Bengaluru, India (AP)-India’s government seeks to limit the temperature settings of new air conditioners to save electricity in the country it considers to be the fastest growing market for them.
The Minister of Power has proposed a rule in June requiring air conditioners sold in the country to have thermostats that can be determined not less than 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit).
Officials hope that the small change will create huge energy savings in the country with over 1.4 billion people. About 10 million to 15 million air conditioners are sold annually as income and urbanization increase with temperatures.
The current largest setting is 17 C (62 F). Officials claim that every degree is included in the air conditioner, saving about 6% of energy.
The change of change is mixed
Energy experts said the proposal is a positive step, but this requirement for the units to be more energy efficient will help more.
Minister of Power Manohar Lal Hatar said the proposed rule would come into force soon, but it was not specific to the weather.
The proposal received mixed reviews from people living in inflated cities in India.
“In general, I think it’s a good idea to try to save energy, but at the same time, I hope the government is not too uncomfortable,” says Vikram Canan, a 37-year-old teacher who lives in a wet southern Chenia with his wife and 4-year-old daughter. “Sometimes there is no choice but to put a low air conditioner temperature in cities like Chennai, because it’s just too hot and humid. My daughter gets heat buds at times if we don’t do it.”
Air conditioners are quickly becoming one of the largest energy rubs in India. The air conditioners in the room represent a quarter of the electricity required in India during the most use in 2024, a measure such as peak demand, according to estimates by researchers at the University of California in Berkeley. The new variable units added between 2019 and 2024 have increased peak demand for India by an amount approximately equivalent to what would be needed to power New Delhi for one year, the researchers estimated.
Energy demand is usually the highest in the summer when temperatures can reach 51 degrees Celsius (124 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the country.
If no changes are made, India is expected to have a shortage of energy until next year. India’s hunger for energy is also a key reason that the country is one of the highest gases of gases to heat the planet. The use of clean energy is increasing, but most of India’s electricity is provided by fossil fuels for climate pollution as coal.
Nikit Abhinkar, the leader of the Indian Energy and Climate Center at the University of California, Berkli, said Delhi, like other large Indian cities, is now experiencing double peaks in the use of electricity – one afternoon and another around midnight – driven largely by air conditioners. While solar energy can help compensate for daily demand, night cooling still relies largely on fossil fuels.
Changes to Rules can push users to use less energy
The air conditioner proposal is the most in a series of governmental measures in the last decade, aimed at saving energy, such as the state services to be cooled at not less than 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit). In 2022, the government launched the Mission Life program, which included public services that encourage people to reduce emissions by cutting the use of electricity or skipping unnecessary vehicles. The initiative, announced with many fanfare, received mixed answers.
Some of them support the proposed change in air conditioning settings. Sunil Kumar, a 47-year-old from East Delhi, said the rule could prevent the dangers of fire and lower bills.
“People lived without air conditioners. We can adjust,” said Kumar, who drives a small trade vehicle known as Tuk-Tuk.
New Delhi-based businessman Surjeet Singh said turning air conditioners down to their current lowest setting is “unnecessary”.
“People have become too comfortable,” he said, suggesting that cities invest in planting trees to cope with urban heat.
Indian air conditioners are ineffective
Abhiankar, the professor of California, said that with the change in temperature settings, it would help, which requires air conditioners to be energy efficient will do more.
“Tightening minimum efficiency standards can change things quite significantly,” said Abhiancar, who also studied the energy sector in the US, China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Calling the offers of air conditioning makes a “step in the right direction”, Pramod Singh, an energy savings expert at New Delhi -based Energy Effective Economy, said the replacement of the estimated 80 million generation, ineffective air conditioners in the country, is a key challenge for the government.
Many units available in India are so ineffective that they could not be sold in many other countries, Abhiancar said.
“Although India imports most key components for its air conditioners from China, nearly 80% of air conditioners are currently sold in India will be banned in China,” he said.
Energy experts have said that other small changes can reduce the use of energy and costs for customers, such as making sure that new buildings have adequate ventilation, combining air conditioners with other methods for cooling and using smart air conditioning management technologies.
“The use of air conditioning is significantly reduced if users also control their ceiling fans as the room cools much faster,” Abhiancar said.
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