Nearly 90% of U.S. households used air conditioning in 2020

>Air conditioners use about 6% of all the electricity produced in the United States, at an annual cost of about $29 billion to homeowners.

Just some of them might be interesting, others not, this one certainly count as interesting to me.

If, for example only, this was a significant contributor to global warming and impending doom, does it matter that our first world comforts are to blame? We don't get special exception just because we're used to a certain standard of living.

I desperately hope we don't need to abandon first world comforts. And i really doubt we would need to. However if, for sake of argument, that was the only solution - our answer should be to acknowledge the burden and take action.

This is all for sake of illustration though. Just that your comment seemed to imply because our first world comforts use more energy that it was somehow unfair to question the impact of said comforts.

(Or if in some corner of the US renewables production is reduced before fossil sources when load lightens, that's even a bigger wrong)

I'm relatively far north in the USA, but even where I am, I found the 85F+ heat waves unbearable for WFH and sleep. I grew up without AC and grew to hate summers as a result. This summer I discovered that I just do not function intellectually above 80F indoors.

It's a bit different if you're outside with a breeze, enjoying nature, hiking, walking, biking, etc. I seem perfectly capable of reading a book or having a stimulating chat in those situations. But even with a fan going, there's a pretty low temperature ceiling for me where I can't work productively. And if it doesn't get below 70F at night, I can't sleep well, which has even more impact on my happiness and productivity.

So I can survive without AC. But I broke and got an AC unit a couple of weeks ago. This heat wave for the past week or so in the northeast convinced me that I was right to do so. I'm just not happy without it.

A trick that can help with that is have "cold rooms" and let the other rooms raise in temperature.

I'm very comfortable above 80° if I haven't been moving around a bunch, but after I come in from outside work I like a cool room for awhile.

1950, 10% of Americans lived in NYC

Europe gets to 35C and people die. In poorer SE Asian countries they have no AC and temperatures regularly hit 35C with far more humidity, but they do just fine.

Hell, you see workers doing construction work in full gear at those temperatures.

They'd take more to heat because they often leaked, but they were cooler in the summer also.

Now we heat and cool all the rooms, even on those same older houses.

My uncle (and a friend of mine in his 50s) is constantly posting stuff about how much pollution EVs cause and I’m confused because the guy lives in LA. “Didn’t you live through smog? Don’t you think even a coal power plant with million dollar scrubbers producing your cars fuel is going to be cleaner than your combustion engine?” My line of thinking is, even if EVs DID create more pollution like he seems to think, it’d be better for the entire population of LA or any other city that the power be generated away from the city in a power plant and not from a million tiny poison spewing vehicles in LA!

He just tells me I “need to do the research” and it annoys the crap out of me. For cities with pollution problems it’s so obvious that EVs are a win it hurts.

It's currently a barrage of two FUD and misinformation talking points "they're actually worse for the environment cuz [rare earth metals|lithium mining|they actually run off coal]" and "they're going to destroy the electrical grid."

It's a remarkably effective campaign, and I suspect ultimately the propagation of these points were financed.

I suspect a lot of the incredulity about energy use and EVs at this point comes down to people's inability to grasp that they're spending so much money on gas [cuz ICE vehicles are inefficient], but the equivalent milage on an EV at regular electrical rates charging at home is so much less. It's inconceivable to people how badly they're currently being ripped off. "There has to be a big catch."

There really isn't. Hence I've been told I'm full-of-it when I make the entirely truthful point that AC costs way more than charging an EV for most commutes. People don't want to believe they're being ripped off that badly.

My point is that the specific grid related needs of EVs are not the roadblock to their adoption.

My point is that: A far more serious problem for the grid is increasing temperatures and heat waves and the demands that increased AC puts on it.

So in terms of emphasis ... "the grid" as a talking point about EV adoption is mostly thrown up as a smoke screen to discourage their adoption. And it is intellectually dishonest.

One aspect is that the US (and other countries) follow a mostly Northern European way of life even in tropical or otherwise hot areas.

For instance, having to wear a suit to work in a glass office in Florida makes no sense and happens because of a disconnect between the dominant culture and the local environment, and modern technology makes this disconnect persist because they can, in this case, just install AC and keep the suit (and the glass walls).