Findings

National Installation Costs

$40B

National Upgrade Costs

$415M

National Operations & Maintenance

$1.5B

% of Students Affected by Equipment Costs

41.1%

% of Students Affected by Climate Costs

82.5%

Climate change is heating up classrooms across the country

  • 2,671 additional school districts will see 32 or more days over 80°F during the school year by 2025, a 39% increase since 1970.  Thirty two days over 80 is the heat threshold where cooling systems are typically installed.

  • 156 school districts, serving 1,298,387 students, will see at least 30 more days over 80°F during the school year in 2025 than they did in 1970.

  • 1,815 school districts, serving 10,774,046 students, will see three more weeks of days over 80°F during the school year in 2025, than they did in 1970.

Climate-driven cooling equipment will cost schools billions by 2025

  • More than 13,700 public schools (K-12) in the contiguous U.S. that did not need cooling systems in 1970 have installed or will need to install HVAC systems by 2025, at a cost of $40 billion.
  • More than 13,000 additional schools will need to upgrade their existing HVAC systems due to a need for increased cooling capacity, at a cost of more than $414 million.
  • Ten states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania — will face more than $1 billion each in new cooling equipment costs by 2025.
  • Four more states — Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, and Utah — face $500 million each in added school air conditioning equipment costs by 2025. 
  • Two school districts — New York City and Chicago — will face more than $1 billion each in new HVAC systems by 2025, and 37 additional districts are estimated to spend at least $100 million. Due to budgetary constraints and the complexity of retrofitting older buildings, many urban school districts, including New York and Chicago, have taken a lower-cost approach and installed window unit air conditioners. While cheaper and easier up front, this strategy provides far inferior ventilation and cooling and is costlier in the long run.
  • Seventy eight school districts that did not need air conditioning in 1970 will accrue between $50 million and $100 million each in cooling equipment costs by 2025, with 32 more spending at least $100 million.

Rising temperatures will lead to over a billion in additional operations and maintenance costs in 2025

  • The climate-driven increase in costs to operate and maintain cooling systems is estimated at nearly $1.5 billion in 2025, which would total $45 billion nationwide over the typical 30-year life span of a modern HVAC system.
  • In five states — California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania — school districts will face more than $100 million per year in climate-driven operations and maintenance costs for air conditioning systems needed in 2025.
  • Four school districts — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia — will face $10 million in climate-driven operations and maintenance costs for cooling systems in 2025.