Assessing disparities in air conditioning operation across Southern California

We employed smart-meter data from 140,000 households to examine how residential AC operation in Southern California was associated with meteorological conditions, socioeconomic characteristics, and housing-related factors across different climate zones. We characterized AC operation patterns through two metrics that quantify the daily duration and intensity of cooling, enabling an assessment of adaptive capacity to heat beyond what traditional measures of AC ownership capture. Our results quantify how socioeconomic status and dwelling characteristics shape cooling behavior, including the likelihood, duration, and electricity consumption of AC operation, both during daytime and nighttime. After normalizing cooling metrics to account for heat exposure and dwelling size, we examined potential cooling gaps across our study region, relating these to income disparities and to the presence of vulnerable populations. Our work highlights the need for equity-oriented adaptation strategies that reduce the cost burden of cooling in order to mitigate heat-related risks.