We hear a lot about the electricity consumption of air conditioning. We rarely hear about the manufacturing footprint of a unit: between 200 and 400 kg CO₂eq for a 9,000 BTU portable model, mainly linked to the compressor, refrigerants and steel.
The real problem: marginal use
A Swiss household uses its AC on average 8 to 12 days a year. The rest of the time, the unit sits in a cellar or closet. It's a catastrophic usage pattern: a large carbon footprint is spread over very few hours of operation.
What sharing changes
With us, the same air conditioner runs 60 to 100 days per season, across 5 to 10 different households. We mechanically divide the manufacturing footprint by 5 to 10. And crucially, at end of life, the unit is taken back, repaired, or recycled responsibly — not thrown into the local landfill.
What about electricity?
The Swiss electricity mix is largely decarbonised (hydro and nuclear). The energy consumed during operation weighs little compared to manufacturing. Renting is therefore mainly a choice of material frugality.
Slug: ecologie-climatisation