# How Much Global Warming Due To Heating Dwellings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146 "2009-12-06T00:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146/1 "2009-12-06T00:38:59Z")
In the higher latitude regions (N. Europe, USA, Russia, Canada) a lot of energy is expended to heat homes, factories, offices, etc. How much would be saved, if there was a mass migration to the tropical regions? Should north-dwelling humans be restricted in the use of heating? If the “carbon footprint” of Canadians is higher that that of Brazilians, should Canada pay a special offset tax? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146/2 "2009-12-06T01:46:44Z")
Conversely, I wonder how much air conditioning contributes to global warming. Compressing refrigerants and blowing the heat off would seem to contribute. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146/3 "2009-12-06T15:50:25Z")
Would not most of home heating and air conditioning be picked up by satallites and documented as “urban islands”? The protocol for the exclusion or inclusion of “urban islands” was part of the controversy in those thousands of emails that were leaked, was it not? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146/4 "2009-12-06T16:03:58Z")
I certainly takes more energy to drop a room a degree than to raise it, since heat is always a product of either process. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146/5 "2009-12-06T16:11:15Z")
Two different issues here. Global warming is not really caused by the heat directly generated from our fossil fuel consumption. While there is some tiny effect from that, the vast majority of GW is caused by the atmostpheric changes caused by the exhaust gases from our fossil fuel consumption. So heavily heated cities in the far north, or heavily air conditioned cities in the tropics would not be causing any meaningful warming IF all the energy supply came from, say, nuclear or solar power. Now it is true that many buildings are stupid inefficient from a heating & cooling POV. So a decent chunk (I’m too lazy to look it up, WAG 15+%) of current fossil fuel consumption is pure waste, going to heat or air condition leaky buildings. In fact you get both kinds of waste from that: excess CO2 emmissions while creating the energy and also direct leakage of that energy in the environment as heat. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146/6 "2009-12-06T23:16:28Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > If the “carbon footprint” of Canadians is higher that that of Brazilians, should Canada pay a special offset tax? No. Most Canadian dwellings are quite a bit more insulated than Brazilian ones. And as others have pointed out, more energy is used to aircondition a dwelling in summer (or year-round, in the tropics) than is used to heat it in winter. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-global-warming-due-to-heating-dwellings/520146/7 "2009-12-07T00:11:05Z")
How much greenhouse gasses are emitted thru the burning of natural gas + heating oil?