October
2007
Air conditioning – Boon or Bane (Blog Action Day Post)
” It is worth pointing out that comfort, Singapore style, is not seen in egalitarian terms. Air- Conditioning is a selfish technology: one of its paradoxes is that its net effect is an increase in heat. As a prodigious consumer of energy- it accounts for one-third of Singapore’s electricity
use- it contributes significantly to global warming.”
Cherian George – Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation
Here is a dilemma for us in Singapore. Our dependency or air-conditioning is already enormous & apparently still growing…In 1988 less than a fifth of households had air-conditioning. By 1997 more than half had air-cons & by 2003 the figure is more than 70% of households in Singapore. However, if that is any consolation, we still rank below Japan which has the highest
air-con ownership in Asia. On the other hand in China, Vietnam, India & any other Asian countries it is still less than 1% of all households.
So is the air-conditioner a luxury, an aspirational symbol or a necessity?
When I was young air-conditioning was considered a luxury that few people enjoyed. Certainly, although I came from a relatively affluent background, I did not sleep, study or travel in air-conditioning. When we were hot we had a big glass of ice water-already a luxury- or used fans.
Today, most of us are used to working, traveling, studying & playing in air-conditioning. Even some of our streets are now air-conditioned. Certainly, on hot muggy days I am inclined to agree with M.M. Lee Kuan Yew when he said that air-conditioning was the greatest discovery of the millennium. All of us have experienced the exquisite sensation of coolness on entering an air-conditioned room or the greater productivity of working/studying in an air-conditioned environment.
But that was before global warming became the hot topic it is today. We know now that using more air-conditioning adds to the warming of the earth which will mean more hot days with more demand for air-conditioning…..
So do we have to forgo the comfort of air-conditioning if we are to become carbon neutral? Or are those of us who can’t give up the addiction to feel guilty about enjoying air-conditioning? I feel that there is a lot we could do to reduce our dependency & still enjoy the benefits of cooler air. Here are some observations for your comments.
-Did you know that a study done at NUS by Leow Kim Guan for his M.A. thesis showed that when subjects( all Singaporeans) were allowed to adjust the room temperature every 10 minutes their preferred temperature of optimum comfort was 25.4 degrees C? How many thermostats in Singapore are set at that temperature here?
-Why do we continue to dress for colder climes-ties, jackets, suits, pashminas-when we would be much more comfortable & environmentally sustainable in tropical garb? Is it really comfort or unthinking bad habit?
-My daughter could not bear the freezing temperatures in her lecture halls in JC despite a thick jacket. She said she couldn’t think for shivering . She is now in Boston where she is well-known for her high level of tolerance for cold which everyone finds surprising for someone from the
tropics. Perhaps she was conditioned by Singapore air-conditioning.
-A visiting environmental lawyer from the World Bank was appalled when she tried unsuccessfully to increase the thermostat setting in her freezingly cold hotel room & was told by the staff that it couldn’t be done because that was the norm for 5- star hotels i.e a choice between very cold, freezing & arctic (except that global warming is resulting in the arctic being less cold ).
-Should bus drivers be allowed to keep the air-conditioning running when they are the sole occupants of their buses parked in nature areas such as the Botanic Gardens or Sungei Buloh where visitors who go to enjoy the outdoors have to breath in large lungfuls of their fumes & hot air instead of the fresh air which we go to enjoy?
-Did you know that Inuka, the Singapore-born polar bear at the zoo does not have air-conditioning in his enclosure? The authorities say he is acclimatized even though, unlike us, he has no sweat glands & has fur that is specially adapted to retain heat. Well if he can survive & remain active in Singapore without air-conditioning I think the rest of us could make more of an effort to live without air-conditioning-or less air-conditioning to begin with….
*This post was also done in line with Blog Action Day for the Environment*
the parallel betw Inuka’s non air-conditioned enclosure and us freezing in our offices is exceedingly funny!
seems like someone is out to make both of us uncomfortable and ruin Earth at the same time!
So much for human intelligence..
Horace Walpole Life is a comedy for those who think… and a tragedy for those who feel
Hi Dr. Geh, this is a really great post which really strikes with Singaporeans, most of us cannot live without air-con these days.
As a chemical engineer(undergrad), I think what people have to realise is that although 1 degree on the thermostat may seem very insignificant, the energy used up or saved due to a change in 1 degree can be disproportionately large when compared to the 1 degree. In fact if we just maintain our air-cons at about 25-26 degrees C, we would save alot on electric bills and probably just be as comfortable as if we set it to below 20.
What do you think about a law mandating the minimum temperature like the one in Beijing where public shopping centers are suppose to set their temperatures at 26 degrees C?
[...] there are several things you can do with your aircon. After reading this post by Dr. Geh Min of the Nature Society, I thought I would post some tips on maximising your aircon [...]
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Hi, I’ve featured this post at The Singapore Daily [http://singaporedaily.wordpress.com]. Keep blogging!
A similar issue was brought up by China a few months back and the government legislated that government buildings have thermostats set at 26degrees or above. In line with the movement, government officials are encourage to dress down (rather than sweat in their suits). I personally think it’s a good measure. Maybe we can introduce it slowly like causal fridays = 26 degreeday
I think maybe can have a system if the weather is cold,the aircon will auto switch off or operates at higher tempt. many times, many of us are freezing in lectures with comments like it is already set to a certain tempt.
another point. why are animals treated so differently from humans? so much of being lovers of carers of nature and animals.
Thanks all for your comments & suggestions.
I particularly like Tina’s suggestion of a casual friday where we turn up the thermostat & dress down. I expect Singaporeans-& government-would prefer that to mandatory settings. We should suggest it be launched at the next clean & green week which is coming soon.
Joe’s suggestion of an autoswitch makes good sense. Isn’t that what our aircons are supposed to be doing? Keep us cool on hot days rather than colder on cool days? Trouble with a lot of central aircons is that they don’t seem to be all that smart or sensitive & they also resist being turned off or manually adjusted. Perhaps you engineers out there could give us some insight into this problem.
the air-conditioner is definitely not a necessity;
the fact that we’re freezing in our offices, courtrooms, classrooms and even buses (sometimes) is such an irony, when it is more than 30 degrees out.
it doesnt look as though change (except on a personal level) can happen anytime soon though. so we just do what we can at home to save energy.
[...] interesting blog post on the problem of Singaporeans consuming too much Air-conditioning and the problems of global [...]
I have to agree with this, I’m practically walking around in just a shirt in single digit temperatures here in the US thanks to my conditioning back in Singapore! And most of my friends are all walking about layered in massive clothing!
you will have to pried the aircon’s remote from my cold dead fingers before i let ya turn the aircon down (up?)
You know what? I’m sitting in my office right now, in my thick FLEECE jacket and still cold.
Goodness… I break out in cold hives in my previous company because it was just too damn cold. Needed my daily dose of anti-histamines all the time.
Thing is I usuall work in a media company with many broadcast equipment that needs to be chilled… and point being – equipment is more important than human life
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Hey,
I’ve featured this A similar issue was brought up by China a few months back and the government legislated that government buildings have thermostats set at 26degrees or above.As a chemical engineer(undergrad), I think what people have to realise is that although 1 degree on the thermostat may seem very insignificant, the energy used up or saved due to a change in 1 degree can be disproportionately large when compared to the 1 degree. In fact if we just maintain our air-cons at about 25-26 degrees C, we would save alot on electric bills and probably just be as comfortable as if we set it to below 20.