Power ministry may make 24 degrees celsius as default setting for air conditioners

The government of India plans to reduce "Cool Wastage" of power soon!
After an awareness campaign that ran for about 4 to 6 months and a survey that followed to gather public feedback, the government will consider making 24 degrees Celsius as mandatory default setting for air conditioners within a few months.

• The AC makers had a meeting with the Power Minister RK Singh and they were advised to have labelling indicating the optimum temperature setting for the benefits of consumers both from financial and their health points of view.
• It is expected that the temperatures settings in ACs will be in the range of 24 to 26 degrees Celsius.

Further interesting facts that came out from this proposed eco-friendly move that we are likely to see in the future are:

• Every one-degree increase in the air-conditioner temperature setting results in saving of 6 per cent of electricity consumed.
• This move, if implemented, will result in substantial energy savings and also reduce greenhouse gas emission.
• As per the Power Minister: To begin with, this will be an advisory to be issued to all establishments and manufacturers.
• The Minister said that setting the temperature in the range of 18 to 21 degrees celsius compels people to wear warm clothing or use blankets, therefore, this is actually wastage of energy.
• Also, under the guidance of Ministry of Power, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has carried out a study and has recommended that the default setting in the air-conditioning should be at 24 degrees Celsius. 
• The Power Ministry estimates indicate that if all the consumers adopt, this will result in savings of 20 billion units of electricity in one year alone.
• As per BEE, considering the current market trend, total connected load in India due to air conditioning will be 200 GW by 2030 and this may further increase as today only about 6 per cent of households use ACs.
• The BEE also estimated that total installed air conditioner capacity is 80 million TR (ton of refrigerator) in the country, which will increase to about 250 million TR by 2030.
• The targeted commercial buildings will include airports, hotels, shopping malls, offices and government buildings. 

Some countries like Japan have put in place regulation to keep the temperature at 28 degrees Celsius.