Indian Govt To Lock AC Limits To 20° and 28° Soon?

The government of India is planning to set the range of AC temperatures from 20°C to 28°C, not allowing the ACs to turn the temperature below 20°C or above 28°C, to bring uniformity in the usage of Air Conditioners and reduce the power consumption across the country.

Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs, Manohar Lal Khatter, said that this is a first-of-a-kind experiment to standardise AC temperature settings. The new setting will not be applied only to the home ACs but also to the hotel and vehicle ACs.

The government is holding this initiative because during the summer months, people often put their ACs as low as 16°C, putting extra pressure on the power grid. One of the top officials of the power housing and urban affairs ministry, Pankaj Agarwal, stated that ACs account for around 50 gigawatts of electricity use, which is around one-fifth of India’s maximum power load.

He said that every 1°C increase in AC temperature would save energy by 6%, which means if everyone sets their temperature 1°C higher, around 3 gigawatts of power could be saved during peak summer days.