Here are the key figures on electricity consumption and the carbon footprint of air conditioning.
What total electricity consumption?
According to ADEME’s assessment, in 2020 (last figures available), the total consumption of air conditioning systems in France amounted to 15.5 terawatt hours (TWH), including 4.9 TWh in the residential. Or a minimal part of the country’s gross electricity consumption, which was 449 TWh, noted by the high -voltage line manager. “Few housing is air -conditioned,” sums up Brice Tréméac, director of the cold and the energy and thermal systems (Lafset) within the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM).
But ADEME estimates that on the horizon of 2050, electricity consumption due to air conditioning in France could vary between 6 TWh (in a sobriety approach) and 27 TWh if the equipment rate is effortlessly widespread by sobriety.
What individual consumption?
Electric consumption depends on the power of the devices, but a mobile air conditioner can consume 2.5 times more electricity than a fixed model, according to ADEME.
Leave a fan with a power of 50 watts (W) on for a night of eight hours consumes 400 Whs, in order of 0.08 euros (at the price of 0.20 euros per kWh of the “blue rate” of EDF as an “base” in force in 2025). A 1,500 W air conditioner will consume 12 kWh and will cost for eight hours 2.40 euros, at the same price.
What carbon footprint?
By turning 48 hours to cope with a heat wave, an air conditioner will generate the equivalent of 2.3 kg of CO2 because of its electricity consumption, if we take the average carbon footprint of French electricity, widely decarbonized, especially because it is for more than two -thirds of nuclear origin (32 grams of CO2 equivalent by KWH, according to RTE data of 2023).
What is it compared with?
A round trip by car in Normandy from Paris in search of freshness amounts to 86.8 kg CO2 equivalent, according to the carbon emission calculator on a route of Ademe.
A round trip Paris-Oslo generates 296 kg of equivalent CO2, according to the greenhouse gas emission calculator of aviation online by the Ministry of Transport.
This comparison is imperfect because the climatic imprint of air conditioners is mainly due to the manufacture and leaks of their refrigerants, powerful greenhouse gases, emissions more than twice as important than those linked to electricity consumption, according to ADEME.
At the country level, air conditioning is thus responsible for around 1 % of the total of France’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Other side effects
In addition, notes Brice Tréméac, “by air conditioning the interior, we will warm up the outside air. And in a dense city like Paris, it can increase the temperature by a few degrees two meters from the ground. If the entire Paris region used air conditioning during a heat wave, the temperature in the streets would increase by 2.4 ° C, according to a study by CNRS, Météo-France, the Paris-Tech and Cired School of Ponts in 2020.
“A poorly chosen or poorly installed air conditioning will be less efficient and will increase electricity consumption” as well as the risk of pollution “in the broad sense”, summarizes Brice Tréméac.
