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On top of that, as we experience higher temperatures, many people also crank up their air conditioners—which emit more heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
This is not correct. Air conditioning units do not ‘emit more […] greenhouse gases’. Air conditioners use a refrigerant–usually R134a–which does have a high global warming potential (GWP) compared to methane or CO2, but that refrigerant is in a closed loop; it’s not going anywhere unless the system is damaged. Most a/c failures aren’t from refrigerant leaking out of the system, and the system no longer being able to effectively transfer heat, but from the compressor motor failing. When the compressor fails, in most cases you can evacuate the refrigerant, replace the broken part, and then recharge the system. (The fact that they can be repaired doesn’t mean that they usually are repaired. Which is shitty.)
What is true is that a/c units emit heat themselves. An air conditioner moves heat from inside a space to outside of that space; in the process of doing so, the a/c unit itself is creating an additional small amount of heat from the function of the compressor motor, electronics, etc.
Beyond that, most electricity that’s used to run a/c systems–and every other electrical device–is produced from burning fossil fuels. So if there’s more demand for electricity–such as from a heat dome that has everyone running their a/c full-time–then yes, more CO2 is going to get pumped out into the atmosphere. But if your electricity is coming from sources that are largely emissions-free, like solar, wind, or hydro, then air conditioning is a negligible source of heat.
tl;dr - don’t feel bad about using your a/c when heat rises to dangerous levels; agitate at a local, state, and national level for renewable, carbon-neutral ways of generating electricity, and for more efficient use of electricity.
Thank you.
I don’t think we should feel bad for housing AC. it was created by us to feel comfortable. Just because companies and bitcoin miners and ultron-ass skynet-ass LLM/ML-ass trainers are using stupid amounts of resource doesn’t mean the population is the cause. it’s the greedy few.
I agree with all of this. At the same time, I think that, in most cases, people should allow their body to adapt to heat, if they are healthy enough to do so. Most people can learn to be comfortable in higher heat than they believe, although some people have medical conditions that will make them more susceptible to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If you can get by without it, you should. If you’re at risk by not using it, don’t feel guilty.
(FWIW, my office only has a/c because I have a very, very large printer in here, and it tends to have head strikes and scrap prints out if there’s no climate control. But since I’m not printing at the moment, the current temp in here is 82F.)
To be clear, the headline refers to yank degrees:
In outdoor tests in Arizona, the textile stayed […] 16 F (8.9 C) cooler than regular silk, a breathable fabric often used for dresses and shirts.
They didn’t really compare it to many materials it seems.
I also don’t know why they said 16+ degrees. That was the largest temperature delta they saw, not the least…
Besides, this is only part of the tale:
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Is it affordable?
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Is it mass manufacturable?
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Is it comfortable?
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Is it durable?
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Is it washable?
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Is it crease prone?
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Can it be easily mixed with other materials, e.g. to make it elasticated?
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Is it recyclable?
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Is it dyeable?
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is it fine for sensitive skin?
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etc
Sounds cool (heh) though. I’m often too warm.
yank degrees
We prefer the term freedom units, thank you.
I prefer the term Yankee doodlegrees, thank you.
Idk yank units sounds really catchy
I’ll yank your units
More like wank degrees, lol.
… Silk is used as a cold weather baselayer in active wear? Not sure if it performs differently as an outer layer, but it’s got solid insulating properties for keeping in heat
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I admit I didn’t read the article throughly, but surely if it’s impossiblely thin it can’t exist. I only bring this up because I’m an obnoxious pedant.
“This is thin.”
“Impossibly thin!”
“No… I’m pretty sure it’s possible considering we are holding it right this very second.”
I would require a wet T shirt contest to really see and compare.
i just read the title and it sounds like it will freeze people to death
Same. Guess I won’t bother looking into it if it’s impossible 🤷♀️
We can make materials as thin as one atom. It’s just very expensive.
Yeah but he was being pedantic over the word “impossibly”. If we can make 1 atom thin sheets, then it’s not impossible, right?
Can’t you make one atom thin sheets of carbon with a pencil and tape?
Yes, you can, but your sheet will be very small. If you want to make a sheet large enough to make a shirt, things get ridiculously expensive.
Made of plastic… Just what we need!
