About 75 percent of households in the United States have air conditioners, which use approximately six percent of all the electricity produced nationwide. As the planet gets hotter due to global warming, air conditioner sales are expected to increase significantly.

 Air conditioners consume large amounts of electricity, which primarily relies on fossil fuels to generate power. Moreover, the units themselves contain greenhouse gasses (GHG) known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that deplete the ozone layer. The warmer it gets, the more people use air conditionin...

The primary driver of air conditioning use is thermal discomfort. When ambient temperatures—the air that you’re occupying—exceed your threshold, you’ll feel uncomfortably warm. That causes people to turn on the air conditioning unit and keep it on until the temperature drops below that threshold....

You can cool a room without air conditioning by using window coverings to reduce heat gain, painting the walls a lighter colour to reflect heat away, or...