As the world gets hotter, scenes like these will become increasingly common. Buying a VRF air conditioner is perhaps the most popular

individual response to climate change, and air conditioners are almost uniquely power-hungry appliances: a small unit cooling

a single room, on average, consumes more power than running four fridges, while a central unit cooling an average house uses

more power than 15. “Last year in Beijing, during a heatwave, 50% of the power capacity was going to air conditioning,”

says John Dulac, an analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA). “These are ‘oh shit’ moments.