// WIRED US/UK — INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE
Can a Radar-Equipped AC Actually Cut Your Power Bill?
With rolling heat waves sweeping the globe, 2027 is shaping up to be the hottest year on record. As the health risks of extreme temperatures mount, there's never been a better time to rethink sustainable cooling.
Air conditioners and electric fans account for around 20 percent of electricity used in buildings worldwide—3 to 4 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions—and, as demand for cooling in homes, workplaces, and schools grows, the number of AC units in use could reach 5.5 billion by 2050.
The solution isn't one magic fix, but a suite of emerging technologies heading for living rooms and apartment windows. From radar sensors tracking your body to compact heat pumps and climate-safe refrigerants, here is how the next generation of air-conditioning plans to keep us cool without cooking the planet.
In 1994, Mitsubishi Electric was zooming past the air-con competition, introducing the first motion and occupancy sensors for AC, with infrared 3D sensing eventually following in the mid-2010s. Fast-forward to 2026 and AI-powered ACs now track people in the home with millimeter-level precision.
AC makers have launched intelligent, targeted air conditioner units all year, from Samsung’s Bespoke AI system in March to Dyson’s Find+Follow feature for its Purifier Cool fan in June. At IFA in September, we got a whole sweep from Chinese companies like Hisense, Dreo, and Midea.
LG’s latest DualCool AI AC has a 5-meter radar sensor for people detection plus targeting based on your everyday movement patterns. Hisense’s Companion Living AC also uses data from smart home sensors to identify and precool “target paths” within the home, based on your routines. So if you always head from the couch to the kitchen for a midnight snack, your AC can cool that particular zone before you even get up.
The real-time cooling features aim to improve comfort inside sticky homes. A secondary benefit is that precisely locating people and delivering cooling directly to them could reduce energy consumption. “It definitely has the potential to reduce the total energy use for air-conditioning,” says Björn Palm, senior professor in energy technology at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. By how much? That's less clear.
Dyson’s Find+Follow purifier and fan uses a simple, low-resolution camera, feeding the “stick figure”-like, anonymous coordinates of its 17-point person detection into an algorithm, all instantly processed on-device and deleted, without any face recognition. “It can tell that you’re a human, whether you’re sitting or standing, which direction you’re moving," says Alex Hudson, an environmental care engineer at Dyson. "It might map your arms and shoulders.”
The Purifier Cool can oscillate 350 degrees between “up to six people” in the space, directing airflow for personalized cooling. One hour after it detects that everyone has left the room, the appliance will switch to Auto mode and—if there is no big pollution spike for the purifier to deal with, like a truck driving past an open window—it’s a "considerably lower power draw than when it’s in fan mode, so there’s definitely a benefit there,” Hudson says.
Samsung’s Bespoke AI WindFree Pro adds a motion radar sensor, which can recognize and track two occupants. “AI Direct Wind” can follow and blast you for immediate cooling, whereas “AI Indirect Wind,” you guessed it, cools the spot you’re in without blowing air right in your face. Samsung’s residential environment tests claim energy savings of “up to 30 percent” with its overall AI energy mode switched on. At IFA, Samsung added wearable data: a Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Ring can signal to the AC when you’ve fallen asleep, triggering a gentler Windfree Cooling mode overnight.