems

as that cold air sinks into your skin

from all four sides

normally going to a mall during any

other season

it’s just a normal excursion but during

the summer time

with their unlimited cold air and

generally low temperatures

it was the best thing that a 10 year old

me could think of

however my obsession for air

conditioning

has gone under my parents radar and they

decided that enough was enough

therefore they implemented harsh ac

restrictions

of only one hour of usage at the

temperature

26 degrees or higher before bed

if there is a way that a 10 year-old’s

life can fall apart

this can just be the one but they say

necessity is the mother of invention

i must find new ways to bring cold air

into my life

to ensure my comfort and or in the

summer times

my survivability so my brain started

tinkering

one morning i had to get up really early

for a swim training session

and for those of you who have similar

experiences in the outdoor pool

at 5 00 am in the morning you know how

cold it is

on my way back home when my teeth had

stopped chattering

i suddenly realized it’s that all of

that cold

air just waiting to be harvested

a light bulb lit up beside my head

next morning where i would normally

scramble

and go to school i woke up with a sense

of purpose

i opened the windows and welcomed the

cold air into my room

i felt accomplished but as they say

pride does not go well with success

and right there on the afternoon why

once again pushed open the door to my

room i realized that my room was a

pressure cooker once again

i left the curtains open grumbling i

went downstairs

and i just might my mother coming up

she told me that she is going to buy

blinds for our kitchen

and living areas i looked at

the brilliant afternoon sun casting

scorching rays through our large back

porch windows

into the areas that we’ll just use 30

minutes later

and i couldn’t have agreed more after a

hundred dollar investment

these areas become pleasant places to be

once again

as i mature i started to realize why is

it important

to reduce ac usage aside from meeting my

parents

strict ac restrictions our ac

can use up to three kilowatts of power

that’s more than all the other

appliances

that my 10 year old brain could think of

and some ac’s you can even use up to 5

kilowatts

during hot climates where temperature is

generally higher

than around 27 degrees celsius

a ac unit in a typical home could run up

to 9 hours per day

and if you take the annual total of a

home’s electricity usage

and calculate the daily average you only

get 30 kilowatt hours

think about the majority of that

electricity

is actually used by your electricity

condition air conditioning power

and all of that power for thousands of

homes

has to be generated through the likes of

fossil fuel power plants

which as you know release greenhouse

gases into the air

at this very moment although in my

province british columbia

our hydroelectric dams are much more

eco-friendlier

they still segregate or even destroy

habitats

furthermore air conditioning themselves

also pose a threat to the environment as

well

conventional coolants such as

chlorofluorocarbons or

hydrofluorocarbons

you might know them as cfcs and hfcs

they tear up

huge holes in the ozone layer and it’s

that exact ozone layer

that protects us from the harmful

radiation from outer space

such as uv radiation and if we let that

through

these kind of high energy rays can cause

cancer

and ac itself is a self-reinforcing

progress

as you use more ac you warm the planet

even more which induces more ac usage

and the cycle continues

of course i understand that not everyone

lives in a city like vancouver

our my solution might not apply to

everyone

in areas such as south america

southeast asia where the tropical

climate

is present my solutions will hardly work

there

although the temperature typically stays

below 28 degrees celsius

the high amount of humidity level

actually brings up the temperature felt

by the

inhabitants inside living spaces by

several degrees

and that is intolerable for most

people’s standards and ac must be used

but there is a alternative way

that moisture in the air could actually

be harnessed

to cool down your body temperature at

that very moment

individual fans or centralized vacuum

systems can actually take that moisture

that moving air standing across your

body and

it will evaporate the moisture that’s

present on your body reducing your body

heat automatically with simple science

furthermore dehumidifiers can directly

take away that moisture

in the air right there and right then

to reduce the problem caused by moisture

and to reduce that

several degrees of extra temperature

felt by

our inhabitants and that several degrees

of temperature decrease can make a

difference in ac usage

and yet all these solutions they take up

less energy

than what a typical air conditioning

unit would

still i understand there might be other

densely populated areas

with bad air quality where no

ventilation would be practical

for our health but the high

intense sunlight and generally high

summer temperatures

once again may cause these areas to use

their

air conditioning however

if you imagine all of those particles

that’s in the air causing the bad air

quality at the moment

these particles they take the sunlight

and reflect it

and practically the temperature you

receive on the ground level where

everybody lives

is not as high as what we have been

imagined from the level of sunlight and

the subtropical region

that’s most of these areas are included

in

additionally most of these areas only

sometimes experience

extreme type temperatures higher than 27

degrees

where air conditioning starts to become

necessary for comfort

otherwise the only reason that thousands

if not tens of thousands of units of air

conditioning is running

in these regions is our ingrained habit

to do so at the end

air conditioning is one of the biggest

threats

to our environment at this very moment

but

there’s many ways clever ways to manage

your indoor air

quality so air conditioning would not be

necessary

and the same amount of coldness can be

achieved

and you will be ensured the same amount

of comfort the question you might be

asking is why should i care

isn’t it better just with the press of a

button that cold air

can be released right into your living

environment

why should you implement all these

procedures around your living

environment and not just

go with the simple way think about it

this way

if you can reduce or even eliminate the

ac usage in your home

you could be saving up to 30 if not 40

percent

of your cooling cost furthermore the

sterile

environment created by air conditioning

is not healthy for you

with long effects on your health later

down the road

there’s a deeper level of meaning to all

of this

as humans we have roots in nature and it

doesn’t take much materially to

appreciate our world’s hospitality

yet i know there are places in the world

where air conditioning becomes necessary

to ensure the habitants to be able to

live in those regions

but there are also many other of us who

can take even just one day

or two days of a break from our busy

ac routine there’s nature

out there beyond your windows they’re

trying to get in

that are trying to let you enjoy its

greatness

as i learned years ago it means a lot

to just take one step out of your

comfort zone