Combating Heat Through Mini-splits
Public Citizen News / November-December 2024
By Jose Medina
This article appeared in the Nov/Dec 2024 edition of Public Citizen News. Download the full edition here.
The summer of 2023 in Texas was brutal, breaking the record as the hottest in recorded history. And 2024 was also unusually – and dangerously – hot. Fighting back against the forces making climate change worse in Texas is an uphill battle.
“Big statewide policy changes would be great, but real and meaningful change can also happen one household at a time,” said Debra Ponce, a Public Citizen organizer. “Yes, we’re still fighting for those big policy changes. But we’re also going small. You might even call it a ‘mini’ strategy.”
Ponce lives and works in San Antonio. In her city, she works to keep the most vulnerable people safe from the Texas heat by taking action on climate change. One way she does so is with mini-splits.
A mini-split is an energy-efficient combination of an air conditioner and heater. They are popular in other countries and catching on in the United States, where they’ve been installed in some small restaurants and shops. They’re usually rectangular boxes hanging from where a wall meets the ceiling. They emit a slight hum and can spit out cool or warm air.
Leaning on years of community organizing experience in her hometown, Ponce is using her professional connections to identify San Antonians who may be eligible for city grants from the Resiliency, Energy Efficiency, and Sustainability Fund managed by the City of San Antonio Office of Sustainability.
As of this writing, Ponce had assisted in identifying four neighborhood associations and one nonprofit organization that could benefit from the funding. She helped each group apply for one grant, and three of the five organizations were awarded funding for heating and cooling upgrades. The organizations plan to use the funding to install free mini-split systems in the initial phase.
“The investment in people’s homes over difficult-to-access cooling centers operated by the city allows people to shelter in place,” Ponce said. “During extreme temperature days, the homeowners have one space where they can be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Some of the millions of tax dollars spent on cooling centers could instead be used for this.”
A mini-split uses less energy than a home air conditioner and it is easier to install, making it an ideal solution for certain families in a place like Texas. It reduces the energy needed to keep a home safe and comfortable from extreme temperatures. A mini-split can immediately help a vulnerable family while easing demand on Texas’ heavily fossil fuel-dependent grid. It’s not the sole answer to Texas’ climate change and energy demand problems, but one piece of a larger effort to reduce demand through energy efficiency and home weatherization.
San Antonio, which is already one of the largest cities in the country and one of the fastest-growing, ranks high for energy insecurity, which is measured by the percentage of income a household spends on energy. According to the city government’s sustainability office, approximately 22% of San Antonians are considered energy insecure.
Ponce has been focusing her efforts on San Antonio’s southside, a historically disadvantaged part of the city where energy insecurity hits working families the hardest. Here, families are on the frontlines of air pollution from the area’s power plants, metal recyclers, and other industrial facilities.
“We have communities here that face multiple challenges,” Ponce said. “Texans may dread the heat, but most of them can thankfully go home to a cooled home, and the cost of keeping it that way doesn’t cause too much worry. That’s not the case for some vulnerable households in San Antonio that rely on inefficient window units to defend against heat waves. A resident in such a situation may make a potentially dangerous choice, like shutting off the air or heat to avoid a large electric bill. That can threaten people’s health in a state like Texas, known for temperature extremes. Having a reliable heating and cooling system that is affordable to operate can be life-changing. The fact that they could tackle the climate crisis simultaneously is a welcome extra,” she said.
Texas needs to do more to address the energy demand, but state leaders are more likely to focus on creating a greater supply to benefit corporations and oil and gas interests. In the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, which took down the state’s electric grid when methane gas infrastructure failed in February 2021, state leaders have focused on investing heavily to increase the grid’s dependence on gas. Lawmakers established the Texas Energy Fund to finance the construction of several new power plants that run on methane, which will cost taxpayers billions and take years to bring online.
Instead, the Texas office of Public Citizen has advocated for strategies that would reduce demand. Home weatherization programs, for example, are much cheaper for taxpayers and can be implemented quickly, as are investments in energy-efficient heating and cooling systems like mini-splits.
“I started this project when I had a dream that I was helping people replace their air conditioners,” Ponce wryly added. “There is a lot of work left to do, but I’m mindful of two things: that this will help people who need it and that the people who want real solutions to Texas’ looming energy crisis are watching. I hope everyone notices how meaningful change doesn’t always mean swinging for the fences. Sometimes, playing small ball can get the job done, too.”