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Comment by xendo | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if the process of changing heat into light can be used for transferring heat more efficiently than current AC units.

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> changing heat into light

It's not actually doing that though. It's changing one set of light-frequencies into another.

This has been discussed in several previous threads on HN. From what I’ve been able to gather, creative ways to reduce the energy consumption of A/C will require a change to building designs, and/or increase the cost and complexity of new buildings. Whereas the cost of running the A/C is up to the future tenant(s).

This is why you see some companies applying eco friendly tech to some new buildings (Apple) but not in general commercial development.

Again this is just what I’ve surmised from reading threads like this. YMMV

Interesting to contemplate what could be done to shift those incentives around. Obviously there are certifications (LEED), and there's straight-up regulation, but would there be a way to mandate that a builder or landlord is responsible for a portion of future HVAC expenses such that they are motivated to get this right upfront?

I’m sure if some energy saving tech was commercialized and reasonably cost effective local municipalities could update building codes. LEED standards could be updated as well. What goes into a building isn’t entirely up to the developer.

But right now most of this stuff is just in a lab. Frankly the tall cooling towers you see on some buildings weren’t in widespread use until at least the 50’s even though they were invented at the turn of the century.

The market should (and has in the past) figured this out. Energy costs money, tenants want to spend less money. Tenants will pay more money up front to save themselves money down the line. Therefore landlords should have an incentive to build energy efficient structures even if they aren’t paying for the energy.

The problem is when an energy source with an high externality (climate related or otherwise) isn’t priced in. This isn’t a hard problem for the government’s perspective though: just price in the externality through some free market system. Carbon credits are a good example of this.

Part of the reason is that it is hard to gauge what the energy bill of an apartment will be before you start renting. That is where certification should come in.

I doubt it would work similar, since generating heat is always a byproduct.

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