The Oil Drum

I live in a building with 195 apartments atop two stories of stores. Built in 1888 as an early coal-fired power plant and converted to residential use in 1979, it is one of those hundreds of thousands of New York buildings that predates the air conditioning age by many decades but have been retrofitted for modernity. In an effort to attract tenants, the landlord installed heavy duty window-mounted air conditioners in each apartment. The lobby, staffed by a doorman for 16 hours a day, does not have any air conditioning, so the doormen keep cool with fans. Some of the shops and restaurants have air conditioning and some don't. (The Indian restaurant where I got my lunch today was stifilingly hot, thanks not only to lack of a/c but also because of the kitchen, and all the drink refridgerators that were blowing hot air into the restaurant. People were sweating in there, but no less friendly than usual.)

Via our building's electronic bulletin board at Meet The Neighbors, residential tenants have started talking about a drive to install an A/C in the lobby. It seems to be driven not by a desire to keep cool while passing through the lobby, but by that quintessential New York democratic impulse to improve the working conditions of the working class staffers.

The New York Times reports (from the other day, but we didn't cover it, did we?):

The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported on Thursday that if every car and truck on America's roads was equipped with ventilated seats, air-conditioning-related gasoline consumption could be reduced by 7.5 percent, thus saving 522 million gallons of fuel per year.

The seats tested have two built-in fans that suck warm air and moisture through their perforated leather and send it away from the driver or passenger.

Ventilated seats make drivers feel cooler, so they could save fuel by turning their air-conditioners down a notch, in theory.

While I'm at it, I'll just throw this out there. If you're driving on a highway at 60mph, which is more fuel efficient: turning on the AC, or opening the windows? In my experience, this question always causes something of a disagreement.

And you can also use this as an open thread.

[editor's note, by Prof. Goose]Also, a heads up (hat tip: peakoil.com) on a CNN special on peak oil which will be aired Saturday, March 18, 8pm, anchored by Frank Sesno, and is called "We Were Warned: Tomorrow's oil crisis." (brief description here)