Air conditioners are heating Phoenix
Scientists at Arizona State University have found that the waste heat from air conditioners in Phoenix is increasing the urban temperatures by more than 1°C on some nights. This is one of the factors (including traffic, roads, and building activities) that can raise the temperature as much as 5°C above the surrounding countryside. Some of the waste heat could become useful energy, for example by being used to heat water.
87% of US households now have air conditioning, and the US uses more electricity to power air conditioning than all the other countries of the world combined. In the Phoenix heat, air conditioning systems sometimes consume more than half of the total electricity used.
Read the whole article here: http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2014/06/aircon-turns-up-the-city-heat-2/