India plans 24°C default setting for air conditioners

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In the next few months, air conditioners in India are likely to come with a default setting of 24 degrees Celsius – a move aimed at saving power and reducing emissions.

The new temperature setting will help the country save more than 20 billion units of electricity annually. "Every one-degree increase in the air-conditioner temperature setting results in saving of 6 percent of electricity consumed,” said Indian Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh during a campaign to save power in New Delhi.

The ministry convened a meeting with air conditioner manufacturers on Saturday to implement the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) recommendation. "Manufacturers have agreed to implement the decision," officials said. A setting of 24 degrees Celsius would not only control power consumption, and emissions but also ensure better human efficiency at the workplace, they added.

Recent studies maintain human body temperature is around 36-37 degrees Celsius; however, commercial establishments including offices, hotels and movie halls set the temperature in the range of 18-21 degrees Celsius.

“Air conditioners are tested to run at 27 degrees Celsius indoor setting. Our study in 2016, revealed lowering of indoor setting to 20 degrees Celsius led to over 15 percent excess consumption of electricity,” Avikal Somvanshi, Programme Manager, Sustainable Cities Programme, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) told CGTN.

In a recent study, CSE calculated that Delhi consumes almost 50 percent of electricity during summer months for cooling. In emerging countries like India, such massive power consumption triggers choking pollution, as a significant portion of power is generated from coal-fired power plants.

“If we mindlessly start running our ACs at 18-20 degrees Celsius when outdoor temperature regularly crosses 40 degrees Celsius, we'll be wasting our resources at an unprecedented rate,” Somvanshi added.

The global debate on fixing the thermostat

India and China have two of the highest CDDs (cooling degree days), triggering massive sale of air conditioners. /CGTN Graphics

Globally, air conditioner temperature settings have been in discussion with the rising prosperity. Around six years back, Japan, under the "setsuden" (electricity conservation) drive, introduced a default setting for air conditioners at 28 degrees Celsius.

The US, with nearly 90 percent of its households using air conditioning, guzzles 185 billion units of energy. Concerned over the rising power consumption for cooling, states like California have enforced limits on lowering the air condition beyond 26 degrees Celsius.

Researchers Lucas Davis and Paul Gertler estimate the use of air conditioning is poised to increase dramatically over the next several decades as global temperatures go up and incomes rise around the world.

Sales of air conditioners have nearly doubled in the last five years in China. More than 64 million units of air conditioners were sold in 2013 alone, more than eight times as many as were sold in the United States. In India, demand for cooling is more than 12 time that of the US.

The BEE estimates total installed air conditioner capacity in India is around 80 million ton of refrigerator (TR) in the country, which will increase to about 250 million by 2030.

“Air conditioning is still relatively uncommon in India and other low-income countries, but this is poised to rise dramatically,” Davis and Gertler’s study claimed.

[Cover Photo: Brides and grooms sit next to an air conditioner as they wait for the start of a mass wedding ceremony at Ramlila ground in New Delhi on June 15, 2014. /VCG Photo]