one of my co-workers (los angeles) would leave her air conditioning on all day while at work so that the apartment was cool when she got home. So the air conditioning was on about 10 hours with no one homeUAE's mission impossible: Cooling the desert
Reuters) -
Ali's air conditioning quietly cools his spacious Dubai apartment around the clock and all year round, even when he is away on holiday.With outside temperatures soaring toward 50 degrees in summer, he likes to come home to his chilled oasis in this skyscraper city sprouting from the desert.
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Many of Dubai's estimated 2 million inhabitants leave their air-conditioning running 24/7, shrugging off tips from Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) for electricity and water conservation.
Dubai's non-stop running air-conditioners help drive the emirate's summer peak demand per person to more than three times that of Spain -- where cooling demand from its 47 million citizens has also surged over the last decade in scorching summers on the Iberian Peninsula.
Such heavy consumption in well-to-do UAE cities like Dubai and federal capital Abu Dhabi mean the wealthy Arab state could see another summer of sporadic power blackouts in the northern emirates. It will also face a ballooning gas bill for the fuel used to generate 85 percent of its electricity with global gas prices having doubled from a year ago.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/13/us-power-emirates-idUSTRE76C1OI20110713