If we can recycle single use plastic into this, then great. Somehow I doubt that’s how it would be made.
Disagree. Even if we could, from what I understand, large, solid pieces of plastic are better than extremely small, thin, fragile pieces since those are going to turn into microplastics and get everywhere. I’d rather have them in one big chunk.
If we can recycle single use plastic into this, then great.
They won’t - they’ll just use “Recycling!” as a pretext to continue business as usual… which was the whole point of “Recycling!” in the first place.
Nighthawkinlight just released a video on a material that accomplishes this that you could make at home.
So different thickness materials can actually cool you off just from a heat transfer perspective, completely ignoring the PCM capabilities (I didn’t click your link I’m just assuming it’s his latest vid). https://www.thermal-engineering.org/what-is-critical-thickness-of-insulation-critical-radius-definition/
So wearing a thin tshirt in cold weather for example can actually be colder than wearing no shirt at all. Same in reverse. I’m wondering if this material is doing that rather than being some sort of PCM.
A good stop-gap while cities de-car-ify and rebuild green space.
Don’t need to decarify to rebuild green spaces.
Green space was overwhelmingly removed for car space
And you don’t need to re:build green spaces to decarify. But you probably should.
They’ll just build more luxury condos where the roads were.
Which would be great, because it would give people with high incomes places to live, lowering the competition for housing and the rents at the top end. Those people would spend and contribute to the local economy, since they have the money to spend.
This would be a huge win for everyone, as building more housing often is.
Actual degrees or American fantasy units?
I mean, I get it that Fahrenheit is stupid, but this is an American publication.
Fahrenheit is fine for temperatures that humans can experience in our environment (and expect to survive, at least for a little while…)
I am mostly weirded out by the position of the zero. In Celsuis, zero is in the point that very visibly impacts the world. In Farenheit? Random winter temperature.
I guess. But having friends from all over the planet, it becomes a pain running conversions just to have a conversation.
I mean if you need to be using precise temperature units just to have a conversation… Maybe find less particular friends?
Friend: Hey, what’s the temperature? Me: Like 74°F Friend: I don’t understand… Me: Sucks to be you! You require precise temperature units and I follow advice from randos on the internet. See ya! 👋🥴
Or, just, like,
“Pretty warm but I’m not complaining, you?”
You’re the one that brought units into it in your example. Maybe you’re the bad friend?
You want it to be true so bad. What if I’m not discussing the current location? What if I’m explaining where I’m from? We’re both in a mild, Mediterranean climate and I’m saying “oh it’s freezing back home” wtf does this mean? Are you suggesting we do away with measuring temperature at all?
I only brought “precise temperature units” into my example because you brought it up. 😒
Fahrenheit is superior to Celsius because it’s more specific and I will die on this hill. 71F feels different than 72F and yet they’re both 22C (for example).
Metric is better than imperial, though. Obviously.
Ever heard of tenths? 22.1C isn’t noticeably different than 22.2C. And yet both are 72F.
Tenths of a degree are more noticeable in Fahrenheit than in Celsius for the same reason.
But you’re using more digits, like if you’re writing 104.2 that’s 4 digits and still not as accurate as using four digits in Celsius like 41.12
Sure, but I never see people use two decimal points in real life when using Celsius to describe weather.
Nobody uses decimal points in Fahrenheit, but it’s common using Celsius
The only time I’ve seen Fahrenheit with decimal points is the saying that the normal body temperature is 98.7F
Which is actually wrong, this is 37C, already a mild fever
98.0F/36.6C is actually the normal body temperature
The beauty of the metric system is that you can subdivide it infinitely to achieve any precision you wish. For example, you can have +22°, or +22.1°, or 22.15°, or 22.157°, etc.
This logic is very unsound.
What are examples of “broadband emitter “ fabrics that I can buy? The only links I can find are for this article.
Nighthawk in light shows how to make your own on YouTube. He has lots of videos about stuff like this. Someone else in the comments linked one of his vids.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/862670990
In all serious though I don’t think that term has ever been used outside of articles for this research
Dang it. Because something keeps me a couple of degrees cooler than some-wicking-fabric would be nice
lol sorry couldn’t help it, but I agree
It’s going to need to be like 40F cooler pretty soon here.
