American air conditioner brands

The summer season is in full gear and record temperatures are already being seen across the country. As the temperature rises, we all reach to turn on our favorite summertime appliance—the air conditioner. The folks at Windmill have created an environmentally-friendly air conditioner with numerous perks, and have just introduced an innovative program that helps New York City residents save tens of thousands of kilowatts of energy.

The Windmill AC was developed with an energy conscious design. Windmill uses a refrigerant called R32 that has 30% less global warming potential than the more commonly used refrigerants. To lessen refrigerant pollution and reduce waste, Windmill offers customers a recycling directory for safely disposing of their old AC unit. And my favorite offering—the company offsets carbon emissions of each until sold through a forest carbon project.

Regardless, running an air conditioner uses a lot of energy. The number of summer days with temperatures above 90 degrees in New York City is expected to triple in the next 3o years. When the temperature soars, peaker power plants are activated and they tend to produce much more pollution. Peaker plants in New York City emit 20 times more nitrogen oxides and 2 times more carbon dioxide than regular power plants. And these peaker plants tend to be located in lower income sections of the city, where asthma and other respiratory diseases are more prevalent.

To combat the issue of higher usage and more pollution during heatwaves, Windmill had just introduced a new program called Eco Rewards. Eco Rewards is a demand response program and customers who sign up agree to allow Windmill to remotely increase their AC thermostat by just a few degrees. Most users will not notice the slight increase in temperature, although they can decide to be notified. However, by decreasing energy usage during those demand surges, customer can help keep polluting plants offline. If all ACs in NYC were part of it, we would be able to retire 75% of the dirty peaker power plants in the city, which would save more than $100 million per year in energy costs alone . If you need another incentive, Eco Rewards users get paid for participating in Eco Rewards Events and can earn cash back or discounts on new purchases.

While the environmental benefits are a major motivator for many, it is also good to know that the Windmill AC is highly rated by users (70% of Amazon purchasers give it a 5 star rating) and has many advantages. The air conditoners are sleekly designed and are relatively quiet. The machine’s double filtration system provides cleaner, healthier air. This smart device can be controlled through its app and can be used with Alexa and Google Home. And customers will appreciate the relatively easy installation instructions. But if you want help from a pro, Windmill can direct you to their nationwide team of TaskRabbit AC experts.

Summertime forces us to focus on issues of global warming. Now your air conditioner can help your home be part of the solution.

President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address to Congress and the U.S. Tuesday night, and for the most part the speech avoided the type of red meat populist rhetoric that helped attract the support of overt neo-Nazis and white supremacists during his run for office.

One passage from his speech, however, did appear to catch the attention of America’s extreme far right, and it related to so-called Dreamers, or undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

“So tonight, I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties– Democrats and Republicans-–to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion, and creed,” Trump said. “My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans–to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American Dream. Because Americans are dreamers, too.”

Some critics suggested the comment belittled the struggle of immigrants at a time when marginalized communities feel threatened by the political environment, but white supremacists leapt onto social media to sing its praises. David Duke, a former Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard and anti-Semitic conspiracy peddler , tweeted a message of gratitude to the president.

“Thank you President Trump. Americans are ‘Dreamers’ too,” Duke wrote.

Duke also called the speech “very powerful” on his Twitter account. He has long been a vocal supporter of Trump.

A newer guard of white supremacists—the ones who have branded themselves as being “alt-right”, also responded to the line. Richard Spencer, one of the scheduled speakers at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally that descended into chaos in Charlottesville, Virginia in August, quoted Trump and posted a picture of a white family alongside his words. Mike “Enoch” Peinovich, a podcaster who functions as kind of a sidekick figure for Spencer at events, also crowed about the line.

“Ok, the dreamers line was good,” Peinovich wrote on Twitter.

Other white supremacists, like Andrew Anglin of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, praised the president in more general terms and appeared to get sentimental hearing Trump address the country.

“Anytime one of these official events happens, I’m always jarred by the fact that we actually elected this man President of the United States of America,” Anglin wrote on Gab, a social media site populated by far right users. His site has openly praised domestic terrorism and threatened the murder of children in retaliation for internet censorship in recent weeks .

Some commenters on the left suggested that Trump’s comment about Americans being dreamers was a dog whistle to white supremacists. On Fash the Nation, a white nationalist-oriented podcast that aired immediately after the speech, Peinovich suggested that he and others had to pick up where the president left off by broadcasting their propaganda in explicit terms.

“Who is he dog whistling to?” Peinovich asked, suggesting that many white men shared his racist views but did not always vocalize them. “Someone has to be direct about it.”

The New Zealand sharemarket fell 1% following bad news from Wall Street where stocks had their worst first-half performance in more than 50 years.

The benchmark S&P/NZX50 Index closed down 115 points at 10.753.16 on Friday, its third consecutive decline.

Tina Teng​, CMC Markets analyst, said the market was under pressure, with Thursday’s pessimistic business confidence survey from ANZ adding to the load.

“The NZX50 is losing steam following a renewed broad sell-off in both the US and EU markets in the last few trading sessions amid recession fears that were reignited by the recent deteriorated US economic data,” Teng said.

READ MORE: ‘Dire’ level of business confidence sparks jobs market warning from ANZ Prices likely to keep rising faster for longer, economist suggests Air New Zealand: Is there light at the end of the runway?

