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Comment by AnimalMuppet | Hacker News Reader

By the measure of "keeping the summer heat out of your home", which was in fact the topic at hand.

But that is exactly the point. Air conditioning doesn't keep heat out - it burns energy to change the air once the heat has gotten in. There are ways to keep it out in the first place.

FWIW, it isn't either/or - we practice keeping the shades, curtains, and windows drawn when it is hot, open when it is cool.... and we have air conditioning. Best of both worlds.

You’re simply never going to get through to someone who has internalized the idea that AC is perfect and free. They have accommodated to the luxury and will burn the planet to keep it.

We have more energy hitting the planet every second as radiation than we can possibly use. This is a non-issue for any civilised society switching to solar.

By all means, install off-grid AC powered by solar on your roof. Please report on how well it goes.

Why is off-grid a requirement?

I’m in central Texas and it isn’t uncommon for rooftop solar to generate enough power to cover central a/c. Peak sun and peak a/c happen at the same time.

It proves the system is self-contained, with no side effects other than cooling.

Going for an AC before you even have shutters or anything on the outside is like sending an audio file of you reading a pdf per email because the "record reply" button is right there, but figuring out where on the filesystem the PDF you have open on your screen would take 5 seconds. It's not about whether you can afford it or if the recipient can, but more what it says about you and your whole approach to this life thing.

> But that is exactly the point. Air conditioning doesn't keep heat out - it burns energy to change the air once the heat has gotten in. There are ways to keep it out in the first place.

Yes, it's best to keep the heat out. Good insulation helps, but no insulation is perfect and eventually (thanks to the second law of thermodynamics) some will get in.

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