xperts call it the “cold crunch.” As temperatures rise in regions that historically haven’t needed indoor cooling, global demand for air conditioning units is expected to skyrocket. Indoor cooling is already the fastest-growing use of energy in buildings. But the emissions associated with cooling buildings are still tiny compared to the emissions from heating them — and that’s because while air conditioning uses electricity, our heat is still largely generated by burning fossil fuels. The way we heat our homes and buildings is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. But a solution may actually come from the rush of consumers looking to buy AC for the first time. They’re a huge potential market for a different kind of system — the electric heat pump. A heat pump works like a two-way air conditioner, using electricity and a chemical refrigerant to transfer heat either into or out of a building. Instead of using fossil fuels to generate heat, it uses electricity to transfer heat, and it does it efficiently. And if heat pumps are widely adopted, they could make a major impact on the carbon emissions generated by buildings.