Wall Street had its worst first-half since 1970 , as inflation-driven upheaval spread across nearly every part of the US economy.

The NZX50 has recovered about 165 points from its low point two weeks ago, a two-year low and the weakest level to date in 2022.

The New Zealand index began the year above 13,000 but has joined indexes around the world in a steady decline since then.

On Friday, top stocks had some hefty declines. Meridian Energy fell 1.6% to $4.60, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 2.1% to $19.55.

Trading was also negative for many other blue chips. Spark rose 0.5% to $4.82, but Mercury Energy lost 3% to $5.48, Ebos was also down 3%, at $37.81, Mainfreight fell 1.2% to $69.00, Contact Energy fell 2.8% to $7.07, and Infratil lost 1.6% to $7.55.

However, one sector stood out, Teng said.

“Travelling-related stocks have outperformed on the easing guarantee restrictions for international travellers in China and the New Zealand border reopening , typically in Air New Zealand and Auckland International Airport, suggesting that the mounting travelling demands are bringing positive outlooks for these businesses.”

Auckland Airport rose 1.1% to $7.26, Air New Zealand was up 2.6% to 58.5c, and campervan rental company Tourism Holdings rose 0.8% at $2.34.

Analysts generally agreed that Air New Zealand was headed for recovery as travel picked up, but uncertainty remained around the risks ahead in a post-Covid environment and the timing of an earnings recovery.

Of the 185 shares traded on Friday, 85 fell and 59 rose. Consumer brands were sold off, with New Zealand’s KFC and Pizza Hut operator Restaurant Brands down 2% at $10.60, Hallenstein Glasson off 2.1% at $5.35, and Briscoe down 1.8% at $5.20.

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index was flat, down just 0.2 points at 6567.9 in late afternoon trading.

Across Asia, markets were mostly lower after Wall Street’s decline, and following a quarterly report by Japan’s central bank which rekindled worries about the world’s third-largest economy.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.9%, its fourth consecutive drop, to 3785.38. The benchmark index was down 21% since it hit an all-time high at the beginning of the year, having entered a bear market earlier in June.

The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8%, to 30,775.43, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 1.3% to 11,028.74.

The US Federal Reserve and other central banks have been aggressively raising interest rates to try and slow economic growth in order to cool inflation. Higher rates can bring down inflation, but they also risk a recession by slowing the economy too much. They also push down on prices for stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies and other investments.

Oil prices rose with Brent crude, the international standard, adding 63 cents to US$109.66 a barrel.

– With AP

Most people can’t get by without a little help from their friends.

A survey of 2,000 adults looked at what goes into a good gathering, revealing that more than half of Americans want to see their friends at least four times a month (57 percent).

A third of people admit they don’t get to see their loved ones as often as they’d like (31 percent), and 70 percent wish they could spend more time with them.

Nearly 3 in 4 respondents feel a good night with friends is as healing as a therapy session (74 percent), and two-thirds feel less stressed when they’re with loved ones.

Forty-five percent don’t mind whether they go out or stay in to play games (42 percent), do “make your own” activities (38 percent) or catch up on TV shows/movies (36 percent).

The research conducted by OnePoll for Chinet found that, on average, people hang out with three loved ones at a time, but 24 percent arrange for more guests.

Still, 2 in 3 agree that the number of people they hang out with doesn’t impact how much fun they have.

While more people prefer planned gatherings rather than spontaneous ones, 43 percent enjoy both equally.

People estimate that half their time with loved ones is spent catching up on life (52 percent), and a similar percentage shared that they end up having meaningful conversations during these meetups (57 percent).

Other topics discussed when catching up include memories (39 percent), major life changes (37 percent) and TV shows/movies (36 percent).

When it comes to nights in, 1 in 7 respondents said they’re usually the one to host for an average of four hours — although a third of hosts said their nights-in last longer.

Those who prefer staying indoors view this as beneficial, agreeing that they have more fun because there’s less of a time limit (90 percent).

“We all have such busy schedules, it’s really important to make time for our friends and loved ones,” said Alexis Guetzlaff, senior product and brand manager for the Chinet® brand of disposable ware. “We want to encourage everyone to carve out a little time for gathering.”

Although 69 percent claim they’ve mastered the art of hosting over the years, 55 percent admit it’s difficult because of the pressure to get everything right.

Respondents shared they’ve forgotten to purchase food (29 percent) and disposable cups (29 percent) or plates (28 percent) ahead of time when hosting.

Even when they have the essentials, they’ve run out of disposable cups (35 percent) and ice (32 percent) during their gathering.

On average, people estimate a gathering costs $152 to host, but 37 percent end up spending more on essentials, such as soft drinks (43 percent), disposable plates (39 percent), and ice (38 percent).

“We feel strongly that hosting shouldn’t be overwhelming— we’re all about simplifying it and minimizing clean up so everyone can spend more time with the ones that matter most,” Guetzlaff said.

Topics People Discuss When Meeting Up

• Memories – 39 percent
• Major life changes – 37 percent
• TV shows/movies – 36 percent
• Pop culture/celebrities – 33 percent
• Politics – 33 percent

Produced in association with SWNS .

This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News .