Heat wave: this false good idea to refresh your accommodation could one day cost you dearly

When the barometer goes up, the big one is the temptation to invest in equipment that actually presents many drawbacks and could one day be worth a penalty.

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“Next year, we put it The air conditioning in the house! ” Your Normand as a husband has wrongly endured the first heat wave from the summer of 2025 and already anticipated next year’s heat waves. He is not wrong: according to the GIEC report (group of intergovernmental experts on climate evolution) of 2022, “The frequency, duration and intensity of heat waves will increase. They could occur three years out of four and last from May to October ”writes the agency of the ecological transition (ADEME), in a note published on June 18, adding that “Recent studies show that it will be increasingly essential to install air conditioning equipment by 2050 ”. A quarter of French households have already acquired it.

But air conditioning has many drawbacks, raises Ademe. The phenomenon ofUrban heat island is not the least. No doubt you have already seen from small merchants removable air conditioners equipped with a pipe stuck in the shop door. These air conditioning systems “Reject heat into the outside air, thus contributing to the worsening of urban overheating”explains Ademe. The agency cites a modeling study, applied to Ile-de-France, which shows that the generalization of air conditioning could increase external temperatures up to 2 degrees in Paris. In the event of heat waves even more intense than the heat wave of 2003, the increase could even be greater than 3.6 ° Calerts the Ademe. Who imagines the possibility “From a penalty on the least efficient equipment” In an attempt to limit the contribution of air conditioning to the phenomenon of urban heat island.

Heat wave: this simple tip can lower the temperature of your accommodation by 6 ° C

Air conditioning weight on the energy bill

Another drawback of air conditioners, their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The use of air conditioning has generated 4.4 million tonnes of CO2 in 2020 (last data available), or around 5% of total emissions from France, including 3.5 million tonnes linked to refrigerant gases and 0.9 million tonnes attributable to CO2 consumption by air conditioning equipment. Air conditioners also have Need electricity To operate. In 2020, energy consumption by air conditioning systems amounted to 15.5 TWh (Terawatt hour), including 10.6 TWh in the tertiary sector (offices and shops) and still 4.9 TWh in residential (individual houses being the biggest consumers).

Given the intensification of heat waves, ADEME does not exclude that the energy consumption of air conditioning systems leaps to 27 TWh in 2050. With an inevitable impact on the energy bill households, otherwise problematic than “THE noise pollution and visual “ Air conditioners, also highlighted by ADEME.

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Hide, isolate, ventilate, brew

For the latter, the management of the “overheating” of the accommodation must first pass through thefacility “systematic” external sunscreen Effective, such as shutters, jealousies, blinds and suits. L’insulation buildings, ideally from the outside, is also “Essential” To limit thermal discomfort, underlines Ademe. It may seem obvious but theNight ventilation also constitutes “An important lever” To improve thermal comfort. “Contract insulation with the possibility of ventilating the premises at night is crucial”insists the agency of the ecological transition. And this to recall that “the air brewers (fans) are also “An effective complementary solution, at low cost and limiting energy consumption”.